'Peter Fane-Saunders masters a formidable and important topic with sophistication, erudition, and engaging prose. In offering the first comprehensive analysis of the Italian Renaissance reception of Pliny the Elder's writing on architecture, his book fills a significant gap in our understanding of early modern architecture. It makes a major contribution to our conception of the transmission of ideas from ancient Rome into the European architectural tradition.' Phyllis Goodhart Gordan Prize Award Committee, Renaissance Society of America
1. Pliny the Elder and his place in antique and mediaeval writings on architecture; 2. Initial explorations: Petrarch, the Mirabilia Urbis Romae and Flavio Biondo; 3. The manuscript hunter and the librarian: Poggio Bracciolini and Giovanni Tortelli; 4. A new system: Pomponio Leto and his school; 5. Emerging doubts; 6. Pliny and Leon Battista Alberti: two 'architectural histories'; 7. Pliny, Filarete and the ideal patron of architecture; 8. 'Aldus and his dream book': the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili; 9. A more down-to-earth Pliny; 10. Mixing the traditions: the curious case of Cesare Cesariano; 11. Developments in the Veneto: the Vitruvian commentaries of Daniele Barbaro and I quattro libri by Andrea Palladio; 12. Standing before the marvels: Ciriaco d'Ancona and Pliny's 'Opera mirabilia in terris'; 13. In the mind's eye: drawings of Plinian wonders, from Leonardo to Antonio da Sangallo the Younger; 14. From paper to stone: rebuilding Pliny's architectural marvels; Final thoughts: Pliny's influence on the Renaissance understanding of ancient architecture.