Research Catalog

Title

Biographical and autobiographical writings / Leon Battista Alberti ; translated by Martin McLaughlin.

Author

Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472

Publication

• Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : Harvard University Press, 2023.
• ©2023

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

McLaughlin, M. L. (Martin L.)

Description

xxvii, 346 pages; 22 cm.

Summary

"Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) was one of the most famous figures of the Italian Renaissance. His extraordinary range of abilities as a writer, architect, art theorist, and even athlete earned him the title of the first "Renaissance man." Alberti was a prolific author, but only a few of his works are well known today: these are his vernacular dialogue on the family (De familia, 1433-43); his treatise on painting, which he wrote first in the vernacular and then in Latin (Della pittura/De pictura, 1435-36; 1439-41); and his Latin treatise on architecture, De re aedificatoria (On the Art of Building), written 1443-72. Yet these represent only the tip of the huge iceberg of writings that he composed. Consequently, one of the first aims of this volume is to bring to the attention of a wider public five significant Latin compositions that have largely been neglected even though they tell us much about his literary aims and development, and contain a strongly biographical and/or autobiographical dimension. The pieces that make up this volume are: the early treatise/invective De commodis litterarum atque incommodis (On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Literature, 1428-32), which partly reflects his experiences as a student in Bologna in the 1420s; the biography of an obscure Christian martyr, Vita S. Potiti (The Life of Saint Potitus, 1432-34), which also contains autobiographical projections; a mock funeral oration for his dead dog, Canis (My Dog, c. 1438), which however also has distinct autobiographical overtones; his own autobiography, entitled Vita (My Life, 1438-44), one of the first autobiographies of the early modern period; and a comic encomium of the fly, entitled Musca (The Fly, 1441-43), inspired by one of Lucian's works, but this too contains many elements of his own self-portrait. These five Latin works, written over a space of fifteen years, provide an insight into a crucial phase of Alberti's growth as a writer, as he gradually finds his own voice in these biographical and autobiographical writings"--

Series Statement

The I Tatti Renaissance library ; ITRL 96

Uniform Title

I Tatti Renaissance library ; 96.

Subject

• Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472
• 1400-1499
• Italian literature > 15th century > Early works to 1800
• Italian literature
• Italy

Genre/Form

Early works.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-335) and index.

Language (note)

• Texts in Latin with English translation on facing pages; introduction and notes in English.

Contents

On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Literature -- The Life of St. Potitus -- My Dog -- My Life -- The Fly.

Call Number

PA8161

ISBN

• 9780674292680
• 0674292685

LCCN

2022042111

OCLC

1369679695

Author

Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472, author, author.

Title

Biographical and autobiographical writings / Leon Battista Alberti ; translated by Martin McLaughlin.

Publisher

Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : Harvard University Press, 2023.

Copyright Date

©2023

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

The I Tatti Renaissance library ; ITRL 96

I Tatti Renaissance library ; 96.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-335) and index.

Language

Texts in Latin with English translation on facing pages; introduction and notes in English.

Chronological Term

1400-1499

Added Author

McLaughlin, M. L. (Martin L.), translator. Translator

Container of (expression): Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472. De commodis litterarum atque incommodis.

Container of (expression): Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472. De commodis litterarum atque incommodis. English (McLaughlin)

Container of (expression): Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472. Vita S. Potiti.

Container of (expression): Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472. Vita S. Potiti. English.

Container of (expression): Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472. Vita.

Container of (expression): Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472. Vita. English.

Container of (expression): Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472. Canis.

Container of (expression): Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472. Canis. English.

Container of (expression): Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472. Musca.

Container of (expression): Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472. Musca. English.

Research Call Number

*R-RMRR PA8161 .T3 ITRL 96