Chapter summary:
Leone Battista Alberti was a man of an astounding range of abilities – heralded as the “universal man” of the Early Renaissance and described as “The Prophet of the New Grand Style in Art” inaugurated by Leonard da Vinci. In 1430, Alberti moved to Rome, where he prepared legal briefs for Pope Eugenius IV. In June 1434, Eugenius IV was forced to leave Rome for Florence because of a disagreement with the Council of the Church. Alberti joined him and was appointed Canon of Santa Maria del Fiore when the cathedral was practically finished. After 1434, Alberti began producing a range of works in mathematics, astronomy, architecture and cryptography. Alberti’s entirely new knowledge of the universe which he had gained from Toscanelli enabled him to develop many of his new ideas by using an astrolabe – in architecture, in perspective, even cryptography.
Toscanelli, Regiomontanus, Alberti, di Giorgio and Leonardo da Vinci between them revolutionised European thought – in knowledge of the universe, the solar system, in astronomy, mathematics, physics, architecture, cartography, surveying, town planning, sculpture, painting, even cryptography! How did they all appear in the same small area of northern Italy – did God wave a magic wand over Tuscany?
We should not underestimate the pollination of ideas which resulted from the continuous intellectual interchange between the various geniuses. This was the loam in which the seeds of Chinese ideas and inventions were propagated.
Alberti’s masterpiece, De Pictura, is generally accepted by art historians of the Renaissance as being the most important book on painting ever written. Leonardo da Vinci made great use of Della Pittura (the Italian translation of De Pictura) in his own treatise on painting, using the same terms, and ideas, even some of Alberti’s phrases. Alberti’s intellectual achievements were truly awesome. He codified the basic geometry so that linear perspective became mathematically coherent. He wrote a ten volume architectural treaties covering all aspects of Renaissance architecture. He drew the stars on the ceiling of the San Lorenzo Baptistery as they were seen on 6th July 1439, probably asserted by his friend Toscanelli. He collaborated with Toscanelli and Regiomontanus in helping determine Regiomontanus’s declination of the Sun, the obliquity of the ecliptic and the change in its obliquity. Could one man really cover such a vast array of subject matter ranging from the invention of polyalphabetic substitutes and the cryptic code to new mathematical models for treating perspective?
There is a possible link between Alberti and Zheng He’s visit to Florence in 1434 not least because Alberti as notary to Pope Eugenius IV would have attended meetings between the Pope and the Chinese. Moreover Alberti’s writings before 1434 were on domestic themes – his explosion of astronomical, mathematical and cartographic works all came after 1434. It seemed everything which Taccola, di Giorgio, Regiomontanus, Alberti, Fontana and Leonardo had “invented” was already there in Chinese books notably Ephemeris tables, Maps, Mathematical treatises and books about civil and military machines. So how was the transfer effected? All the Chinese books in which this information was contained were reproduced in parts of the Yong Le Dadian which Zheng He would have carried. Zheng He’s representatives would have undoubtedly told the Pope and Toscanelli about the Yong Le Dadian – as evidenced by Toscanelli’s comment, China was indeed ruled by “astronomers and mathematicians of great learning.”
Further reading:
Joan Gadol: Leon Battista Alberti, Universal man of the Renaissance
http://www.jstor.org/pss/2859341
http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/bkcoun/34990X1.shtml
Cryptography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberti_cipher
The Alberti cipher:
http://starbase.trincoll.edu/~crypto/historical/alberti.html
Alberti geometry and practice:
http://www.imss.fi.it/news/intlabor/ecamer2.html
Alberti – Il Rinascimento:
http://xoomer.alice.it/leon-battista-alberti/Rinascimento.html
Leon Battista Alberti:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/alberti.htm
Polyalphabetic Substitution Cipher:
http://www.math.cornell.edu/~mec/2003-2004/cryptography/polyalpha/polyalpha.html
