De re aedificatoria is a classic architectural treatise written by Leon Battista Alberti between 1443 and 1452. Although largely dependent on Vitruvius's De architectura, it was the first theoretical book on the subject written in the Italian Renaissance, and in 1485 it became the first printed book on architecture. It was followed in 1486 with the first printed edition of Vitruvius.
De re aedificatoria, title page of the 1541 edition
Title page of 1550 edition, Florence
Plate from a 1565 edition, showing the plan of a basilica
Leon Battista Alberti was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. He is considered the founder of Western cryptography, a claim he shares with Johannes Trithemius.
Presumed self-portrait of Alberti
A portrait of Alberti by Filippino Lippi is thought to exist in the Brancacci Chapel, as part of Lippi's completion of the Masaccio painting, the Raising of the Son of Theophilus and St. Peter Enthroned
Palazzo Rucellai
English title page of the first edition of Giacomo Leoni's translation of Alberti's De Re Aedificatoria (1452) - the book is bilingual, with the Italian version being printed on the left and the English version printed on the right
