European University Institute Library

Pliny the Elder and the emergence of Renaissance architecture, Peter Fane-Saunders

eng

index present

non fiction

Pliny the Elder and the emergence of Renaissance architecture

electronic resource

dictionaries

953552786

Peter Fane-Saunders

Cambridge Social Sciences eBooks

The Naturalis historia by Pliny the Elder provided Renaissance scholars, artists and architects with details of ancient architectural practice and long-lost architectural wonders - material that was often unavailable elsewhere in classical literature. Pliny's descriptions frequently included the dimensions of these buildings, as well as details of their unusual construction materials and ornament. This book describes, for the first time, how the passages were interpreted from around 1430 to 1580, that is, from Alberti to Palladio. Chapters are arranged chronologically within three interrelated sections - antiquarianism; architectural writings; drawings and built monuments - thereby making it possible for the reader to follow the changing attitudes to Pliny over the period. The resulting study establishes the Naturalis historia as the single most important literary source after Vitruvius's De architectura.--, Provided by publisher

Machine generated contents note: 1. Pliny the Elder and his place in antique and mediaeval writings on architecture; 2. Initial explorations: Petrarch, the Mirabilia Urbis Romae and Flavio Biondo; 3. The manuscript hunter and the librarian: Poggio Bracciolini and Giovanni Tortelli; 4. A new system: Pomponio Leto and his school; 5. Emerging doubts; 6. Pliny and Leon Battista Alberti: two 'architectural histories'; 7. Pliny, Filarete and the ideal patron of architecture; 8. 'Aldus and his dream book': the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili; 9. A more down-to-earth Pliny; 10. Mixing the traditions: the curious case of Cesare Cesariano; 11. Developments in the Veneto: the Vitruvian commentaries of Daniele Barbaro and I quattro libri by Andrea Palladio; 12. Standing before the marvels: Ciriaco d'Ancona and Pliny's 'Opera mirabilia in terris'; 13. In the mind's eye: drawings of Plinian wonders, from Leonardo to Antonio da Sangallo the Younger; 14. From paper to stone: rebuilding Pliny's architectural marvels; Final thoughts: Pliny's influence on the Renaissance understanding of ancient architecture