Talk:Leon Battista Alberti

General Comments

This article is very well developed. There are a lot of citations, and a ton of sources and references in the bibliography. I checked some of these citations to make sure they were not broken links or pages out of date, and I was happily confronted with reliable sources. Each section has many subheadings, which leads me to believe this is a fairly detailed article as well. I did notice there was one section under architecture, "Tempio Malatestiano, Rimini," which only had a sentence or two of information, and two citations. I think this category deserves more research and explanation on the page. CarolineFrankDuke (talk) 01:51, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

Trevi Fountain Photo

I have a nice photograph of the Trevi Fountain. I took this picture last yeat during a travel to Rome and I would like to submit it under FDL to Wikipedia.

Who shall I contact for that? Should I resize the picture and provide it in a specific format (well, I can do that easily with GIMP)?

I read in How does one edit a page that I should e-mail it, but where will it be located after?

Thanks for helping!

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Ok, this image is now available on my own website. Its intermediate size is adapted for being included in a Wikipedia article and should fit perfectly.

Get the image of the Trevi Fountain here...

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Wait! The Trevi fountain AS IT APPEARS TODAY is a much later object. It wasn't finished until the 18th century. If anything is left of Alberti's work, it's in the plumbing system.--MichaelTinkler

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Spelling

Leone Battista or Leon Battista?

He is generally known as Leon in Italy, but having to fix a redirect, I'd need some hints from the English-speaking world. Thank you :-) --Gianfranco

I have no idea why this article is called Leone; I am in the UK and have always known him as 'Leon'. Well, not personally. (as an aside, I also don't think 'illegitimate' (section 2) needs to be a link... it's not a dictionary, guys) - N.

Physical Abilities

Come on.. no mention that he was able to leap over a man's head from a standing start? ;) (c.f., Renaissance Man the movie) --Dante Alighieri | Talk 23:23, Mar 22, 2004 (UTC)

Rats! I forgot to mention that he was faster than a speeding bullet. As for the leaping, he could do tall buildings at a single bound. I know of nothing on his strengh, but he was related to my grandfather Stonebender, so we might be able to deduce something from that. Can we put that in? ww 16:48, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Birthdate

We had in the article that Alberti was born on the 14th of February, but several places put it at 18th Februrary instead (e.g. Catholic encyclopedia). february 1404 doesn't seem conclusive. I've temporarily removed the precise date from the article. — Matt 13:38, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Britannica has him down as born Feb. 14, 1404 in Genoa. — Matt 14:23, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I Libri della Famiglia

Recent scholars have been bewitched by Alberti's "Libri"--translated in the U of S. Carolina Press as "The Family in Renaissance Italy." It's a heyday for feminists, of course. But any economic historian interested in the evolution of the European "oikos" should probably know about it, too.

Reading the book, you really get a sense of Alberti's genius and his "nervous" frailties. I would describe it as a cross of Machievelli's Prince and Weber's Protestant Ethic. Really absolutely fascinating.

composer?

I am unable to find any evidence that he was a composer, or that any music survives which can be reliably attributed to him. There is no entry on him in the 20-volume Grove Dictionary (note that there were at least seven other Albertis who were composers, including Antonio degli Alberti (1360-1415), Domenico (the most famous), Gasparo (1480-1560), Giuseppe, Innocentio, Johann Friedrich, and Pietro--I just want to make sure whoever put him in the Italian composers category made sure he wasn't confused with one of these). Sorry about being pedantic ... :-) Antandrus 23:42, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Reference

Today's new addition seems completely taken from another website -- http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/alberti.htm . If it is free for copying, it should at least be referenced. If it is not free for copying, it should be deleted. Does anyone know the copyright status of this material? Mlouns 04:08, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Bibliography?

I remember that there was once a growing bibliography. It seems to have disappeared. And now there is only one listing! Could have come in handy for a student.

"Extreme caution"

The last parapgraph "Use extreme caution" etc. seems a bit over-kill and certainly not all scholarship since Burkhardt has been given over to hyperbole. ANyway most people who work on Alberti know Italian and Latin and don't need to be reminded about being careful. I also think that just as important as facts are, interpretation is also a significant and indispensible part of historical work as well. If we are going to comment on Renaissance historiography, then that should be a separate section.

Intro Again

This is the old intro :::Leone Battista Alberti (February 14, 1404 – April 25, 1472) was an Italian painter, poet, linguist, philosopher, cryptographer, musician, architect, and general Renaissance polymath. I rearrange has accomplishments so that they more accuirately reflect his genuine accomplishments. I also took out some varies at the beginning of second par. to keep it more encyclopedic in tone

"Extreme Caution"

Agree with the above comment.I am removing all of this: The point is generally correct but has a lot of opinions about things that are inappropriate for this entry.

"Extreme caution should be used in the study of Alberti. He is the perfect example of a person who has been killed due to too much scholarship and not enough perspective (pardon the pun). In large part due to the "Vita" [the so-called autobiography] and Burckhardt's paraphrase of the "Vita," Alberti, the man, has become something of a comic book hero, the "Universal Man," to quote Burckhardt. Because Alberti was such a many-sided fellow, he has been somewhat difficult to study. And because academics are so specialized, there has been a tendency to butcher those elements of Alberti which exist outside of their professional domains. Architectural historians tend to be terrible music historians, and art historians tend to be rather simplistic historians of science and philosophy. Those interested in studying Alberti should stick to the facts and not get lost in the echo chamber of hyperbole that can be found in almost all secondary literature written since Burckhardt."

large portions of Alberti text cribbed

Yes, sadly so it seems someone cribbed much of the Alberti text from -- http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/alberti.htm !! The list at the bottom of this contributions predates this, so I would suggest that one expand on that.

