Leon Battista Alberti (Italian: [leombatˈtista alˈbɛɾti]; born 14 February 1404, died 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance writer, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and code maker. He showed what it meant to be a person with many talents. He is considered the founder of European cryptography, a title he shares with Johannes Trithemius.

Although Alberti is often seen mainly as an architect, James Beck said that focusing on one area of his work does not help explain his wide range of achievements in the arts. Alberti was also a mathematician and made important discoveries in that field. Two of his most famous buildings are the churches of San Sebastiano (built in 1460) and Sant'Andrea (built in 1472), both located in Mantua.

Alberti’s life was described in Giorgio Vasari’s book titled Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.

Biography

Leon Battista Alberti was born in 1404 in Genoa. His mother was named Bianca Fieschi. His father, Lorenzo di Benedetto Alberti, was a wealthy man from Florence who had been sent away from his city but returned in 1428. Alberti attended a boarding school in Padua and later studied law at the University of Bologna. He lived in Florence for a time and then traveled to Rome in 1431. There, he became a religious leader and worked for the papal court. During this time, he studied ancient ruins, which sparked his interest in architecture and influenced the buildings he designed.

Alberti was described as tall and strong, with a talent for horseback riding. He had many abilities and showed skill as a writer even as a child. By age 20, he had written a play that was mistaken for a real work from ancient times. In 1435, he began writing Della pittura, a book inspired by the growing art scene in Florence during the early 1400s. In this work, he discussed painting techniques, including perspective, composition, and color.

In 1438, Alberti focused more on architecture. He was encouraged by Leonello d'Este, a nobleman from Ferrara, who asked him to build a small arch to support a statue of Leonello’s father. In 1447, Alberti became an advisor to Pope Nicholas V and worked on projects at the Vatican.

His first major architectural project was in 1446, when he designed the façade of the Rucellai Palace in Florence. In 1450, he was commissioned to transform the Gothic church of San Francesco in Rimini into a memorial chapel called the Tempio Malatestiano. In Florence, he designed the upper part of the façade for the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella, creating two large, decorated scrolls that connected the main part of the church to the side areas. This design solved a visual problem and influenced church architecture for centuries. In 1452, he completed De re aedificatoria, a book about architecture based on the work of Vitruvius and inspired by ancient Roman buildings. The book was not published until 1485. In 1464, he wrote De statua, a less influential work about sculpture. Alberti’s only known sculpture is a self-portrait medallion, sometimes credited to an artist named Pisanello.

Alberti designed two churches in Mantua: San Sebastiano, which was never completed, and the Basilica of Sant'Andrea. The design for Sant'Andrea was finished in 1471, a year before Alberti’s death. Construction continued after his death, and the church is considered his most important work.

As an artist, Alberti differed from other craftsmen of his time, who were often trained in workshops. He was a humanist who studied the works of Aristotle and Plotinus. He was part of a growing group of scholars and artists supported by noble families. Because he came from a noble family and worked in the Roman church, Alberti held a special position. He was welcomed at the court of the Este family in Ferrara and spent time with Federico III da Montefeltro, a military leader in Urbino. The Duke of Urbino, a skilled commander who supported artists, was the intended recipient of Alberti’s treatise on architecture.

Alberti wrote several minor but important works, including an essay on cryptography called De componendis cifris and the first Italian grammar. He worked with the Florentine astronomer Paolo Toscanelli on studies related to geography. He also wrote a short Latin work on geography titled Descriptio urbis Romae (The Panorama of the City of Rome). Near the end of his life, he completed De iciarchia (On Ruling the Household), a dialogue about Florence during the rule of the Medici family.

Alberti became a religious leader and never married. He loved animals and owned a pet dog, a mongrel, about whom he wrote a tribute called Canis. The artist Giorgio Vasari described Alberti as "an admirable citizen, a man of culture… a friend of talented men, open and courteous with everyone. He always lived honourably and like the gentleman he was." Alberti died in Rome on April 25, 1472, at the age of 68.

