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© Carole Yocum, July 1998 College ofArchitecture McGill University. Montréal
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Architecture in History and Theory. National Ubrary Bibliothèque natiOnale 1+1 of Canada duC8nada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue WeIIingIoI. Ottawa ON K1 A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada
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0-612-50694-0
Canad~ c o n t e n t 5
abstraet
ii prologue iii biography - treatise - milan introduction b e e s - memory virtue self-portraits 10 the dance - antiquity - bees founclations 26 gathering - elements - interment excavations 36 stones books vice -' virtue 46 fantasia - mountains - adam ark the path rooms summit grotta rituals conclusion 88 appendix 94 bibliography 96 • a b s t r a c t
Antonio Averlino, known as Filarete (1 400- 1469). wrote that architecture IS a gestational
process, likening the architeet to the mother and the father as the client. The process reqUires the
architect-mother to Ufantasticare e pensare e rivoltarse/o per la memoria." fermenting ideas and
Incubatlng them in conjunction with one's memory. The intent is to understand mnemonics as a
creatJve operation in Filarete's Trattaro di Archirerwra. A key to thlS lies wrth Filarete's persona1
symbol, the bee. The bee's process of mellification acts as a metaphor of the architect's gestauonal
design. The bee, long utilized as a memorative trope, points towards other memory models created
throughout the treatise, culminating with the design for the House of Vice and Virtue. Dlrecting the
reader and inhabitants of the city in a social narrative, Filarete's architecture reveals the dependence
upon remembrance and VÎrtue for the city's creation and public rituals to sustain its life.
Antonio Averlino, connu sous le nom de Filarete (1400-1469), a écrit que l'archrtecture est
un processus de gestational, comparant l'architecte à la mère, et le père en tant que client. Le
processus exige de la mère d'architecte de ufanrasticare e pensare e rivoltarselo per la memoria," de
fermenter des idées et les incuber en même temps que la mémoire. L'intention est de comprendre la
mémOire comme processus créateur en Filarete's Trattato di Architertura. Un clé a ceCi se trouve
avec le symbole personnel de Filarete, l'abeille. Le processus de 'abeille du mellification agrt en tant
que métaphore de la conception du gestational de l'architecte. l'abeille. longtemps ser d'un trope de
mémorie. se dirige vers d'autres modèles de mémoire créés dans tout le livre. culminant avec la
conception pour la Chambre le Vice et la Vertu. Dirigeant le lecteur et des habitants de la Ville sur
dans un récit social, l'architecture de Filarete indique la dependance le remembrance et la vertu pour
que les rituels de la création et du public de la ville soutiennent sa vie. • • a c k n o w e d 1 e RI e n t s
T 0 Alberto Pérez-Gémez. for his patience and faith during the formulation of the ideas comprislng this
thesis. and his unstated understanding that it may take sorne of us years to find the fortltude and
acumen to open the box of knowledge.
T0 Greg Caicco, for his persistent belief in the keys of memory and guidance in uncovenng the bee of
archrteeture; his enthusiasm and encouragement is gratefully infectious.
T 0 Susie Spurdens. for her kindness in helping the finalization of the thesis proceed smoothly and
easily.
To the Interlibrary Loans Department at the University of Louisville, and thelr Art Library. who
unknowlngly enabled the completion of the work to be realized away from Montréal.
ToTed Bressoud. for his flexible understanding and friendship that facilitated my search to find tJme to
complete the work.
T0 Megan Spriggs. Alice Guess and David Williams. for their crucial moral support. advice and
countless reassurances.
T0 Jerzy Rozenberg. Keith Plymale. and others at the University of Kentucky who guided my first
Investigations into architecture and its poetic content. They initiated the fundamental gestation ofthese
thoughts.
• architecture and the bee 1 acknowledgament. Il • p r o o 1 u e - milan- ln 1446 Francesco Sforza led the March of Ancona through ltalyand narned himself
"Count and Viscount, Lord ofthe Marches." 1 He had aJready, by 1434, acquired the moniker
"GonfaJoniere della Chiesa" from Pope Eugene IV, who approved of Sforza's drive to conquer
various cities and was a powerful condottiere.2 However, when Sforza was evemually able to
take over Milan (with the rronetary assistance of Cosimo d'Medici), his entrance Into the city ln
February of 1450 was under hostile and questionable circumstances.
Arnong the methods to establish his legitimacy to the throne was the forging of a deed
claiming that his father-in-Iaw, the former Visconti duke, had given him power and he went to
the extent of adopting their coat-of-arms. There was much opposition to his claim and it
became necessary to "engineer some semblance of security for the struggling regime... 3
Francesco Filelfo wrote an epic poem on Sforza's deeds, Sforziade, and began a history on hrm.
De vita et rebus gestis Frandsd Sfortiae. The creation of a strong system of diplomatie alliances
also became part of Sforza's regime. Arnong them was France, where he sent diplomats to
reside with Louis Xl beginning in 1460.4 When Christian 1of Denmark visited Francesco's
IG. Mattrngly. "The First Resident Embassies." Speculum. (Cambridge. 1937).431.
2 J. Spencer. "Filarete's Bronze doors at St. Peter's" Collaboration in 'rahan Renaissance Art. (New Haven. 1978). 36. and n. 14. A condottiere was a mercenary soldier that was for hire by other crtres in thelr milrtary reglmes.
3 G. lanzrti. "Patronage and the Production of History: the case of Quattrocento Milan." Patronage. Art and Soaery. ed. F. W. Kent, P. Simons. and J. C. Eade. (New York, 1987).305.
4G. Mattingly. "The First Resident Embassies." 437. • archlt.ctur. and th. b.. 1 prologu. III son Galeazzo in 1474 he was shown the Sforza's collection of relies and valuable items. They • included the body ofa Holy Innocent, the arm of Mary MagdaJene, a tooth of St. Christopher. and sorne of the Virgin's haïr, ail displayed in omamented. gilded reliquaries. 5 ~ vvell, Sforza
developed extensive patronage - "the distribution and manipulation of favors to create a
c1ientele of firm supporters amongst Milanese noble families. n6 Machiavelli writes that
Francesco Sforza's rise to power - from private citizen to prince - was obtained precisely
because he was skilied in arms. 7 He took Fortune by the hand and when she abandoned
him, he was equipped with military preparations and was able to resist adversity in part by
these engineered construetÏons.
- biosra,hx -
By 1451, not long after Sforza took control, Antonio Averlino, known as Filarete, was
at work on various projeets in the city, including the still extant Ospedale Maggiore. Averlino
was bom around 1400 in Florence to Pietro Averlino 8 and nothing is noted about his life until
1433, when it is known he entered Rome, and was present for the May 31st coronation of
Sigismondo. Later in that year he began work on the bronze doors for Old St. Peter's (they
are still intact in the present day St. Peter's and were extensively c1eaned in 1962), obtaining
the commission From Pope Eugene IV. He ran a large bronze foundry in the city and J. R.
5 M. Hollingsworth. Patronage in Renaissance Imly. (London, 1994), 160.
6 G. lanziti. "Patronage and the Production of History," 305.
7 N. Machiavelli. The Prince. C. E. Detmold, trans. (New York, 1965),73.
8 Trouato di architectura. ed. A M. Finoli and L. Grassi. (Milan, 1972), "nota cronologica," Ixxxviii.
• • rchltecture .nd the bee 1 prologue N Spencer speculates that in arder ta have received this large commission, there must have • been sorne strong recomrnendation ta the pope from established, recognized artists, possibly Donatello and Michelozzo. It is conjeetured that these two might have taught the young
Averlino in his years prior ta arriving in Rome.9 It is expeeted tha-t some political relationship
was established for Filarete to have received the work. Regardless, it is known that he and his
studio toiled on the doors for twelve years, until 1445. Spencer construets some other
interesting scenarios involving Filarete's possible travel outside of Rome during this period,
suggesting it as a potentiaJ factor in the length oftirre involved ta complete the project.
!n 1434, Piccinino led anti-papal rebellions in Rome and it is possible Filarete left the
CIty in search of safety, likely moving to Todi. where Sforza was at the time. There is also
evidenee given by some of the content in the doors' images that Filarete may have again left
Rome, this time to Florence. in June to November of 1439. The basis of this supposition is the
depiaion of a group of Greek diplomats in full regaIia on one of the panels. During the before
noted months of 1439, there was a treaty being formed between the Greek and Roman
churches and the c1arity and detail of Filarete's images are convincing enough tO find this
believable.
