Leon battista alberti biography summary

Italian architect and author (1404-1472)

Leon Battista Alberti (Italian:[leˈombatˈtistaalˈbɛrti]; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths.

He is considered the founder of Western cryptography, a claim he shares with Johannes Trithemius.^[1][2]

He is often considered primarily an architect. However, according to James Beck,^[3] "to single out one of Leon Battista's 'fields' over others as somehow functionally independent and self-sufficient is of no help at all to any effort to characterize Alberti's extensive explorations in the fine arts".

Although Alberti is known mostly as an artist, he was also a mathematician and made significant contributions to that field.^[4] Among the most famous buildings he designed are the churches of San Seba