Filarete’s Libro and Memoria: The Archive within a Book

Abstract The first illustrated manuscript on architecture was produced in the fifteenth century by a sculptor turned architect, known as Filarete (1400–1469). Written as a dialogical narrative, taking place between a patron and his architect, the treatise’s pedagogical tone unfolds as a form of storytelling about the design and construction of an ideal city. Accordingly, the architectural drawings accompanying the text hold a polysemous nature. Disegno constitutes the first step of the design process within the overall narrative, while also providing a visual demonstration of the author’s words. However, the discovery taking place in the story of an illustrated ancient codex – memoria – suggests another way to interpret the architect’s intentions. The literary maneuver of inserting a book within another book and the intertwined nature of word and image allow Filarete to use his Libro to document his accomplishments and the wonders he could build with the support of a devoted patron. Under the semblance of suggesting to his patron to construct a memoria of his buildings, Filarete curates his Libro in the form of an archive, through which, ideologically, he can leave his own name to posterity as an architect.