August 30 • Leon Battista Alberti
Leon Battista Alberti, born in 1404, was one of the great polymaths of the Italian Renaissance. A humanist, architect, artist, mathematician, philosopher, and writer, he believed that knowledge should unite reason, beauty, and practical achievement.
Alberti helped shape the visual language of Renaissance architecture through designs associated with the façade of Santa Maria Novella and the Palazzo Rucellai in Florence. His work revived classical principles of harmony, proportion, balance, and order for a new age.
His influential writings included On Painting, which examined perspective and visual representation, and De re aedificatoria, the first major Renaissance treatise on architecture. These works guided generations of artists, architects, scholars, and builders throughout Europe.
