Phaeded wrote: 27 May 2023, 17:57
Alberti is clearly the most interesting person in the 15th century, but I don't think he'd ever do propaganda for a state, which is how I view trionfi (he was too busy satirizing everything; e.g., Momus; someone like Filelfo, OTOH, would gladly do that).
I can't change your point of view, but if your preconceptions of Alberti are the reason, I'd urge you to take another look and go deeper.
Alberti's four most substantial works have been translated into English.
The Family in Renaissance Florence, translation and introduction by Renée Neu Watkins, University of South Carolina Press, 1969 - contains
I Libri della famiglia (four books) (Watkins is also the author of an essay on the winged eye emblem and Alberti's adopted name “Leo,”: see “L. B. Alberti's Emblem, the Winged Eye, and His Name, Leo”, in
Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 9. Bd., H. 3/4 (Nov., 1960), pp. 256-258.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27652096 ; note that her sources have misled her in describing what appears in the manuscript of the
volgare "De pictura" of 1436 – it doesn't show “an emblematic eagle” but the winged eye itself with the motto QVID TVM
https://archive.org/details/fondo-nazio ... 5/mode/2up ; the other manuscript, the
Philodoxeos fabula dedicated to Leonello d'Este, has the winged eye, in color!
https://edl.cultura.gov.it/item/oz5dk40rly )
You can borrow this book at archive.org and screen grab the pages -
https://archive.org/details/familyinren ... 7/mode/2up
Dinner Pieces, translation, introduction, and notes by David Marsh, The Renaissance Society of America, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1987 - contains all of the recognized
Intercenales. This book is hard to find, out of print. Email me.
On the Art of Building in Ten Books, translation and notes by Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, Robert Tavernor, MIT Press, 1988 (fourth printing in 1992 is the latest I believe) - contains
De re aedificatioria. Out of print, but not hard to find. Ditto.
Momus – Latin text and translation, Sarah Knight and Virginia Brown, Harvard University Press, I Tatti Renaissance Library, 2003. Still in print.
Others -
Philodoxeos fabula - “The Play of Philodoxus,” edition and translation by Gary R. Grund, in
Humanist Comedies, Harvard University Press, I Tatti Renaissance Library, 2005, pp. 70-169. Still in print.
The Mathematical Works of Leon Battista Alberti, translations and commentaries by Kim Williams, Lionel March, and Stephen R. Wassell, Birkhäuser/Springer Basel AG, 2010 - contains
Ex ludis rerum mathematicarum, Elementi di pittura/Elementi pitturae, De componendis cyfris, De lunularum quadratura (the first,
Ex ludis... they suggest “Cool things you can do with mathematics” as the most appropriate title to the intention and tone, although they think it will sound too flippant so don't use it; Elements of Painting, On Writing in Ciphers, On Squaring the Lune). No longer in print, but available on Kindle.
On Painting : a new translation and critical edition, translated by Rocco Sinisgalli, Cambridge University Press, 2011 - contains
De pictura. Ditto on availability.
Leon Battista Alberti : Biographical and Autobiographical Writings, edition and translation by Martin McLaughlin, Harvard University Press, The I Tatti Renaissance Library, 2023 - contains
De commodis litterarum atque incommodis, Vita Sancti Potiti, Canis, Vita, Musca (On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Literature, The Life of St. Potitus, My Dog, My Life, The Fly) Forthcoming -
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php ... 0674292680