Publications

Leon Battista Alberti believed that mathematics was the basis for both the arts and sciences. In his book Della Pittura (On Painting), which he dedicated to the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, Alberti wrote, "To explain my ideas clearly, I will use knowledge from mathematicians that is important for my subject."

In Della Pittura, Alberti used studies of ancient light and vision to understand how to create realistic images in art and architecture. He was very familiar with the scientific ideas of his time. His understanding of optics came from the work of the Arab scholar Alhazen, whose book Kitab al-Manazir (The Optics) was studied by scholars like Roger Bacon, John Peckham, and Witelo in the 13th century. These ideas also influenced the writings of the artist Lorenzo Ghiberti.

In both Della Pittura and De Statua, Alberti wrote that "all learning should come from nature." He believed that artists should try to copy nature as closely as possible. Painters and sculptors aim to make their work look like real things. However, Alberti did not mean that artists should copy nature exactly. Instead, he believed that artists should focus on making their work beautiful, saying, "In painting, beauty is as important as it is necessary." Alberti thought that a perfect artwork is made so well that nothing can be added or removed without ruining its beauty. He described beauty as "the harmony of all parts working together," which he connected to ideas about numbers, proportions, and balance. These ideas were not new—they were linked to the ancient Greek thinker Pythagoras—but Alberti used them in a way that fit with Renaissance art and design.

In Rome, Alberti studied ancient buildings and ruins. His book De Re Aedificatoria (On the Art of Building), written in 1452, was inspired by the writings of the Roman architect Vitruvius. Alberti’s work was the first major book on architecture during the Renaissance. It covered topics like city planning, engineering, and beauty. The book was expensive and not published until 1485. Alberti wrote it "not only for craftsmen but also for anyone interested in the noble arts." The first Italian version came out in 1546, and a standard edition was published in 1550. Pope Nicholas V, to whom Alberti dedicated the book, wanted to rebuild Rome but only completed a small part of his plans. Through his writing, Alberti shared Renaissance ideas about art and design with architects and scholars.

Alberti also wrote I Libri della Famiglia, a book in the Tuscan dialect that discussed education, marriage, and managing a household. It was not printed until 1843. Like the writer Erasmus later, Alberti believed that education needed to be improved. He wrote that young children should learn to read as early as possible. He gave the book to his family to read, but in his own writings, he admitted that some relatives laughed at his work.

Another of Alberti’s works, Momus, was a comedy written between 1443 and 1450. It told a story about the gods of Olympus. Some people believe that the character Jupiter in the story represents Pope Eugenius IV or Pope Nicholas V. Alberti borrowed characters from the Greek writer Lucian, whom he admired. The title Momus comes from the Greek word for "blame" or "criticism." In the story, the god of mockery, Momus, is cast out of heaven and later punished. The other gods also visit Earth but return to heaven after a storm damages Jupiter’s nose.

Architectural works

Leon Battista Alberti did not focus on engineering, and few of his major projects were built. As a designer and student of Vitruvius and ancient Roman architecture, he studied buildings with columns and arches, focusing on their appearance rather than how they were built. He used the correct styles of columns and arches, unlike his contemporary, Brunelleschi, who used these elements in a more creative way. Alberti thought about how buildings affected society and paid attention to city layouts. This is shown in his design of the Rucellai Palace, where he included a long bench at the base level for seating. Alberti also planned streets with wide main roads connected to smaller roads and buildings of the same height.

In Rome, Alberti worked for Pope Nicholas V to restore the Roman aqueduct called Acqua Vergine. He designed a simple basin for the aqueduct’s water, which was later replaced by the Baroque Trevi Fountain.

