Inscribing the Architect: The Depiction of the Attributes of the Architect in Frontispieces to Sixteenth Century Italian Architectural Treatises.

This study investigates the changing understanding of the role of the ‘architect ’ in Italy during the sixteenth century by examining frontispieces to published architectural treatises. From analysis of these illustrations four attributes emerge as important to new societal understandings of the role of ‘architect. ’ The first attribute is the desire to delineate the boundaries of knowledge for architecture as a discipline, relevant to sixteenth-century society. The second is the depiction of the ‘architect, ’ as an intellectual engaged in the resolution of practical, political, economic and philosophical considerations of his practice. The third represents the ‘architect ’ having a specific domain of activity in the design of civic spaces of magnificence not only for patrons but also for the city per se. The fourth represents the ‘architect ’ and society as perceiving a commonality of an architectural role beyond the boundary of individual locations and patrons. Five treatises meet the criteria set for this study: Sebastiano Serlio’s Regole generali di architetura sopra le Cinque maniere de gli edifici cioè, Toscano, Dorico, Ionico