By 1447, the doors had been completed for two years and there is no evidence of
any other extant work or projeets that could be attributed ta Filarete in Rome. However,
Filarete managed ta remain a topic of discussion by being charged with the theft of the relie
head of St. John the Baptist. He was tortured and then freed (the pope pardoned him) but
9 J. Spencer. "Filarete's bronze doors at St. Peter's." 33.
• • rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 prologu. v 0 expelled from Rome. 1 Filarete apparentJy traveled to Venice, making his way through Rimini, • where he stayed until he rnost likely was expelled with the ether Florentines in December of
1449. 1 f It is not long after that he made his way to Milan. There are various letter5 recording
the possible aetivities and trips outside of Milan by Averlino during these years !2and it is
generally unclear as to where Filarete journeyed after 1464, when power in Milan shifted
from Francesco to his son Galeazzo, but it is known he left around that time. Various
scenarios depiet him travelling to Constantinopie,I3 retuming to Rome, or going back to
Florence, ta work under Piero d'Medici's patronage to whom he ultimately dedicated his
Trattato di Architecttura, written in Milan and originally dedieated ta Francesco Sforza.
- treatise -
The Trattata di Architettura 1 in twenty-four books, relates a narrative dialogue
between a king and his architeet, a work that Filarete suggests be read aloud in several sittings.
115 structure is episodic and fitting to the oral transmission of its ideas in short, evening readings.
It is a traditionaJ relationship of an advisory, tutoriaJ position of a philosopher to king on how to
rule and behave. Seneca's On Clemency, Plutarch's Ta an Untrained Ruler and Aqulnas'
Regimen Principum ail follow this mode!. St. Thomas Aquinas writes. "the founder of a state or
kingdom must mark out the chosen place according to the exigencies of things necessary for
10 TronarD. Unota. cronologica." Ixxxix, and n. 6. 103.
Il M. Sanuto, "Vrta de Duchi di Venezia." Rerum fta/icorum Scriptores. XXii. col. [ 136.
12 TronarD., "nota cronologlca," xc.
t3 E. Legrand. Lettres grecques de Francois Fi/elfe. (Paris, 1892) 120. letter 70.
• • rchltecture .nd the bee 1 prologue VI the perfection ofthe state or kingdom.... These are ... the duties ofa king, in founding a city • or kingdom as derived From a comparison with the creation of the world." 14 Mer a dedication, Filarete opens with the relating of his vie'NS on architecture within the atmosphere
of a dinner party. Architecture is established as deriving from man, and after relating the
process ofdesign as gestational, he goes on to tell ofthe types of buildings 1 continuing through
the materials required - lime, sand, brick, stone, marble, wood - and how to estimate the
number of workers and cost of materials. Book IV focuses the story on the creation of
Sforzinda, a new city in the countryside for Francesco, and its civic buildings. Book XIV begins
the construction of a second city on the water, named Plusiapolis, and its various buJldings and
their social-architectural programs. The final three chapters discuss the aspects required in
learning to draw. An additional chapter, Book XX:V, ends the Magliabecchianus manuscript
(the one dedicated to Piero d'Medici) with a delineation ofvarious Medici buildings in Florence.
My concern is not with the legitimizing nature of Filarete's treatise - it fits convincingly
Into the politicaJ framework of Sforza's Milan, and likely reinforced ft - but with the method and
philosophy from which Filarete structured the narrative. It would be naive for us to believe in
slmply answering the questions about the Trattato by neatly including it among the production
of Sforza's "historiography". The work extends beyond this equation of patron - architect to an
engaging personal philosophy of architecture's modes. What does it provide us, as readers.
with in a civic and public regard, as weil as in a personal manner? And how does this
Renaissance architect answer these questions? Filarete introduces the treatise to his patron
by saying: "Come si sia, piglia/a. non come da Vitruvio, né dalli a/tri degni architetti, ma come da/
14 St. Thomas Aquinas. De Regimine Prindpumi, p. 97, trans. G. B. Philan. (Toronto (935). For the herltage of the prince-philosopher relationship 1 owe S. Lang. "Sforzinda, Filarete and Filelfo," Journal of rhe vVarburg and Courtauld Institute. 19n. See n. 29, 394.
• • rchlt.ctur••nd th. b•• 1 prologue VII tua ff/areto architetto Antonio Averfino fiorentino. ,,15 His self given name ff/areco, from the Greek • fil and arete, means "lover of virtue". distinguishing himself from other architeets, even Vitruvius, with this term, and guiding his architecture and staries for the city with this individual
ideology.
15 Trattato. f. 1r., 5. See aise n.I, 5. Trearise, 3...Such as it is take Ît as not written by ViUUVIUS nor by other IMJrthy architeets, but by your Filareto architeet Antonio Averfino, the Florentine."
• archlt.ctur. and th. b.. , prologu. VIII • n t r o d u c t o n
figure 1. Initial fetter "E", (rom Codex Trivulzio (destroyed 1944).
• architecture and the bee 1 introduction • i ft t r o d u c t i o n
- becs - mcmoa - yjduc -
'We ought to imitate bees, as they say, which ffy about and gather [trom] fiowers suitable for
making honey, and then arrange and sort inta their ceJls '.4A1ate'er nectars they have col/eaed. " 1
The rnedieval author, in depieting hirnself, would use a common trope of assuming the
role of a reader of an old book, or listening to an old story in the telling of their own narrative.
Another commonplace was to represent oneself as a bee. Mary Carruthers, ln her work The
Book of Memory, broaches this topic by bringing the reader to Seneca's above quote
concerning the imitation of bees. Elaborating on this metaphor, she writes, "composition
begins in reading, culled, gathered, and laid away distinetively in separate places, 'for such
things are better retained ifthey are kept separate', then, using our own talent and faculties,
we blend their variety into one savour which, even if it is still apparent whence it was derived,
will yet be something different from its source...2 This blending of flavors speaks direetly ta the
role of the architeet in Filarete's Trattato di Architettura. An early Renaissance treatise on the
art of building, Filarete's work rernains a produet of a medieval sensibility in his choice of its
metaphors, but the deve[opment of these is truly representative of the Renaissance architea's
1 Seneca. Epistulae morales. Ed. L. O. Reynolds. (Oxford: Claredon Press) 1965. Quote (rom p. 84, translated by M. Carruthers, The Book. ofMemory. (Cambridge University Press, 1990), 192. d., n. 7, p. 335.
2 M. Carruthers. The Book o(Memory. r92. Seneca: Mut etiam si apparuerit unde sumptum sir, aluid tamen esse quam unde sumptum est appareat."
• .rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 Introduction 2 ideas on making the world around them. 3 The trope of the bee is mentioned only briefly
• within the treatise itself,4 however. Filarete's personal identification with this symbol is not to be overlooked as an impetus in his formulation of architecture. Bee symbolism from ancient
and classical writers to medieval and Renaissance works is weil documented as a weil
rounded symbol. S ln 1464, Filarete composed a self-portrait medal depieting himself with
bees ftying about his head, and on the verso, working at a tree filled with honeycomb. The
bees' connection ta Filarete as his own sort of coat-of-arms creates a symbolic, emblematic
motto. The complexity infused into the bee trope that has emerged from my investigation for
this essay has appeared ta be critical to penetrate FiJarete's treatise and his proposais for the
raie of architecture in society. Filarete's simple choice ofa bee as a single symbolic image leads
us direetJy to the key issues of his own moral outlook: memory and virtue.
While discussing the conception of a building, Filarete states in his Trattaw that the
archltea's role is to "fantasticare e pensare e rivo1carse1o per fa memoria. .,6 Architeaure IS
designated as a manipulation of one's fantasia, our imagination. and the architea must revolve
these creations over in his memory. allowing the ideas to ferment and gestate. Filarete ties the
realm of memory direetly to the aet of composition - it is an incubation. The building itself
3 The treatise has been traditlonaJly disregarded as a meandering and unclear worl<. with most CritlCS mtroduCing the project with an apology for Filarete. Georgio Vasari charaeterized it as "full of foolishness wlth some good things in it." Vite. ed. G. Milanesi. (Florence. 1878), 461.
of Bees are included in the design of the statue of Virtue (f. 142 v,), the foundatlon ceremony (f. 26 r.). and the story of Aristeus and the bees is told near the end of the treatise (f. 152 v.).
5 T. M. Greene. The Ught in Troy. 72-80.
6 Tratrato di Architettura. L. Grassi. editor. f. 7v.. 40. The English translation by J. Spencer essentiaJly omits the word 'memoria', saying that "he shoufd dream about his conception, thin 1< about it and turn ie over in his mind in many 'M1ys," 15.
