Albertus Magnus, Saint 23later became an ardent promoter of the vernacular for
learned treatises.
In 1434, Alberti accompanied Pope EUGENIUSIV to
FLORENCEand established congenial relations with lead-
ing humanists and artists including Leonardo BRUNI, Pog-
gio BRACCIOLINI, Carlo Marsuppini (1399–1453), Filippo
BRUNELLESCHI, and DONATELLO. With his intellectual
horizons broadened by his sojourn in Florence, he
returned to Rome in 1443 to concentrate on scientific
and artistic problems. He advised Pope Nicholas V (r.
1447–55) on problems of urban renewal and the restora-
tion of Roman churches. Though he spent most of his
later life in Rome, he maintained contact with Florentine
intellectuals such as Marsilio FICINO, Cristoforo Landino
(1424–92), and the young Lorenzo de’ MEDICI.
Alberti was both a theorist and a practitioner of the
classical revival in architecture. His 1452 treatise On the
Art of Building,published in 1485, formulated the princi-
ples of the new style. His major building projects were in
Florence, the loggia of the Palazzo Rucellai and the
facade of Santa Maria Novella; in Rimini, the Tempio
Malatestiano or Church of San Francesco; and in Mantua,
the churches of San Sebastiano and Sant’Andrea.
In addition to his treatise on architecture, Alberti
wrote the essays On Paintingin 1435 and On Sculpture
in about 1464. He used classical models in composing
many of his Latin works. His most famous work in
Italian, perhaps, On the Family,was written between
1432 and 1445 from the perspective of an illegitimate
member of an elite, sometimes exiled, family. Written as
a dialogue, it analyzed and commented on the social,
moral, and cultural problems of Italian, specifically
Florentine, urban society in the mid-15th century. He
died in Rome in April 1472. The location of his remains
is unknown.
Further reading:Leon Battista Alberti, The Family in
Renaissance Florence, trans. Renée Neu Watkins
(Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1969);
Anthony Grafton, Leon Battista Alberti: Master Builder of
the Italian Renaissance(New York: Hill & Wang, 2000);
Joan Kelly, Leon Battista Alberti: Universal Man of the
Early Renaissance(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1969); Carroll William Westfall, In This Most Perfect Par-
adise; Alberti, Nicholas V, and the Invention of Conscious
Urban Planning in Rome, 1447–55(University Park: Penn-
sylvania State University Press, 1974).
Albertus Magnus, Saint(Albert the Great, Albert of
Cologne, the Universal Doctor)(ca. 1200–1280)Ger-
man Dominican friar, scholar, teacher, philosopher, scientist,
dominant figure in the evolution of Christian Scholastic
thought and natural philosophy
Albertus was born about 1200 in Lauingen, Swabia. His
family was of the lesser nobility. They sent him to study
at the new University of PADUAin Italy. After two years of
study of the SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS, Albert was accepted into
the DOMINICANOrder of mendicant friars in 1223. He
then studied theology in Germany and was the first Ger-
man Dominican to become a master of theology at the
University of PARIS, where he taught some of the great
Scholastic thinkers of the 13th century, including
Thomas AQUINAS.
In 1256 Pope Alexander IV (r. 1254–61) ordered
Albertus to his court to defend the mendicants against
the attacks by many of their colleagues at the University
of Paris. Most members of the faculty were members of
the secular clergy, who were jealous of the intellectual
and financial encroachments of the new mendicant
orders into the university and college systems. In 1260
Albertus became bishop of Ratisbon. In 1263–64 he
served as the pope’s legate, preaching a crusade in Ger-
many. Albertus died on November 15, 1280; he was
beatified in 1622 and canonized by Pope Pius XI in
1932.INTELLECTUAL IMPORTANCE
The works of Albertus Magnus embrace a vast array of
knowledge in the natural sciences, philosophy, and theol-
ogy. His botanical writings are noted for their accuracy
and their detailed descriptions of plant anatomy. His pre-
sentation of a scientific basis for a classification scheme
for plant evolution, by explaining changing plant forms,
was unsurpassed until the 16th century. Something of an
ecologist, he also had qualities of a practical farmer andAlbertus Magnus, engraving (Courtesy Library of Congress)