The Architectural Treatise in the Italian Renaissance: Architectural Invention, Ornament and Literary Culture - Hardcover

Alina A. Payne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521622662 ISBN 13: 9780521622660

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1999

Synopsis

A 1999 analysis of the significance of the architectural treatise in Renaissance Italy.

About this title

Product Description

Vitruvius's Ten Books of Architecture, the only architectural treatise to have survived from antiquity, was the fountainhead of architectural theory in the Italian Renaissance. Offering theoretical and practical solutions to a wide variety of architectural issues, this treatise did not, however, address all of the questions that were of concern to early modern architects. This study examines the Italian Renaissance architect's efforts to negotiate between imitation and reinvention of classicism. Through a close reading of Vitruvius and texts written during the period 1400-1600, Alina Payne identifies ornament as the central issue around which much of this debate focused. Ornament, she argues, facilitated a dialogue across disciplines and invited exchanges with literary and rhetorical practices. Payne's study also highlights the place of the architectural treatise in the text-based culture of the period and of architectural discourse in Renaissance thought.

Review

Review of the hardback: 'This is an intelligent and original book that rewards close reading ... a brief summary cannot do justice to the richness of ideas in this stimulating book.' Burlington Magazine

Review of the hardback: '... useful far beyond the more narrow study of Renaissance architecture... This is an important book.' The Art Book

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521622662
• ISBN 13: 9780521622660
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 362