• archlt.ctur. and th. b.. 1 Introduction 3 becomes a manifestation of the memory. combined with the imaginations of the present, • creating a harmony that is an "echo of the celestial and universally valid harrnony. ,,7 As the bee combines different nectars into a whole, architecture becomes a thick f1esh ofthe worfd.
The relationship ofbees and rnemory to Filarete's architecture is suggested by a largely
unmentioned drawing in the little cited Trivu/zio manuscript in MiJan. 8 M. L. O'Ancona's
article "II 'S. Sebastiano' di Vienna: Mantegna e Filarete" reproduces an image from the
prologue of this manuscript. We see the illustrated initial "E" (figure 1) with what appears to
be a self-portrait of Filarete and below him, a scribe working on a book. O'Ancona suggests
thlS is the golden book ofthe treatise,9 which is inscribed "Memor;o InteJ/etto Ingegno. "ID Flying
around Filarete's head, under the scribe's chair, and through the decorative. trailing illustration,
are bees. Memory aets a creative force for Filarete, in an engaging variation of the growing
Renaissance use of mnemonics to explicate architecture's social and personal function. The
memory system employed by Filarete operates through the narrative dialogue as both a
reading process, and as a participatory act.
J. R. Spencer's translation of the treatise dismisses the fantastical creations woven
through the tex! as peripheraJ matter - "the f1ights of fancy. the allegorical conundrums, and the
7 R. Wrttkower. Architectural Principfes in the Age of Humanism. 01'1. W. Norton & Co.. 1971). 8.
8 See Nappendix", which contains a 'famiJy-tree' of the manuscnpts. The most commonly referenced one is the Magliabecchianus. from which the English translation by Spencer is denved. The Trivulzio manuscript was destroyed in the tire bombings of Milan during VvWII.
9 The golden book. discussed further in the following chapters. IS a book discovered by workers excavatlng for the building of Filarete's city_ft is an 'ancient' text that Filarete relies on for gUidance in deSign wtthin the Iast sections of his narrative.
10 D'Ancono. Nil 'S. Sebastiano' di Vienna: Mantegna e Filarete." Arte Lombardo (Milan. 1972). The Image IS also reproduced in M. Lazzaroni and A Munoz. Filareee, scuftore e architetto. (Rome. 1908). 238. fig. 113.
• architecture and the bee 1 Introduction 4 digressions - tend to obscure the true aim of Filarete's treatise." 11 However, Filarete's treatise • extends beyond this reading of the manuscript as a prescriptive outline. It is precisely through these fantasia that the "true aim" of Filarete becomes apparent. This thesis intends to reveal
Filarete's treatise structure, a narrative dependent upon these fantasia, to be a personal
interpretation of the memory arts influence. The aim of his architecture becomes the making
of an all-encompassing site for an understanding ofthe world and our place within it.
The memory arts tradition has a long and diverse history as a means to memorize
significant details and universal precepts through the use of 'places', foci. and 'images'.
Simonides is the man credited with the invention of the art around 500 B.e. Mer singing a
poem at a banquet for a nobleman in Thessaly, Simonides was told that he would only be paid
half of his fee because he had included a praise to Castor and Pollux in the lyric. A bit later,
Simonldes was called outside to meet!wo men (Castor and Pollux, no doubt). However, no
one was present, and while he was outside, the building collapsed, killing everyone inslde.
The bodies were unrecognizable, but Simonides, the only survivor, was able to identify ail the
bodies by remembering where they had been sitting around the banquet table. Simonides
realizes the importance of an orderly placing ofthings for a goocf mernory and is credited with
Inventing the art. 12 Mnemosyne. the goddess of mernory, is the rnother ofthe Muses, and this
faa alone transmits the art-of-memory into ail the arts. establishing a labyrinthine and at times
fleetmg world that this basic human aetivity encompasses.
The many facets taken on by the art and expounded by Filarete 's narrative is my
11 Treatise on Architecture. J. R. Spencer, trans. p xix. The 'true aim' according to Spencer is the
"exposition of the 'new' architecture, ft and a denouncement of anything Gothie. (xix-xx).
12 F. Yates. The An ofMemory. (Chicago. 1966). 1-2.
• .,chUecture .nd the bee Introduction 5 1 exploration, and it is my contention to establish it as an important underlying structure for the • treatise. By tracing the development of the memory arts from the c1assical tradition to its various permutations in the medieval learning circles and ensuing appropriation into the
Renaissance culture. Filarete's treatise will emerge as another variation of this evolution, amid
what is an ever increasing array of rremory treatises. 13
Spencer's translation and introduetory analysis also seems to overlook another
predominant interest of the Renaissance, the authority of the ancients. By delegating its
Frequent references as a play to "doak the practice of architecture with enough erudition ta
make it one of the liberaJ arts," 14 he ignores the increasing prominence given to antiquity and
its constant invocation duringthis time. Instead, the overall structure ofthese "digressions" and
entertaining narratives provide us with a sense of the scope in Renaissance memory
enaetment, and of the art of remembering weil to establish a proper and intluentiaJ kingdom.
It is valuable to remember the trouble ta which Francesco Sforza, the new, self-appointed
duke to Milan went ta in order to do this very thlng. It is the prevalent fascination with a past
culture and its dependence on a creative rnemory that is cultivated in Filarete 's writing.
The etymologicaJ root of memory has been traced back ta the two-/etter construaion.
mr, and linked to the phrase "head-waters" .15 As weil, it is connected ta respiration and
circulation, a concentrated breath that grounds us. Works to be discussed in this essay Involve
13 Yates. The An ofMemory, l 05. The number of memory treatises Încreases so much that there are too many for her to discuss. See n. l, r05. There is a complexity to the memory tradition that develops ln the Renaissance which Yates in intent on drawing out.
14 Treatise. Introduction, xx.
15 C. Dunne. "The Roots of Memory." Spring (Dallas, 1988), 1J 7-18.
• .rchltecture .nd the bee 1 Introduction 6 mainly Cicero and Quintillian, writers of memory technique as a tool for dassical rhetoric. • Admitting this phrase "head-waters" and realizing the fluid nature of memory, we will benefit by addressing the topic through Hugh of St. Victor, Ramon Lull, St. Thomas Aquinas and
A1bertus Magnus, proponents of the use of merrory in religious medievaJ scholasticism. We
will begin ta see the transformation the art took and its deep, thick center into which the
imagination could expand. In a study of this scale 1do not intend to evaluate the writings of
each one ofthese works in depth, but hope to outline an established tradition of mnemonlcs,
rendering a foundation within which the work of Filarete may be investigated. It is my
Intention to form an assembly of mnemonic models which Filarete and the early Renaissance
ingested. 1do not feel it is possible to make concrete historical suppositions over where and
when Filarete may have absorbed such rnaterial but can only ask the reader to accept that the
atmosphere was extant. My work depends to a great extent on the scholarshi p of Frances
Yates' The Art ofMemory, specifically her discussion of Ramon LuI! and the c1assical beginnings
of the art in the area of rhetoric. and the initial uses of architecture as its site of study. As weil. 1
am indebted to the work of Mary Carruthers in The Book ofMemory , on the art of memory in
the Middle Ages, that establishes a c1ear link between scholarship, memory and virtue. My
approach is in the interest of architecture and in exploring one of its varied expressions ln the
Renaissance. The hope is ta understand how the architecture of Filarete. 50 often pushed
aSlde ln historical studies. was actually tied to the center of îts world through links made with
perhaps a less understood area of influence upon fifteenth century architecture and
humanism.
The essay that follows will trace Filarete's use of symbols, emblematic devices, and
metaphoric tropes, and their interaction with the architecture, depieted by written imagery
• .rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 Introduction 7 and visuaJ drawings. The intent is to place emphasis uJX)n the culmination ofthese concepts in • his ambitious proJeet of the House of Vice and Virtue. A/so central ta this remaking, is the excavated golden bCXJk of Filarete's narrative, from which we hear the author retell the story
of a former city on the exact site that Filarete intends to build the city Plusiapolis for the duke
Sforza. Other scholarship done on Filarete regarding his early work on the dCXJrs for Old St.
Peter's; his possible sources for design; and the various translations of the Trattato will also be
dlscussed in light of my argument ofthe significance of mnerronics in his archileauraJ wori<.
