Filarete

Sources suggest that he worked in Florence under the Italian painter, architect, and biographer Lorenzo Ghiberti, who gave him his more famous name “Filarete” which means “a lover of virtue”.

In the mid 15th century, Filarete was expelled from Rome after being accused of attempting to steal the head of John the Baptist and he moved to Venice and then eventually to Milan.

[1] A commission granted by Pope Eugene IV meant that Filarete, over the course of twelve years, cast the bronze central doors for Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, which were completed in 1445.

Some of the surviving sections of the much-rebuilt structure show the Gothic detail of Milan's Quattrocento craft traditions, which are at odds with Filarete's design all'antica or "after the Antique".

The most well known and best preserved copy of the Libro is a profusely illustrated manuscript known as the Codex Magliabechiano (probably drafted c. 1465; now held in the archives of the "Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze".).

[6] Consistent with Quattrocento or fifteenth century notions concerning the talismanic power of geometry and the crucial importance of astrology, Filarete provides, in addition to pragmatic advice on materials, construction, and fortifications, notes on how to propitiate celestial harmony within Sforzinda.

An example of a building that appears in the treatise is Filarete’s House of Vice and Virtue, a ten-storey structure with a brothel on the bottom and an academy of learning on the higher levels.

The treatise gained interest from many important leaders such as Giangaleazzo Sforza and Piero de' Medici and later when Francesco di Giorgio and Leonardo da Vinci began to plan their ideal cities they borrowed ideas from Filarete.

For example, in the 16th century, Renaissance military engineers and architects combined Filarete's ideal city schemes with defensive fortifications deriving from a more sociopolitical agenda.