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Editorial Reviews
From Independent Publisher
On the Art of Building in Ten Books is an engaging mix of the practical and superstitious. It is like an episode of 'This Old House," in which the foam insulation, metal, and plastic have given way to stone, wood, and advice older than the building code. For example, when Alberti outlines good stair design, detailing the size of the steps and the placement of landings (every seventh or ninth step), he notes that the ancients preferred an odd number of steps to their temples, so they would enter on the right foot. He speaks precisely about the design of colonnades for man and beast, and about bridge building and road drainage, with care taken for the "continual and contracted wear by hooves and wheels." In another section, he passes along the advice to city planners "to inspect the color and conditions of the livers of cattle grazing on the site when founding a city." In smaller matters, he advises the correct form for inscriptions on buildings: brevity. (Plato cautions against more than four verses on a tomb.) And he offers good, sound advice: "Me greatest glory in the art of building is to have a good sense of what is appropriate," (which itself would make a good inscription). There is much advice on the nature of materials, including lime and bricks, and a reverent discussion of wood, recommending juniper for trusses exposed to the sky, elm for hinges (best when used upside down), and cypress for doors (one door he knows has lasted 400 years). Alberti also discusses the best times to fell trees, comparing the advice of Hesiod, Favonius, Pliny, and Cato. This Old House was never like this. The new translation has been rendered to be read aloud, Joseph Rykwert states in the introduction. I field-tested this approach on a room of nonarchitects. Alberti's advice about building pigeon dovecotes particularly caught their attention: "If, under the entrance, you bury the head of a wolf, sprinkled with cumin seed, inside a jar that is cracked so that the smell can escape, it will attract several pigeons away from their previous homes...." The old serviceable edition by Dover kept the book on many shelves; this translation invites reading. On the Art of Building is one of the best architecture books of the year. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Brilliantly translated... Rykwert and his team have restored the pleasures of Alberti's writing for English readers.... This undoubtedly deserves to become the standard English translation."
-- Anthony Hughes, Times Literary Supplement
"A new and valuable resource which immediately relegates to the category of a curiosity Rykwert's earlier republication of James Leoni's translation.... Now all those involved with architecture... can listen to Alberti and find that be has much to say that will interest them."
-- John Onians, Building Design
"This English edition surpasses the earlier one in a number of significant ways.... It will no doubt soon find a place on all architectural reading lists, and deservedly so."
-- Paul Davies, Art History
See all Editorial Reviews
On the Art of Building in Ten Books is an engaging mix of the practical and superstitious. It is like an episode of 'This Old House," in which the foam insulation, metal, and plastic have given way to stone, wood, and advice older than the building code. For example, when Alberti outlines good stair design, detailing the size of the steps and the placement of landings (every seventh or ninth step), he notes that the ancients preferred an odd number of steps to their temples, so they would enter on the right foot. He speaks precisely about the design of colonnades for man and beast, and about bridge building and road drainage, with care taken for the "continual and contracted wear by hooves and wheels." In another section, he passes along the advice to city planners "to inspect the color and conditions of the livers of cattle grazing on the site when founding a city." In smaller matters, he advises the correct form for inscriptions on buildings: brevity. (Plato cautions against more than four verses on a tomb.) And he offers good, sound advice: "Me greatest glory in the art of building is to have a good sense of what is appropriate," (which itself would make a good inscription). There is much advice on the nature of materials, including lime and bricks, and a reverent discussion of wood, recommending juniper for trusses exposed to the sky, elm for hinges (best when used upside down), and cypress for doors (one door he knows has lasted 400 years). Alberti also discusses the best times to fell trees, comparing the advice of Hesiod, Favonius, Pliny, and Cato. This Old House was never like this. The new translation has been rendered to be read aloud, Joseph Rykwert states in the introduction. I field-tested this approach on a room of nonarchitects. Alberti's advice about building pigeon dovecotes particularly caught their attention: "If, under the entrance, you bury the head of a wolf, sprinkled with cumin seed, inside a jar that is cracked so that the smell can escape, it will attract several pigeons away from their previous homes...." The old serviceable edition by Dover kept the book on many shelves; this translation invites reading. On the Art of Building is one of the best architecture books of the year. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Brilliantly translated... Rykwert and his team have restored the pleasures of Alberti's writing for English readers.... This undoubtedly deserves to become the standard English translation."
-- Anthony Hughes, Times Literary Supplement
"A new and valuable resource which immediately relegates to the category of a curiosity Rykwert's earlier republication of James Leoni's translation.... Now all those involved with architecture... can listen to Alberti and find that be has much to say that will interest them."
-- John Onians, Building Design
"This English edition surpasses the earlier one in a number of significant ways.... It will no doubt soon find a place on all architectural reading lists, and deservedly so."
-- Paul Davies, Art History
See all Editorial Reviews
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