"É impossible a dare a intendere queste case dello edificare se non si vede disegnato. e neJ disegno
ancora é diffidle a 'ntendere il disegno, perche é maggiore fatica a 'ntendere il disegno che non é il
disegnare. n 16
With this remark to the prince who asks to learn about architecture. Filarete says It is
impossible to understand the building if you don't see the drawing. and the design itself is
difficult to understand if you have not made it yourself. The architecture that Filarete descnbes
c10sely follows this explanation. The buildings are 50 intricately described it is difficult to grasp
them fully and the drawings lend insight, further adding to the detailed information given about
the design. Filarete continually expresses to the king in his treatise that he wishes to describe
the design briefly, and then, when it is completed, the king will see and understand
completely. In this sort of reasoning by Filarete. 1suggest that the architecture he intends 15
one that necessitates a personal interaction precisely through the use of memory. The
meuculous descriptions inscribe an order that strives ta be universal, requiring a personal
interpretation in a memorab/e rnanner with these figures.
16 Trattato. f. 138r.
• architecture and the bee 1 Introduction 8 P-s weil, this issue of memory is linked to the morality of man, and 1believe becorœs a • motivating force in Filarete's architeaure, stressing the importance of v;rtù. The points that Filarete builds upon revolve around virtù and imagination - his fantasia - in the aet of building,
an action that ultimately is linked to memory. Filarete associates the Greek term arete to his
own work - the designs of the architea - and the Latin virtù to the social program ofthe built
work and the virtue of the citizens and the virtue of the king. He acknowledges the role of
the architeet as someone distinct, with his own realm of virtuous aets. Filarete is someone
who blends the responsibilities and requirements of the varying aspects of design - the virtue
of the patron-king acting with prudent industriousness and military strength, as compared to
the ultimate giving over of the architecture to the citizens, called upon to pursue a virtuus life
dependent on knowledge and ritual in Filarete's city. 1will trace the role of these elements
with his architecture and how they may have provided the impetus for him to write the
Trattato. P-s weil, taking lead from the transformations of the memory arts by Aquinas and
Albertus. Filarete's continuai thread of Christian overtones in the work will be grounded. Not
Incongruous asides r nor merely persona! overtures, the making of a city that culminates with
the House of Vice and Virtue, is a complex reaJization of his theories on building. His
architecture is a sacred procedure that puts Forth elements that generate truth and access to
knowledge, divine and secular. "It is not the function of the poet to relate what has
happened, but what can happen." 17
17 Aristotle. Poetics. (Chapel Hill. NC. 1942). 18.
• .rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 Introduction 9 • 2 5 e f p o r t r a t
figure 2. Filarete's signature portrait. bronze doors of St. Peter's. 123 cm x 22 cm, back of the Ieft-hand Ieaf.
• architecture and the bee / self-portrait 10 • s e 1 f p o r t r a i t
- the danc.-
"CETERIS OPER[A]E PRETIUM FUSTUS [ ]MUS VE MIHI HllARJTAS."
This phrase appears on a panel of Filarete's bronze doors for Saint Peter's in Rome.
The panel is an unusual and atypical self-portrait scene, made around 1445. 1 (figure 2) The
Inscription "OPER[A]E PRETIUM" has been translated in two forms: "the price ofthe work" or, "i! is
worthwhile". This phrasing renders the inscription as either "For others. the priee of the
work, the pride orthe 'smoke', but for me joyfulness" or, "To others the pride ofthe 'smoke'
makes it worthwhile, to me it is the joy of it.,,2 The self-portrait depieted is certainly full of joy.
3 Not only IS Filarete depieted. but he is trailed by six named disciples. Behind them is an older
figure riding a donkey, emerging from a gate and carrying a jug of wine. The gate bears the
inscription: "ANTONIUS PETRI DE FLORfNl1A FEOT DIE ULTIMO IULII MCCCXLV .,,4 The disciples are ail
holding hands, wearing work aprons and carrying various tools, in a sort of weaving dance.
Filarete leads the group, and holds an upturned compass inscribing a circle, as they make their
way towards a man seated on a camel. playing reed pipes. Below him, the image bears the
inscription "DROMEDARJUS." Around Filarete's feet it is written: .. ANTONIUS ET DISOPULI MEl."
1 j. R. Spencer. "Filarete. Medallist of the Roman Emperors." Art Bulletin (New York, 1979)
2 C. King. "Filarete's Signature Self-Portrait." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld InstJtutes. (London. 1991). 297. See a/so. n. 5.
3 C. King. "Filarete's Signature Self-Portrait." 297. They are: Angniolus. jacobus. jannellus. Passquinas. lovannes. Varrus Florenti[a]e. See Lazzaroni and Murïoz. 79.
4 The date ofJuly 31st was uncovered in the 1962 c1eaning of the doors.
• • rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 ••If-portrait 1 1 There are twa other inscriptions on this panel and they bear a bit of consideration. • Underneath the donkey we find the letters "APO a" that have been interpreted as "APO(5TOlQ CJ[VITATE]" - "in the city of the Apostle.,,5 W. von Oettingen, in his study on the treatise,
apparently was generally confounded at this inscription6 and agreeably, it is difficult to make
clear sense of this interpretation. Possibly the"APO" can be read as "APO[lOGUS]", meaning
'narrative', rendering the phrase as "the story of the city," which dearly describes the vanous
sciences on the doors. The doors depiet scenes such as Christ enthroned; Pau! candemned
and executed; Mary; and Peter receiving keys From Pope Eugenius, the foundations of the
Church. In addition, Filarete created four smaJl narrative panels showing Eugenius' pontificate.
It has been suggested that these pietures. inserted into specifie places amid the larger
theologicaJ images 'Nere able to aet as glosses, like illustrations in manuscripts (figures 3.4, S,
6).7 If we consider his self portrait in this rnanner, it appears as a forerunner of the treatise.
Filarete's Trattato can be charaeterized as an evolution cf the 'narrative-portrait' that relates a
contemporary situation side by side with a cJassical scene into one story, carrying a similar vern
of ideas that transpire in the self portrait.
J. R. Seymour begins ta describe the above scene as this: "Representing the master
with his assistants who weave their way in a 'dance of life' away from Intemperance,
symbolized by a figure holding a jug, on an ass."a They mave towards a camel at whose
5 C. King. "Filarete's Signature Self-Portrait. n 297.
6 W. von Oettingen. Quelfenschri(ten für Kunstegeschiete und Kunsnechni/( des Mine/alcers und der Neuze/t- (New York, 1974), 12. See C. King. "Filarete's Signature Portrait", n. 6.
7 C. W, WestfaJl. In rhis Most Perfeet Paradise. (University Park, PA, 1974), 9.
8 C. Seymour. Sculpture in Ira/y, 1400- /500. (Battimore. 1966). 116.
• archlt.ctur. and th. b.. 1 ••If-portra" 1 2 head it reads "PlO VI", translated by M. Lazzaroni and A. Murioz to rnean "in divine wine" ("PlO • VI[NO]").9 Catherine King, in her article on the signature portrait, suggests this is not very
convincing and interprets it as "PIO[RUM] VI[RTUS], If or, the "virtue of the pious." 10 This
connection of virtue to the came1paints a discemable portrait of Filarete, the self-proclairred
'lover of virtue.' The rest of Seymour's depietion pertaining to the carrel strengthens this city-
narrative concept. He says, the figures are approaching "Virtue and Right Judgemem,
symbolrzed, as in medieval bestiaries , by a dromedary." Il This particular slant on the
composition links the issues to the larger body of work and ideas of Filarete. Not only do we
see the early emergence of his ideas on virtue as they pertainto the city. but the narrative
structure of the treatise can be seen as a natural extension and deveJopment of a notion of
story-making in a world increasingly involved in composing an archeology of the past, both
formaIl y and mythically. These crucial elernents are tempered by the use of remembrance
and recollection of the pasto Other images on the doors, specifically the borders, have also
been linked to medieval bestiaries and drôlleries, and it is likely they "conveyed moral
allegories as complicated and pious as the story of Cato and Marcia did to Dante." 12
The dromedary aets as a symbol of piety, a sort of moral emblem to the city. The pig
and an other unidentified animal (a sheep, perhaps) at the camel's feet. along with the ass,
suggest this sort of moral drôllerie. While the came1is curiously related to winged serpents
9 M. Lazzaroni and A Murioz. Filarete scuftDre e architetta dei secolo XV. 79.
10 C. King. "Filarete's Signature Portrait." n. 7, 297.
Il C. Seymour. Sculpture in lea/y. 116.
