A Renaissance Architecture of Power. Princely Palaces in the Italian Quattrocento

The subject of the book are the Italian princely palaces of the early Renaissance, that is the palaces built or rebuilt by most of Italian lords during the XVth century in order to endow their families with prestigious residences fit for dynasties of sovereign rank. Despite its importance in the history of Italian Renaissance architecture (and more generally culture), this theme has never been studied in its globality. Through the discussion of a rich survey of case-studies, the intention is to tackle the question of the gradual development of a new architectural language inspired by Antiquity, that circulated among different Italian courts thanks to the establishment of new ‘classical’ standards, unanimously recognized, even if often thoroughly re-elaborated at local level. Another issue to discuss is the relationship between the construction of princely palaces on one hand and the growth of courts as privileged centres of power on the other: to what extent could the palaces become a reference point, also in terms of identity, for the members of the aristocratic society? How much their construction changed the public image of the sovereign on one hand, the customs of sociability of local élites on the other? And to what extent those factors affected the urban image, and the actual features, of the capital cities in which the palaces were built? The purpose of the book is twofold: first of all, it aims to fill an historiographical (and publishing) gap, pointing out the several reasons of interest of one of the main themes of Renaissance civil architecture, up to this very moment inexplicably neglected. Secondly, we would like to show all the potentialities of a comparative approach to the history of architecture, open to the several suggestions coming from other disciplines as history of literature, history of political thought and social history.