Some researchers believe the Villa Medici in Fiesole might have been designed by Alberti instead of Michelozzo. This hilltop home, built for Giovanni de’ Medici, Cosimo il Vecchio’s second son, has a view of the city and is sometimes called the first example of a Renaissance villa. It reflects Alberti’s writings about country homes, called "villa suburbana." The design later inspired many similar buildings in the late 15th century.

The Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini (1447, 1453–60) was the rebuilding of a Gothic church. Its front, with its dynamic shapes, was left unfinished.

The design of the Palazzo Rucellai’s front (1446–51) was one of several projects commissioned by the Rucellai family. The design placed a grid of shallow columns and arches over rough stone walls and included a heavy cornice at the top. The inner courtyard has Corinthian columns. The palace introduced the use of classical elements in public buildings in Florence and became very influential. The work was completed by Bernardo Rossellino.

At Santa Maria Novella in Florence (1448–70), Alberti designed the upper part of the church’s front. This was a difficult task because the lower level already had three doorways and six Gothic niches with tombs, made of colorful marble like those in San Miniato al Monte and the Baptistery of Florence. Alberti’s design also included an existing circular window. He added classical features around the entrance and spread the colorful marble across the entire front, using classical proportions and elements like columns, arches, and a triangular top. A sunburst made of small tiles, not sculpture, decorated the top. Alberti solved the challenge of making the central nave and side aisles look balanced by using two large scrolls, which later became a common feature in church designs.

Alberti is believed to have advised on the design of Piazza Pio II in Pienza. The village, once called Corsignano, was redesigned around 1459. It was the birthplace of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, who later became Pope Pius II, and Alberti worked for him. Pius II wanted the village to reflect his status as pope.

The piazza is shaped like a trapezoid, with four buildings surrounding it and a focus on Pienza Cathedral. Passages on either side open to views of the landscape. The main building, Palazzo Piccolomini, is on the west side. It has three stories with columns and arches, and each bay has a twin-lighted cross window. This structure is similar to Alberti’s Palazzo Rucellai and later palaces. The palace’s back, facing south, has a three-story loggia overlooking an enclosed Italian Renaissance garden with views of the distant Val d’Orcia and Mount Amiata. Below the garden is a vaulted stable for 100 horses. The design included a palace for the pope, a church, a town hall, and a building for bishops. Pienza is considered an early example of Renaissance urban planning.

The Basilica of Sant’Andrea in Mantua began in 1471, the year before Alberti’s death. It was completed and is Alberti’s most important work using the triumphal arch design, both inside and outside, influencing many later buildings. Alberti saw the role of an architect as a designer, not a builder, leaving construction details to others.

• San Sebastiano, Mantua (begun 1458), an unfinished front that has led to much discussion about Alberti’s plans.
• Sepolcro Rucellai in San Pancrazio (1467).
• The Tribune for Santissima Annunziata, Florence (1470, completed with changes in 1477).

Painting

Giorgio Vasari, who believed that art reached its highest point with Michelangelo, focused on Alberti's intellectual accomplishments rather than his artistic skills. Vasari wrote, "Alberti spent his time learning about the world and studying the proportions of ancient buildings. Most importantly, he focused on writing instead of creating art." In his book On Painting, Alberti used the phrase "We Painters," but as a painter or sculptor, he was more of an amateur than a professional. Vasari noted, "Alberti did not create any important or beautiful paintings. The few paintings that still exist are not perfect, but this is not surprising because he spent more time studying than practicing drawing." Jacob Burckhardt, in The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, described Alberti as a person with many talents. He wrote, "Leonardo da Vinci was to Alberti what a finished work is to a beginning, a master to an amateur. If only Vasari had included a description like Alberti's, it would have helped readers better understand Leonardo's great abilities." Alberti is believed to appear in Mantegna's famous frescoes in the Camera degli Sposi as an older man in dark red clothing, whispering to Ludovico Gonzaga, the ruler of Mantua. In Alberti's self-portrait, a small plaque shows him dressed as a Roman. To the left of his face is a winged eye. On the back of the plaque is the question "Quid tum?" (What then?), taken from Virgil's Eclogues: "What then, if Amyntas is dark? Violets are black, and hyacinths are black."