12 H. Roeder. "Borders of Filarete's bronze doors" Joumaf of the Warburg and Courrauld Institutes. • (London, 1948),1 5 1. .,chlt.clur. and th. b.. 1 ••If-portralt 1 3 (according to the Zohar, the serpent in Eden was a "f1ying camel"), 13 it is also a symbol for
• memory.14 As Mary Carruthers asserts, bestiaries existed in monastic libraries to "provide them, [the monks], with mnemonicaJJy valuable heuristics , orderly "foundations" or sets of
mnemonic lad. n 15 Wrth its natural storage system to carry the essential sustenance of life. and
ability ta maintain i15 strength, the camel easily becomes a metaphor for retention of
knowledge. The use ofanimais in general in mernory training seerns to derive in part from the
Ad Herennium, an anonYrnQus text written in Rome circa 86-82 B.C.E., where the author uses
a ram's testicles as part of an image-making scheme: "And we shaH place the defendant at the
bedside. holding in his right hand a cup. and in his left tablets, and on the fourth finger a ram's
n testicles. 16 As weil, "ifwe wish to recall a horse, a lion, or an eagle, we must place i15 image
in a definite background." 17 During the Middle Ages, animal images were used more
frequentJy in relation to memory techniques: Dominican Hugh of St. Cher used an open-
mouthed bear in depieting a vicious adversary 18; Thomas Bradwardine used the animais
associated with the zodiac; 19 and in the Renaissance, Peter of Ravenna, a 1 5th century
13 The Zohar is a basic source of the Kabbalah. See also. J. E. Ciriot. A Oietionary of Symbo/s. (New
York. J 962). 37.
14 Ibid. 37.
15 Carruthers. The Book. of Memory. 110.
16 [Cicero] Ad Herennium. III. XX. 33. See editor's note 'b' which tells of a nerve which extends from the feurth finger of the Ieft hand te the heart.
f 7 Ibid. III. XVII, 30.
18 The Book. of Memory. 128. • 19 Ibid. 134. archlt.ctur. and th. b.. 1 ••If-portralt 1 4 1awyer, was able to associate any number of animais ta each letter of the alphabet.20 It is the • creation of this 'background', the loci. that becomes the memory-making element, and the essence of this it seems, is in story making. Whether it is the tale ofeach specifie image. or the
narrative of rnoving along the path and seeing a complex of scenes, the /od and story converge
to make the pieces memorable. In the case ofthe bronze doors. the story is contained within
115 images and enclosed by the frame of the doors. The use by Filarete of a camel's retention
of knowledge transports the wisdom from architeet/sculptor into the ritualistic dance and the
public arena ofthe city. The narrative of Filarete and his workers dancing at the completion of
the doors, amid an assortment of animais and music creates a visible and palpable story that
begins to establish a consistency in imagination and philosophy in Filarete's own vision on
remembrance and virtue for a meaningfuJ life in the city.
- antigug -
Aiso included on the bronze doors, amid contemporary scenes of ceremonies are
Christian stories and myths of antiquity, like medieval margina/ia,21 Among them there is
Hercules and the Bull, Cadmus and the Dragon, the Death of Hercules and animal scenes
derived From Aesop, The collage of images hints at the emerging Renaissance equation of
contemporary authority paralleling ancient and religious authorities, The borders themselves
seem to function as memorative eues, creating loose correlations to contemporary events a.. ~
20 Ibid. 109. Also, Dominican Cosimo RoseIIi associated an animal to each letter of the alphabet. remembering the word 'air', for example. with a donkey Cosinus), elephant, and rhinoceros. See Yates. r 19.
21 C. Seymour. "Sorne Reflections on Filarete's use of Antique VisuaJ Sources," Arre Lombarda. (Milan. 1973), 37,
• .rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 ••lf-porlr.U 1 5 people, forming the frame of a Renaissance preoccupation with antiquity. The images consist • of not only mytho1ogical scenes, but simple pietures of birds, fruit and ftowers amid large acanthus ornarrentation (figure 4). These are early metaphorical rrotifs, traditionally made to
create rnemorable pages in books 22, and applied in this case to doors for the city, transforming
their relevance into a social and public environment.
Amid the representation of the many Roman emperor medallions there exists a tîmid
self-portrait relief in the doors' border. It shows a young man, resembling Filarete. in a
charaeteristically Roman coin motif (See top edge of figure 4). Spencer has dated it ta pre-
1445 and also attributed a number of aetual coins depieting Roman emperors and classical
stories as being fabricated by Filarete.23 It is frtting ta believe that "Filarete view[ed] such
celebrities not only as figures of historical eminence but also as exemplars of virtue. " 2 4 It
seems this is a modest start of Filarete's ideas on architeeture's relevance for a city. The
creation of!Wo bronze doors plants the seed, perhaps, of the potential of social imagery. The
responsibility of Filarete's designs are expanded and grow. shifting from the pope's Rome to
the laying out of his ideas on a new city for Sforza.
- bees-
The explanation of these two self-portrait inventions leads to a discussion of Filarete 's
22 Carruthers. The Bool< of Memory. 246. "Certain classes of images appear over and over in the margins from the earliest decorated books through hand-painted printed books. These include jeweJs, cOins. bwds, fruit. flowers (sometimes shown with insets sucking their nectar). and scenes of hunting and flShing. bath by animaIs and humans."
23 J. R. Spencer. "Filarete, Medallist of the Roman Emperors." Art Bulletin. (New York. 1979)
24 C. Lord. "Solar 1magery in Filarete's doors to St. Peter's." Gazette des Beoux Arts. (Liechtenstein, 1976). 145.
• .rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 ••lf-portr.U 1 6 25 bronze self-portrait medal (figure 7). Dated to the 1460'5, this design summarizes Filarete '5 • ideology. By probing the metaphor he presents us 1hope to locate a key reading of the Trattato. Imitating an ancient artistry and inserting his own imagination into its mode, Filarete
strives ta show us his desired position of virtuous-architeet. Cyriac d'Ancona searched
antiquity to "wake the dead". He believed that through antiquity his contemporaries would
~recognize their true names" and thus find their true selves. 26 1 believe we can attach a
similar sentiment ta Filarete, in that his ambition strives ta establish an expansion of
architecture, reaching out ta the essences that establish a meaningful life.
The self-portrait sho'NS us a profile of Filarete's head on the front, surrounded by three
bees and the inscription: "ANTONIVSAVERlINVSARCHITECTVS." The verso depiets a man sitting at
a tree with its trunk cut open ta reveal an over-flowing honeycomb that forms a pool of honey
at ilS base. Bees swarm around him as he works at the tree to reveal its richness. The
InscriptJon reads: "vr SOL AVGET APES SIC NOBIS COMMOOA PRINCEPS." The gentle help of the
prince is like the assistance ofthe sun to augment the bees' making of a sweet fruit.
The bee is industrious and selfless and Filarete invokes it as a plea to his patron for
munificence, atone that underlies the whole treatise. Mer a dedicauon to Piero d'MediCJ 2ï
the story begins with Filarete recaJling being at a dinner party where the conversation turned
25 There are two copies of the medaJ. the better of them located at Gablnetto nUmismatlco ln Milan.
26 C. Mitchell. "Archaeology and Romance in Renaissance Poetry." lralian Renaissance Studies. (London, 1960). 470. Quoted from Mehus., Kyraid Anconitani ftenrarium. (Florence. 1742).
27 The treatise was rededicated to Piero in 1464. Although the original tome was written for Francesco Sforza. it is assumed that Filarete rededicated it after leaving Milan. hoplng to obtain work elsewhere. The PaJatinus 141 1 manuscript contains the dedication to Sforza. See n. 5. page 4 ln the • Spencer translation. .rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 ••'f-portr.lt 1 7 to architecture, and there being no other architeets present, he steps forward, saying U Perhaps • you will think me presumptuous for attempting tG tell yeu these modes and measures .. .[but] 1 beg your exceJlency ta be attentive while he listens ta my arguments to the same extent that he
would ifhe had ordered his troops to reconquer and defend one ofhis dearest possessions. .. 28 Not
only does Filarete relate architecture for the patron-king as a action similar to seizing a military
opportunity and appealing to his desire for manly excellence, but, ft is Filarete's hope that the
patron love the architect as his own wife, honoring her and being a devoted mate ta the
work. For the architeet's U kllCMAedge is rare and [she] should be esteemed for it, because ..
.[she] is called noble insofar as [s]he has virtù. .. 29 Obtaining this honor Filarete reaIizes depends
upon the virtuous action by the architeet. However, the architeet's action is as a ~[over of
vlrtue", the arete of goodness and excellence of charaaer. 30 Part of this role involves the
gestation ofthe design idea, like a mother. Since the building is like man according to Filarete.
it also requires a lime of conception and birth.