Say What?

In the section "Childhood and Education," there is the following sentence:

Like Petrarch, who had been the first famous philologist to study the works of the ancient
Roman poets, Alberti loved classics, but he compared continual reading and rereading in
libraries.

This seems like a sentence fragment, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to rework it so that it makes sense.

It would make sense if it were

Like Petrarch, who had been the first famous philologist to study the works of the ancient
Roman poets, Alberti loved classics.

However, the rest of the sentence clearly relates to something Alberti said; I just don't know what.

Anyone care to take a stab at it?

*Septegram*Talk*Contributions* 14:02, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

no citations

I find it odd, given all the scholarship on Alberti that this page is still like Reader's Digest. Take the following (quoted below). Not only are there no citations, but it implies that Vasari may be actually correct in his opinion. Alberti was most certainly no dilettante, as that word is understood today. He did paint, and he did know what he was doing. He was of course not a leading painter, nor the best painter, but we have to establish a more critical and evaluative tone. What an assessment of Alberti-as-painter has to do with his love of dogs is beyond me, but adds a good does of comedic relief.Brosi 14:38, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

"We painters," said Alberti in On Painting, but as a painter, or sculptor, Alberti was a dilettante. "In painting Alberti achieved nothing of any great importance or beauty," wrote Vasari. "The very few paintings of his that are extant are far from perfect, but this is not surprising since he devoted himself more to his studies than to draughtsmanship." Jacob Burckhardt portrayed Alberti in The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy as a truly universal genius. "And Leonardo da Vinci was to Alberti as the finisher to the beginner, as the master to the dilettante. Would only that Vasari's work were here supplemented by a description like that of Alberti! The colossal outlines of Leonardo's nature can never be more than dimly and distantly conceived." Burckhardt also mentions Alberti's love for animals. He had a pet dog, a mongrel, for whom he wrote a panegyric, Canis)

Article title - Move to Leon Battista Alberti

I haven't been active on this article. As the lead suggest, this article would be more conventionally correct if it were titled Leon Battista Alberti instead of Leone Battista Alberti. This has been mentioned before in the discussion page, but there was no further action. Is anyone against this move? --Stomme (talk) 16:44, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Grammar correction

"Like Petrarch, who had been the first famous philologist to study the works of the ancient Roman poets, Alberti loved classics, but he compared continual reading and rereading in libraries."

This sentence seems to be dangling as far its sentence structure is concerned (see: "but he compared continual reading and rereading in libraries" )

Since Alberti wrote an entire work dedicated to why he DOESN'T like libraries and scholars, it only confuses me more as to where this sentence is going or what it means.

Can we consider if he "Leone/Leon" was actually the original Vitruvius?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvius For example; From Wikipedia concerning Vitruvius; "Little is known about Vitruvius' life." This an almost exceptional statement since in most cases, the older the personage, the more we seem to know about their early lives. Please compare Plato to those who reportedly followed him? It seems possible to me!After all Leon Alberti only means "the smart lion!", especially if "Battista" has a similar meaning to "Polymath?" Perhaps his family was from modern France, I.E. Lyon? See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberti_(surname) Also consider this? http://search.aol.com/aol/imageDetails?s_it=imageDetails&q=alberti&v_t=comsearch51&b=image%3Fs_it%3Dtopsearchbox.search%26v_t%3Dcomsearch51%26q%3Dalberti%26oreq%3De580d8d1e5c64c708a142e12a5d7a147&img=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cs.trincoll.edu%2F%7Ecrypto%2Fhistorical%2Falberti.jpg&host=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cs.trincoll.edu%2F%7Ecrypto%2Fhistorical%2Falberti.html&width=68&height=90&thumbUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fimages-partners-tbn.google.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcSYZ72ciCyucgKNy2uHVNqVNba6rWWJ6zc0md0nOa781Kqv2rLBRf0ALF4&imgWidth=300&imgHeight=397&imgSize=26314&imgTitle=alberti96.19.159.196 (talk) 03:09, 22 August 2013 (UTC)Ronald L. Hughes

Recent deletion

The references to Alberti's athleticism were recently deleted with the comment that the source doesn't support the statement. This is in error. Part 2 of Burkhartd's book, about the rise of the individual, talks specifically about Alberti being able to jump over a man's head. 03:21, 19 October 2014 (UTC)

Death date

I've fixed the death date on all the language versions of Wikipedia. I was alerted to an issue by an OTRS ticket (2015021710017857), and delved in a bit further. I couldn't find any sources listing April 20 as the subject's death date. Britannica list April 25.

In Russian Wikipedia, the following is included as a footnote:

по другим данным — 19 апреля (История литературы Италии. Т.2, кн.1. М., 2007. С.337)

Translated into English:

according to other sources - on April 19 (Literary History of Italy. Volume 2, Book 1. M., 2007. C.337)

It's not immediately apparent to me what book that refers to.

Unless we get some more useful source or can get some confirmation on the source listed on Russian Wikipedia, I think our sourcing policy has to stick with April 25. If I get any feedback on any of the wikis I've edited, I'll feed it back here. —Tom Morris (talk) 18:06, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

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External links modified

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Publications

I can't see any mention of "Elementi di pittura", written after "Della pittura", which is available in Italian but I haven't found any translations. The only other info I have is its publication in 1890 "Opera inedita et pauca separatim impressa", G. Mancini, ed. (Florence, 1890) 51.6.72.129 (talk) 13:43, 21 January 2024 (UTC)