Building Codes in the Architectural Treatise de re Aedificatoria

Building codes in architectural treatises are seldom a source for construction history. The title of The Ten Books of Architecture, written by Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), keeps changing from architecture to the art of building. There is a debate on whether Alberti wrote for engineers or for architects. Most authors neglect professional competition in the Renaissance among artists, patrons, architects, engineers and builders. The architect Giorgio Vasari did not mention Alberti's architectural theory even Alberti is quoted afterwards in many other treatises. In this paper I will present two original documents: a Latin manuscript De architectura at The University of Chicago and an Italian MS Architecttura at Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris. Evidence drawn from both texts will show that building codes and design principles are indeed construction history.