On the Art of Building in Ten Books

De Re Aedificatoria, by Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), was the first modern treatise on the theory and practice of architecture. Its importance for the subsequent history of architecture is incalculable, yet this is the first English translation based on the original, exceptionally eloquent Latin text on which Alberti's reputation as a theorist is founded.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—

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—Joseph Rykwert is Paul Philippe Cret Professor of Architecture Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania.

Neil Leach is an architect and theorist who has taught at a number of institutions worldwide, including the Architectural Association in London, the Dessau Institute Dessau, Germany, and Columbia University. He is the author, editor, or translator of more than a dozen books, including Rethinking Architecture, The Anaesthetics of Architecture (MIT Press, 1999), and Alberti's On the Art of Building in Ten Books (MIT Press 1991).

Robert Tavernor is Professor and Head of Architecture at the University of Bath and a practicing architect. His previous books include a translation (with Joseph Rykwert and Neil Leach) of Alberti's On the Art of Building in Ten Books; and Palladio and Palladianism.