"" genare dello edifido si è in questa forma: che si come niuno per sé solo non puà generare sanza la donna un a/tIn, cosi eziandio a simi/iwdine 10 edificio per
une solo non puà essere ŒeatO, e come sanza la donna non si pua fare, cosi cdu; che vuo/e edificare bisogna che abbia f'architetto e insieme collui ingenerarlo. e pd f'architetto partorirlo e poi, partito che l'ha, l'architetto viene a essere la madre
d'esso edifido. ... Cosi l'architetto debba nove 0 sene mesi fantasticare e
28 Treatise. f. 1v.-2r., 5. Trattato. 9.
29 Treotise. f. 9r., 18. Trattato, 44. In caJling the architect female 1 am following the metaphor Filarete develops about the mother-father relationship.
30 Oassic Greek. Oictionary. (Chicago, 1962), 100-101.
• archlt.ctur. and th. b.. 1 ••If-portralt 1 8 • pensare e rivoitarseJo per 'a memoria in più modi. "3 J The architeet is entrusted with the life of the prince's kingdom and requires love. Not only
must the prince love the architect as a wife, but the architect must sustain the design with her
own nourishment. Part of this gestation involves meditation and study, another requires
searching out of ail the materials necessary for a successful birth and fostering of the
relatlonship. like someone in love. This metaphor of architecture is also quite alchemical in
tone. "Philosophers contemplating their alchemical works are like a rnother contemplating the
fruit of her womb ... and the art is like the development ofthe embryo and then the child." 32
The work of architecture must be loved and maintained as a body.
The architeet locates a site in the treatise and begins to locate the materials and
Filarete relates this process to us in episodic stories. In locating the site for Sforzinda he tells
the first of many 'adventures'; '" found a gentleman near this valley . .. After vve had dined wtJile
discussing many things, he saw that , wanted to see the valley. .. Since 1desired ta knON off the
good and utility of this valley. 1asked him the name of the river that flo.ved through it. He said
that it was called Sforzindo and the valley was called Inda. ... Then we rode along searchmg it
out and looking at its shape.,,33 ln the self-portrait medal, Filarete depiets an image of the
architeet working at a tree, searching out its own shape and plenitude. He delves imo the
31 Trattata. f. 7v.. 40. Trearise, 15: y The building is conceived in this manner. Smce no one can conceNe by himse/fwithout a 'MJman, by another simile, the bui/ding cannot be conceived by one man a/one. As Ir cannot be done without a IMJman, so he who wishes ta build needs an architeet. He conceives ir with him and then rhe architect cames it. '" Before the architect gives birth he shou/d dream about his conceprion. thinl< about ir. and wm it over in his mind in many 'M:1}'S for seven ta nine months." Spencer does not translate the CruCIal term 'memoria'.
32 G. Roberts. The Mirror of A/chemy. (London, 1994), 22. • 33 Trearise. f. Ilv.-12r., 23. Trattata.53. archlt.ctur. and th. b.. 1 ••If-portralt 1 9 tree with his tools - a symbolic tree-of-life perhaps - to find ail its sweetness. The honeycomb • fills the tree, a microcosm of the worfd and the architeet reveals the nectars hidden within each cel!. The throng of bees f1ying about his head and the tree are like the workers Filarete
mentions - that much depends on good rnaster masons, because ifthey are bad. shame and
damage may come to the projeet. 34 Filarete's excursions describe trips into the countryside,
surveying of land, finding f10wing rivers of crystal water full of fish, crops of grain, wine, oil,
saffron and apples, deer and ail sorts of wood and marble necessary for the buildings. The
hunt too, is a rremory metaphor - Aristotle says that people recolleet from a starting point and
"hunt successively, n and Quintilian relates that a skillful orator knows his memory places in the
same vvay a hunter knows how to track game. 35 The architeet's excursions are quests for
suitable building materia/s, the tirst step of formulating his worthy and noble designs.
Filarete 's procurement and discovery of the fruits of the world, examined with the
image ofthe honey-extraetor on the medal brings us to the bee-trope in rnemory circles. The
bees on the bronze medal "pack close the f10wering honey and swell their cells with nectar
sweet. "36 Quintilian. in his Institutio oratoria, equates the orator, rnaking an eloquent speech
from many different sources to the bee making honey.37 The honey comb is like a book and
each cell a storeroom for knowledge and wisdom. The bee gathers as the architeet similarly
does, and tucks it away into the chambers of her memory. "The search for wisdom is a
34 Treotise. f. Br.. 16. Trattato., 4 r .
35 Institutio oratorio. V, X. 20-22.
36 Vergil. The Aeneid. l. X. 7. • 371nstitutio oratorio. 1. X. 7. archltectur. and th. bee 1 ••If-portralt 2 0 search for the symbols of order that we encounter ... medieval poets and mystics stress the • motive of the hunt... 38 It is important. however, to elaborate on this metaphor of memory and bees. The criticaJ element in the gathering and hunting of various nectars in not that these
pieces are colleaed and repeated by rote or simply displayed. Instead, theyare kept for what
Albertus Magnus caUs 'reminiscence.'39 It is the uinvestigatio" with the memory in a heuristic
rI1.anner. 40 To relate this distinction to the bee-model of mnemonics we must acknowledge
the entirety of the honey-making process r specifically digestion/mellification. The use of a
mnemonic scheme depends upon a transformation ofthe components. Seneca suggests "we
should see to it that whatever we have absorbed should not be allowed ta remain
unchanged, or it will be no part of us. We must digest it; otherwise it will rnerely enter the
memory and not the reasoning power [ingenium]. .. 41 The various substances require
b!ending into a new essence for a rneaningful life.
T. M. Greene writes about the storage of the nectar and its transformation: "We do
not, perhaps cannot, know exaetJy how nectar becomes honey, how food becomes tissues
and blood; analogously the assimilation of our reading is a process not to be codified" and
Seneca's analogies have maintained such a long life simply because he uis taetful enough to
leave a space for an invisible event." 42 1think it is fair to suggest Filarete was aware of the
38 l. Illich. In the Vineyard of the Text. (Chicago, 1993). 31.
39 Albertus Magnus. Liber de memoria et reminescentia. tr. 2, c. 1. (p. 107): [R]eminlscentla nlhll
alrud est nisi Investigatio obliti per memoriam. n See The Book ofMemory. n. 19. 292 .
40 Carruthers. The Book. ofMemory. 20.
4 1 Seneca. Ad Lud/ium. 281 .
42 Greene. The Light in Troy. 74.
• 1 •• .rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. If-portr.1t 2 1 broad range of associations contained in the bee symbol, with Seneca's words having had a • long influence. The issues touched upon by Greene hold great relevance in relation to mellification and architecture. The transformation of substances is intrinsically the magic the
architeet performs in building. ln Delphic beliefs the three fateful sisters known as the Thriae
were also called bees. They lived in a rock cleft of Mt. Parnassus and made wax. "Their
divining could only be relied on when they could feed on 'the sweet food of the gods'; if
honey was denied them, they lost direction and would not speak the truth. "43 The space of
the invisible event is precisely the key of creation, or alchemical transformation of the soul. 44
When Filarete discusses the various modes of explaining his designs no single element carnes
Wlth it the entirety of the project and he repeatedly shifts From verbal description ta drawings
and promises comprehensive understanding upon completion. It is this invisible, digestive.
gestational process that aJlo\NS the true and virtuous, that is, ethicaJly grounded construaion of
architecture to emerge.
43 Quoted from Rykwert. On Adom's House in Porodise. 142. The quote IS from Homer.
44 See T. Burckhardt. "The alchemist. in his dreamlike search. brings to the light of day certain contents of his own soul previously unknown to him. and thus. without consciously intending to do 50. bnngs about a kind of reconciliation between his superlicial, ego-bound. everyday consciousness and the unforrned
(but form seeking) power of [his unconscious]. ft A/chemy. science of the cosmos. sdence of the sout. (London. 1967).8.
• .,chll.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 ••If.portr••t 2 2 •
figure 3. Emperor Sigismund retumirg te Castel SanfAngeb. bronze dool'5 at St. Peter's.
figure 4. Birds and acanthus. borders of the bronze doors at St. Peter's.1eft: Ieaf. bottom rail.
• architecture and the bee 1 self-portrait 23 •
figure S. Detatl d right Ieaf, martyrdom d St. Peter, bronze ctocn ofSt. Peter's.
figure 6. Detail cl rVtt teaf, departure of the Greeks, bronze doors at St. Peter's.
