The Transformation of Buildings

AUTHOR'S PREFACE: The purpose of this richly illustrated essay is to call attention to important historical, economic, and political trends that may be said to have been germinal elements in the formation of a new kind of architecture and a new kind of city. Although it was not written to serve as a textbook, its new ideas may prove useful in providing a more meaningful setting for a wide range of "Renaissance" studies. It addresses the question of when the Renaissance began (around 1300), and outlines the conditions imposed by the gradual failure of the medieval cities. These and later trends are illustrated by specific historical examples, and by references to specific buildings and their architects with surmounting but not exclusive attention to Florence. The book is intended to give readers a new perspective on the evolution and character of Renaissance architecture and of the Renaissance city in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.