Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building (1452)—This humanist attempt to come to terms with the ancient architectural treatise of Vitruvius cast a wide influence over subsequent building in fifteenth-century Italy. Alberti argued that beauty was an organic phenomenon. Harmony between the constituent parts of a building was similar to the functions of the limbs and various parts of the human body. Take away one element and, Alberti warned, disaster might result. An architect who added too much ornamentation might similarly violate Alberti's canons of classical beauty.

Filarete, Work on Architecture (c. 1460)—Antonio Averlino, known popularly as Filarete, originally circulated this treatise on building among noble and wealthy urban patrons in Italy in many manuscript editions. The text recounts the education of a prince by his architect, thus encouraging noble patrons to support the architecture of the...