Scarce very well cared for 1st edition. The dust jacket is original with some fading. The interior of the book is clean and looks unread.

THE LIFE OF BRUNELLESCHI

Few architects in history have enjoyed a fame comparable to that of Filippo Brunelleschi

(1377-1446), whose vision created the first architecture of the Renaissance. His works in Florence, such as the great dome of the Cathedral, the Pazzi Chapel, the Church of San Lorenzo, and the Foundling Hospital, are among the chief ornaments of that city.

Next to Brunelleschi's buildings themselves and the relatively limited number of early documents which have survived, the late 15th-century biography attributed to Antonio di Tuccio Manetti is our first written source concerning Brunelleschi and his works.

Written in the 1480's, Manetti's account provides first-hand information on the state of the buildings at the end of the architect's lifetime and thereafter. From these writings derive most of what we know of the Renaissance invention of mathematical perspective, the competition with the sculptor Ghiberti for the commission for the Baptistery doors, and the struggle to complete the dome of the Cathedral.

This new, critical edition of the Vita is extensively annotated by Howard Saalman; his highly informative Introduction discusses the manuscript texts and the editions as well as the authorship, dating, reliability, and influence of the Vita. The Italian text is reprinted, with an English translation en face and with variant manuscript readings included in the annotations.