Contributions and cultural influence

Leon Battista Alberti made many important contributions to different areas of study:
• Alberti created a theory called "historia." In his book De pictura (1435), he described how people, animals, and buildings can work together to create harmony and hold a viewer's attention. This book was the first scientific study of perspective. A later Italian version, Della pittura, was published in 1436 and mentioned Filippo Brunelleschi in its introduction. The original Latin version was dedicated to Alberti’s patron, Gianfrancesco Gonzaga of Mantua. Alberti also wrote about sculpture in De statua.
• Alberti used his writings to share a new humanistic view of art. He drew on his connections with artists like Brunelleschi, Donatello, and Ghiberti to create a practical guide for Renaissance artists.
• Alberti introduced the idea of the "Albertian Window" in De Pictura, a key concept in linear perspective. This method is still used today in architecture and computer graphics. Some modern art styles, like Cubism, may have been influenced by Alberti’s ideas. His work also inspired early ideas in physics, such as the concept of an "inertial frame of reference," which Albert Einstein later used in his theories. These connections are still being studied.
• Alberti wrote De re aedificatoria, a major work on architecture. By the 1500s, it had been translated into Italian, French, Spanish, and English. A later English version was published by Giacomo Leoni in the 1700s.
• Alberti’s writings on painting and architecture are seen as important turning points in art history. His work Calumny of Apelles inspired artists like Botticelli and Signorelli. His artistic ideas influenced painters such as Mantegna, Piero della Francesca, and Fra Angelico. However, it is unclear how much Alberti directly shaped these innovations versus how much he described trends already happening.
• Alberti was also a skilled Latin poet. A comedy he wrote at age 20, Philodoxius, was later mistaken for the work of another writer, Aldus Manutius.
• Alberti is believed to have written or designed the illustrations for Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a mysterious fantasy novel.
• Alberti wrote many other works, including Philodoxus (1424), De commodis litterarum atque incommodis (1429), Intercoenales (c. 1429), Della famiglia (begun 1432), Vita S. Potiti (1433), De iure (1437), Theogenius (c. 1440), Profugorium ab aerumna, Momus (1450), and De Iciarchia (1468). These works were later published by Cosimo Bartoli in Venice in 1586.
• Alberti was a skilled cryptographer and invented the first polyalphabetic cipher, now called the Alberti cipher, and a device called the Cipher Disk. This method was a major breakthrough in cryptography, though it was not widely used for centuries.
• In a short autobiography written in Latin around 1438, Alberti claimed he could "stand with his feet together and spring over a man’s head." He also said he was good at physical exercises, could throw a coin high into a cathedral, and enjoyed taming wild horses. These claims may have been part of the Renaissance tradition of promoting one’s own abilities.
• Alberti claimed to be a skilled musician and organist, but there is no clear evidence to support this. He held a position as a church official in Florence, which may have given him time to study music, though this is uncertain.
• Alberti worked with the cartographer Paolo Toscanelli on mapmaking.
• Alberti defined art as the imitation of nature, selecting its most beautiful parts. He wrote, "Take from nature what you will paint, and choose the most beautiful and worthy things."
• Architectural historian Borsi noted that Alberti’s ideas continue to influence modern and contemporary architecture, including the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Louis Kahn.

