NEXUS NETWORK JOURNAL – VOL. 8, NO. 2, 2006 111 Book Review Branko Mitrović Serene Greed of the Eye: Leon Battista Alberti and the Philosophical Foundation of Renaissance Architectural Theory (Munich, Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2005) Reviewed by Kim Williams Via Cavour, 8 10123 Turin (Torino) Italy kwilliams@kimwilliamsbooks.com keywords: Leon Battista Alberti, Renaissance architectural theory, perspective, Scholastic philosophy, homogeneity of space, Humanism, Aristotelian philosophy, anthropomorphism, Daniele Barbaro After his previous book, Learning from Palladio (reviewed in the Nexus Network Journal vol. 7 no. 1), Branko Mitrović has turned his powerful attention to the more difficult Leon Battisti Alberti. Serene Greed of the Eye aims at a new understanding of the concepts presented in De re aedificatoria through the examination of Alberti’s background in Scholastic Aristotelianism. What emerges represents a substantial shift in the usual interpretation of Alberti’s treatise of architecture. What also emerges, however, is a polemic on the methods and rationalizations of architecture history itself. As he did in Learning from Palladio, Mitrović opens his examination of the subject with a clear exposition of his methods and aims. First of all, the aim of this book is “the reconstruction of the argumentational framework underlying [Alberti’s] theoretical system” (p. 17). This goes beyond the usual examination of terms, words and single concepts that are the usual focus of Alberti studies. If we think of Alberti’s treatise as a heavily-laden fruit tree, we might say that while most scholars examine the fruit, Mitrović examines the tree itself, from which the fruit not merely hangs but draws its vitality. The tree in this case is the Aristotelian philosophy of Alberti’s time. But somewhat surprisingly, Mitrović argues that while the tree is Aristotelian, the fruit is not necessarily so, and to demonstrate this convincingly he contrasts Alberti’s ideas with those of the more orthodox Aristotelian Daniele Barbaro. Once again Mitrović raises the question of whether architectural theory is concerned with the issue of meaning, or content, which can be verbally described, or the issue of form, which is visual. (The books title obliquely refers to Alberti’s preference for the visual. When I queried Prof. Mitrović about the meaning of the Nexus Network Journal 8 (2006) 111-114 1590-5896/06/020111-4 DOI 10.1007/s00004-006-0023-9 © 2006 Kim Williams Books, Firenze