• architecture and the bee 1 self-portrait 24 •
figure 7. Self-portrait medal of Filarete. Gabinetto numismatico, Milan.
• .rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 ••lf-portr.1I 25 • 3 fou nd at ons
figure 8. Initial letter "P", Codex Magliabecchianus, Biblioteca Nazionale. Florence.
• architecture and the bee 1 foundations 26 • f o u n d a t i o n 5
The correlation of memory and cities is told in two stories by Filarete that differ in plot.
but show two sides of the same mernorative 'coin' present in the Renaissance. One tells of
discovering, the unearthing ofa box of relies from 'antiqurty'; the other ofcreating a foundation
box, containing symbolic items gathered together to preserve the memory of the city
Sforzinda. Mer consulting his astrologer for a fortuitous date and hour to lay the tirst stone of
the city, [ Sforza allows Filarete ta forge ahead with the plans and preparations for the
ceremony. It is this gathering ofelements for the foundation of Sforzinda we will examine tirst
(figure 9).
While the elements are intended to substantiate and nurture a virtuous and vital city,
the fad that they are hidden and stowed away inside the body of the building is indicative of
Filarete's preoccupation with memoria and its relation ta the gestation/digestion process.
"Symbolic memory is the process by which man not only repeats his past experience but a/so
reconstruets this experience."2 Consider the words of Hugh of St. Vidor concerning this
procedure: Hugh suggests that we need ta "gather brief and dependable abstraets" in the
"chest of our memory". Later, when required, we will be able to access the combinations
colleeted and "turn [them] over in the mind and regurgitate from the stomach of one's
1 It is determined to be April 15, 1460, 21 minutes after 10:00. See n. 4, 43 in TreatJse and Spencer's article "La Datazione deI Trattato dei Filarete desunto da suo esame interiore." Rivisra d'Arre. (1956).
2 E. Cassirer. An Essay on Man. 57.
• .rchltecture and the bee 1 foundatlona 27 memory to taste them, lest by long inattention to them, they disappear. ,,3 This rnetaphoric
• process a/50 echoes Filarete's sentiments on the gestation period ofthe mother-architeet.4 The components involved in Filarete's ritual reconstruction are a dated marble stone
inscribed with the name of Sforza, the pope and Filarete. In the cornerstone a marble box is
placed, containing lead and bronze effigies of worthy men, vases holding various substances
and a bronze book "dO.te é fatto memaria di tutte le case di questa nostra età e anche degfi
uomini degni da loro fatte. .. 5 Not only does this book have the figures of Vice and Virtue
carved on them, but the other projeets of Filarete are also carved on the box - the Milan
hospital, the Bergame church, and his doors for St. Peters - "the noble things 1have done...6 This
desire for recognition strives ta create a noble soul. Filarete wishes to invent an image of his
noble character that is etemal, in the way that Gad is eternal. Later in the treatise. during the
excavation of items, the king implores Filarete "non guardate a spesa nessuna e a fare case
perpetue, e massime fa memoria. ..7 Filarete wishes to obtain a personal honor, putting his virtue
at his patron's disposaJ, 50 that the king rnay triumph even iffortune does not shine on the city.
ln addition ta the vice / virtue book, Filarete also intends to place inside the box
another book which will contain moral stories, reminiscent of the stories on the dcx:>rs of St.
3 Hugh of St. Victor. Didoscolicon. 94.
.. See 'self portrait' chapter.
5 Traaoeo. f. 2Sr., 103. Treacise, 44: "... in 'Nhich there is 0 book ofbronze containing the record of rhlS our age and the deed ofworthy men."
6 Ibid. f. 25 r.
7 Trattaeo. f. 102r.. 389. Treatise. 179: .. Forgee the expense but build etemal rhings, espeôally the memorial co this f • 1 28 archltectur. and th. b.. foundatlona Peter's as moral - mnemonic eues. The mirroring, or doubling, ofthe 'box' parables in the • treatise rely heavily upon the book-trope. The signiticance of the inclusion of books in the foundation box is not to be overlooked - they are extemal rrernory banks.8 While Filarete's concern with memory and virtue relies upon this sort of gathering and burial of items, we can withness a diferent understanding of these issues for the condottiere turned prince. This exploration of virtue and the prince's architecture is concerned with the discovery / rediscovery of these texts as guides to construeting the city. -elements- "A dty ought ta be like the human body and for this reason it should be fUll of 011 that gives life ta man. .. 9 This describes the vital substances Filarete places inside the cornerstone oox of Sfozinda's first building. Six earthen vases are made and filled with grain, water, wine, milk, ail. and honey. Each has its own generative force and its essence is kept pure inside the building- body. If this precious box of essences, the pith 10 of the construeted body is maintained then the city will be strong and able to aet properly. It is a matter of giving symbolic images the correct, memorable form 50 they have strength. 11 Vases and vessels inherently symbolize a place ta store thing5 to be remembered. The Codex A1exandrinus, a 5th century Greek 8 S. Huot. "rnventiona/ Mnemonics." Connotations. (Munster, Germany. 1993/4). 104. 9 Treatise. f. 25v.. 45. Trattato. 104. la One etymological root of the word memory, (s)mer-, is connected to pith. marrow. and the medulfa. the very 'stuff of life. See C. Ounne. "The Roots of Melnory." Il E.H. Gombrich. "'cones Symbolicae: the visual image in Neo-Platonic thought." journal of the • Warburg and Courrauld Institutes. (London, 1948). • rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 foundation. 29 Bible provides an applicable image ofan empty vase with the words of Gad pouring into it 12 • A full vase symbolizes fertility and is a simile for Filarete of ail that gives life. At Paestum. for example. a small, sealed building / tomb has been found that contained eight bronze amphorae and two bronze hydriae, holding honeycomb, the sweet preservative of life. l3 The first vase of Sforzinda contains grain and the container depiets the portraits of Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, the "three fatal goddesses in whom our life consists, that is one spins. one receives the thread, and the other breaks ie. On the vase nothing is written but these two words, Life and Death, for there is nothing in this vvorId but living and dying. A dty endures for the term conceded ta je. n 14 The next vase contains water, because it is "dean, pure, and dear and very useful ta everyone. If it is not dirtied by other matter, it always dear and ludd. In the same way the inhabitants of the dty should be dear and dean and useful to others. n If this water is dirtied and spoiled by paor actions of the residents, the men themse[ves are defiled and will not be nobly remembered. In its rnost reduced etymological form, 'memory' becomes 'mr' - the letter 'm' n representing "water and the Jetter 1 r', "head". to form an intriguing relationship of memory to the fiowing vitality of life. 15 Water contains everything that was in existence prior tO the materia prima and contains ail wisdom. [t is symbolic of both life and death. the submersion 12 See Carruthers. The Book. ofMemory. n. 64, 345. 13 J. Rykwert. The Idea of a TO'M1. (Cambridge. J 976). 35. See also, on honey as a sacnfiCJaI substance. n. 59. 206. Honey acts as a preservative and was offered to the dead. The souls of the dead were also called bees. See n. 9. On Adam's House in Paradise. 14 Treatise. f. 25v., 45. Trattato. 104. 15 C. Ounne. "The Roots of Memory." 120. For more on water and its symbolic content, see 1. Illich, H20. or the Waters ofForgetfulness. • 30 and interment of death and the birth of the whole world that has sprung from it. and is • symbolized succinetly by baptism. • "Wine 1indude because it is a liquor suited ta the life ofman if used temperate/y. Its excess takes ~ bath feeling and health ." 16 Wine represents blood and sacrifice. "Ali liquid substances ... which were offered up in antiquity ... were images of blood." 17 A5 a symbol of blood. wine a/so elevates man to Gad. acknowfedging the elernent ofthe divine in aH men. On the converse, there is the vase of milk. which "as every man knCMtS, ... is distilled b/ood" 18 It is the basic nourishing element of mankind, and represents the purity that we should pursue, as weil as alluding again to Filarete's basic mother-father relationship ofarchiteaure. 19 The architeet places within the body-child-building the sacrificial blood of birth and the unadulterated blood of nourishment for a purified and virtuous existence. The fifth vase • contaJns oil, which Filarete calls useful and naturally inclined to rise above water. It IS, of course, related to Pallas, the goddess of wisdom, to whom the olive tree is dedicated. "The olive signifies viaory and peace. This great city should have viaory, peace, and. like ail, dominion over thase smaller than itse/f, 'NÏth 'NÏsdom, pleasantness, and in a good manner. ,,20 Lastly. there is the vase of honey, placed in the foundation because it is sweet and the bees are industrious, severe, and just. "They desire and have a lord and ruler over themselves /6 Treatise. f.25v., 45. Trattata, 105. 