Works in print

• De Pictura (1435), translated into English as On Painting and in Latin as De Pictura. Published by Penguin Classics in 1972. ISBN 978-0-14-043331-9. Also known as Della Pittura in Italian (1804 [1434]).
• Momus, with Latin text and English translation. Published in 2003. ISBN 0-674-00754-9.
• De re aedificatoria (1452), translated as Ten Books on Architecture. Written by Leon Battista Alberti. Translated by Joseph Rykwert, Robert Tavernor, and Neil Leach. Published by MIT Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1988. ISBN 0-262-51060-X and ISBN 978-0-262-51060-8. Available in Latin, French, and Italian editions (archived on March 5, 2016) and in English translation.
• De Cifris (A Treatise on Ciphers, 1467). Translated by A. Zaccagnini. Foreword by David Kahn. Published by Galimberti in Torino, 1997.
• Della tranquillitá dell'animo (1441).
• On Painting, a new translation and critical edition. Edited and translated by Rocco Sinisgalli. Published by Cambridge University Press in New York, 2011. ISBN 978-1-107-00062-9 (archived on July 23, 2023).
• I libri della famiglia (Italian edition).
• "Dinner pieces", a translation of the Intercenales by David Marsh. Published by the Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies at the State University of New York, Binghamton, 1987.
• "Descriptio urbis Romae" (Leon Battista Alberti's Delineation of the city of Rome). Edited by Peter Hicks. Published by Arizona State University, 2007.

• De re aedificatoria by Leon Battista Alberti. Printed by M. Iacobus Cammerlander Moguntinus in Argentorati, 1541.
• De re aedificatoria by Leon Battista Alberti. Printed by Nicolai Laurentii Alamani in Florentiae, 1541.
• Opere volgari (1), published by Tipografia Galileiana in Firenze, 1843.
• Opere volgari (2), published by Tipografia Galileiana in Firenze, 1844.
• Opere volgari (4), published by Tipografia Galileiana in Firenze, 1847.
• Opere volgari (5), published by Tipografia Galileiana in Firenze, 1849.
• Opere by Leon Battista Alberti. Published by J. C. Sansoni in Florentiae, 1890.
• Trattati d'arte by Leon Battista Alberti. Published by Laterza in Bari, 1973.
• Ippolito e Leonora by Leon Battista Alberti. Published by Bartolomeo de' Libri in Firenze, before 1495.
• Ecatonfilea by Leon Battista Alberti. Published by Bernardino da Cremona in Venesia, 1491.
• Deifira by Leon Battista Alberti. Published by Lorenzo Canozio in Padova, 1471.
• Teogenio by Leon Battista Alberti. Published by Leonard Pachel in Milano, around 1492.
• Libri della famiglia by Leon Battista Alberti. Published by G. Laterza in Bari, 1960.
• Rime e trattati morali by Leon Battista Alberti. Published by Laterza in Bari, 1966.
• Leon Battista Alberti: Opera completa by Franco Borsi. Published by Electa in Milano, 1973.

In popular culture

Leon Battista Alberti is a main character in Roberto Rossellini’s three-part television film The Age of the Medici (1973). The third and final part, titled Leon Battista Alberti: Humanism, focuses on Alberti, his works (such as Santa Maria Novella), and his ideas. In the film, Alberti is portrayed by Italian actor Virginio Gazzolo.

Alberti is also mentioned in the 1994 film Renaissance Man or Army Intelligence, starring Danny DeVito. He appears in the 2004 book The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. Additionally, he is referenced in the board game Alma Mater, where he appears on cards with special abilities.

Dr. Peter Weller, an actor known for his role in the 1987 film RoboCop and for appearing in over seventy films and television shows, wrote a book titled Leon Battista Alberti in Exile: Tracing the Path to the First Modern Book on Painting. Published by Cambridge University Press on March 6, 2025, the book argues that Alberti’s important work De pictura was deeply influenced by his time in exile in cities such as Padua, Bologna, and Rome, rather than only by his return to Florence later in life. Weller explains that Alberti’s humanist education, mathematical skills, and exposure to different artistic traditions in these cities helped him combine humanism and art theory in a way that raised painting to the level of a liberal art.

ALBERTI ROMANI, a modern-day expert in many fields and a jazz composer, was born in the city of La Romana, almost exactly 500 years after Alberti died.