Interpreting the Renaissance
Princes, Cities, Architects
Manfredo Tafuri(Author)
Yale University Press
Published on 1. May 2006
Book
Hardback
520 pages
978-0-300-11158-3 (ISBN)
Description
Manfredo Tafuri (1935 - 1994) is acknowledged as one of Italy's most influential architectural historians. In his final work, "Interpreting the Renaissance", published here in English for the first time (the Italian edition, "Ricerca del Rinascimento", appeared in 1992), Tafuri analyses Renaissance architecture from a variety of perspectives, exploring questions that occupied him for over thirty years. What theoretical terms were used to describe the humanist analogy between architecture and language? Is it possible to identify the political motivations behind the period's new urban strategies? And how does humanism embody both an attachment to tradition and an urge to experiment? Tafuri studies the theory and practice of Renaissance architecture, offering new and compelling readings of its various social, intellectual and cultural contexts, while providing a broad understanding of uses of representation that shaped the entire era.
He synthesises the history of architectural ideas and projects through discussions of the great centres of architectural innovation in Italy (Florence, Rome and Venice), key patrons from the middle of the fifteenth century (Pope Nicholas V) to the early sixteenth century (Pope Leo X), and crucial figures such as Leon Battista Alberti, Filippo Brunelleschi, Lorenzo de' Medici, Raphael, Baldassare Castiglione and Giulio Romano. A magnum opus by one of Europe's finest scholars, "Interpreting the Renaissance" is an essential book for anyone interested in the architecture and culture of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italy.
He synthesises the history of architectural ideas and projects through discussions of the great centres of architectural innovation in Italy (Florence, Rome and Venice), key patrons from the middle of the fifteenth century (Pope Nicholas V) to the early sixteenth century (Pope Leo X), and crucial figures such as Leon Battista Alberti, Filippo Brunelleschi, Lorenzo de' Medici, Raphael, Baldassare Castiglione and Giulio Romano. A magnum opus by one of Europe's finest scholars, "Interpreting the Renaissance" is an essential book for anyone interested in the architecture and culture of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italy.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
166 b&w illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 254 mm
Width: 178 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-300-11158-3 (9780300111583)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Manfredo Tafuri was Chairman of the Faculty of the History of Architecture and the Director of the Institute of History at the Architecture Institute in Venice. His numerous books include Theories and History of Architecture, Architecture and Utopia, The Sphere and the Labyrinth and Venice and the Renaissance.