Alberti, Leone Battista

Alberti, Leone Battista, an Italian ecclesiastic and artist, was born at Florence about 1400. In order to have leisure to pursue his studies, he entered orders; he was canon of the metropolitan Church of Florence in 1447, and abbe of San Savindo or of Sant' Eremita of Pisa. Alberti, although known as a scholar, a painter, a sculptor, and an architect, it is to his works of architecture' that he owes his principal fame. Among his works are, the completion of the Pitti Palace, Florence; the chapel of the Ruccellai, in the Church of St. Pancras; the facade of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, and the choir of the Church of Nunziata; the churches of St. Sebastianl and St. Andrew, Mantua. But his principal work is generally acknowledged to be the Church of St. Francis at Rimini. Of his writings, those on the arts are in- the highest estimation, and he derives the most of his reputation from his treatise on architecture, De Re Edificcatoria, published after his death (1485, 10 books; last ed. Bologna, 1782, fol.). See Life prefixed to Leoni's Architecture; Vasari, Life; Biog. Universelle, s.v.; Roscoe, Lorenzo de' Medici.