Sforzinda

[2] 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-story structure with a brothel on the bottom and an academy of learning on the higher levels.

In part, the Renaissance humanist interest in classical texts may have stimulated preoccupations with geometry in city layouts, as for example, in Plato's description of Atlantis.

The Renaissance ideal city, implied the centralized power of a prince in its organization, an idea following closely on the heels of Dante’s that "The human race is at its best under a monarch."

Thus, it could be argued that the Renaissance ideal city form was tensioned between the perceived need for a centralized power and the potential reality of tyranny.