The Trattato as Textbook: Francesco di Giorgio’s Vision for the Renaissance Architect

Elizabeth Merrill

doi:10.5334/ah.at

Abstract

In fifteenth-century Italy, the architect’s role lacked definition. The classical conception of the architect — the distinguished professional lauded by Vitruvius and Cicero, as theoretically versed as he was technically skilled — had faded in the medieval period. Even the term ‘architectus’, with its powerful connotations of creation and authorship, had fallen out of use (Kostof 1977: 60–61). Furthermore, there was no standard of training or apprenticeship for the architect. Depending on the context, the engineer, carpenter, patron, or building administrator might be considered the building’s architect (Hollingsworth 1984: 385–410). On the role of the architect in the Italian Renaissance and the development of an architectural profession, see Ackerman 1991, Ettlinger 1977, and Wilkinson 1977. But beginning around 1400, numerous artists, scholars, and patrons began to express the need for an established architectural profession.

Highlights

The Trattato di architettura of Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439–1501) was one of the many voices within this debate, and as the first Italian, fully illustrated tract to pro
This article uses Francesco di Giorgio’s conception of the architect, as outlined in his Trattato di architettura, as a lens through which to examine the emergence of the Renaissance professional architect
Reproduced in hundreds of manuscript copies, the Trattato was a standard reference manual in late-fifteenth-century Italy, and as debates on the architectural profession continued into the sixteenth century, Francesco’s treatise served as a model for a handful of new, practically oriented treatises

Summary

Introduction

The Trattato di architettura of Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439–1501) was one of the many voices within this debate, and as the first Italian, fully illustrated tract to pro-.

Results

Conclusion