17 J. E. Cirlot. Dietionary of Symbots. 24. 18 Treatise. f. 25v.. 45. Trarrata. 105. 19 See above. "self-portrait" chapter. • 20 Treatise. f. 25v.. 45. Tfarrata, 105. • rchltecture .nd the b.. 1 found.tlona 3 1 • and they fol/ON ail his commands. Everyone has his task and everyone abeys. When their ru/er • becomes so oId chat he con no longer ffy, through justice and demency chey carry him. Thus shou/d • the men ofthe city be. ... Thus ther fruits INill be sweet and usefiJ/ like those of che bees.,,2 lin Orphie tradition the bees are symbols of wisdom and "the spiritual exercise of self- improvement, "22 and self-improvement depends upon the gathering of knowledge. transforrned into wisdom by the memory. The honey of the bronze jars at Paestum suggest 23 the worship of a dead person. the memory of a saerificed founder. "Thus though a bee IS weak in body, yet it is strang through the power of wisdom and the lover of virtue. "24 It is hoped !hat the city of Sforzinda will be wise and good by remembering these elements placed within its own 'body' and the symbolic burial ofthe ritual within the inhabitants, memory. • ·jnterment. The box of elements buried within the body-building is ceremoniously placed with the digging of three shovels of earth, symbolizing the "three rimes, past, present and future." The aa of burial is deliberate and crucial for the ability ofthe foundation elements to maintain their symbolic and literai power. The enclosure keeps their consummate purity intaa. as a hermetically seaJed sanetuary. Symbolically, theyare buried into the foundation of man, his city 21 Treatise. f. 26r.. 45-6. Trattato. 105. 22 J. E. Griot. Dietionary of Symbols.• 24. 23 RyIGvert. Idea of a To'MI. 35 .. and n. 59. 206. On honeyas a sacrificiaJ food. see Paulys. Real Encydopadie der Kfassichen. Ed. Georg AltertumS'Nissenschaft: new edn.. (Stuttgart: Wissowa) 1894 ff. 24 F. Unterkircher. Tiere, Glaube, Aberglaube: Die Schoensten Minaturen aus dem Bestiarum. (Raz: Akademische Druck und Verlagsanstalt) 1986. Quoted from H. Biederrnan. Dictionary ofSymbofism. (Faas on • File. 1992). 35. .rchll.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 found.tlons 32 • that is built up in the mind. the social memory of a city; the box is contained by her body, the • flesh of the building. Their memory is kept present by the remembrance of the ritual as weil as the visual date on the cornerstone. Every inhabitant that "could see. inscribed on marble or bronze stele. the decrees and oaths .. 25 was connected to the larger sacred city. Ouring the placement of the foundation stone there is an incident involving the death of one of the workers. "During the excavation one ofthe diggers saw a hole near him. With hls shoveJ he lifted a large piece ofearth and d;scovered a den where a large and b€OutifUI serpent was coiled up. ... The serpent wrapped itseff around h;s neck. and squeezed 50 hard that it rook his lire ... 26 The death ofthis man provides a sort of necessary sacrifice to the work and a1lows the prudence and wisdom to prevail over anger. -The killing ofthe man ;s chis: someone will come as a beast to the dty and without r€oson. will wish ta do it harm. and it will turn on him in its (ury. kill him and undo him. It then will retire and gCNern itseJfwith prudence and wisdom . .. 27 It imparts the mark of 'tomb' to the foundation stone. Ni a symbolic casket, the box a/so suggests the alchemicaJ opus and the personification of the king and his tomb as a stage of the process. In alchemicaJ theory. the birth ofthe work could not occur unless a death happened first. 28 The Renaissance, and Filarete's treatise on architecture. depends upon these metaphors of resuscitation and the rebirth of antiquity. lt occurs as "no accident that the 2S J. Rykwert. The Ideo ofa TO'MI. 40. 26 Treatise. f. 26v, 47. 27 Treatise. f. 45r, 78. 28 One emblernatic representation of the alchemlcal process involves a series of images of a kIng who is, in one variation. chopped into pieces, buried. and exhumed. becoming whole again. It IS a death that QCcurs in order to retum to basic elements. the prima mat.eria. 50 that a new understanding of the self. and hence the worfd. can be bom. • archltectur. and th. be. 1 foundallon. 33 cultivation of memory received new and careful attention.,,29 1think we can begin to discern • how rnemory is related to virtue in the Renaissance envioenment and operates differentJy from a medieval schoalstic method. ~ a visual mnemonic device, we can imagine the sight of the stone and recall the mornentous start ofthe city, acting as lia complex of symbols; in which the citizen, through a number of bodily exerdses , such as processions, ... [and] sacrifices. identifies himself with his town, with its past and its founders. ,,30 The sight and rernebrance of these items must be done with prudence and wisdom says Filarete, inherently binding this virtuous memory to actions that create a menaingful site for the citizens. ~ the archtieet. Filarete's relationsip to this civic action is removed. He places himself to the side, with the prince and pope at the foundation ceremony; a director and moral conscious of the group. the archltea becomes an assistant. aiding the prince in his own pursuit of establishing a virtuous and solid footing. The interment of the foundation box is a prelude to the resurrection that occurs later in the treatise, when the city of PlusiaJX>Iis is founded from the watery depths of antiquity. 29 Greene. Ught in Troy. 31 . 30 Rykwert. Idea ofa TO'Ml. 189. Rykwert's cencern is te "show the tewn as a total mnemonic symbol." • 1 .rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. found.tlon. 34 • figure 9. Plan of Sforzinda. Codex Magliabecchianus. • architecture and the bee 1 foundations 35 • 5 e x c a v a t o n s figure 10. Tibuma Serpentaria. Codex Magliabecchianus. • architecture and the bee 1 excavations 36 • e x c a y a t i o n s • stones- "We discavered a rather large ship. Its wocxJ WQS as sound as ifit had been there but a short rime." 1 Excavated from the depths of the port of Plusiapolis, an unusually formed boat emerges pristinely preserved, and also is a wooden tomb (figure 10). Called Tiburna Serpentaria, it is as black as coal, a petrified ark, a necromantic allegory of disinterment and rebirth.2 (figure! 1) The formulation ofthe equation between the knowledge of antiquity and the literaJ archaeology of items, a critical propellent of Renaissance imagination, becomes fully realized at the port of Plusiapolis. Filarete shifts our out/oak from the burial and safekeeping of the estimable things of architecture to the excavation of them in order to reveal the opportunities and events that will establish this well-founded city. The exhumed boat contains a wooden chest on its deck that is very heavy and "bound in such a way that no one could see hON ta open it. ,,3 The contents, though solemn in nature, are "noble things" of gold and precious stones and a small gold casket containing a cup of emeraJd carved with figures. One of these figures, a nymph-like creature, holds a unicorn in one hand and a tiger in her other. Around it are written these /etters: "l, Queen Demiramisse. 1 Treatise. f. 157v.. 270. Trattata, 585. 2 Leonardo da Vinci also records a similar event. Noœbooks of Leonardo da Vinci, 1. trans. E. McCurdy (New York. 1938. 356). This story is aise told by Fontius in 1485, about a tomb found on the Via App1a; and ln 1599 the Cardinal of S. Cecilia found a body of St. Cecilia divinely preserved. See F. SaxI. "The C1assicaJ Inscription in Renaissance Art and Politics." Joumal of Warburg and Courtauld Instiwtes. (London. 1941). 3 Treatise. f. 157v.. 270. Trattato. 585. • .rchl••ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 .xc.v.llon. 37 send thee this cup (rom which you will be pleased ta drink.. When you see it, chink. of thy 4 • Oemiramisse... Drinking from the cup of antiqurty is a similar rnetaphor to "eating the book, ft a recommendation given to Ezekial (3 :5). 5 The allusion to a Biblical metaphor of study in the same story of an ancient artifact enfoces Filarete's ideology of blending cJassical and Christian tenents. It r-etums to the mellification / digestion process of learning; by filling our stomach wlth the works ofthe ancients we can satisfy our present needs and was used by medieval scholars as an injunction to memorative study. The understanding that this cup is sorrething seen ta convey its particular narrative is significant as weil, forming a recolleetive impression that IS distlnguished from the ordinary events of life. The marvelousness of this discovery is celebrated by a ceremonious delivery of the boat by river to Sforzinda where it is placed on four columns. decorated with gold and positioned in front of the temple. The entire ship and its box becomes a monument to the former kingdom. Freed from its moorings and uplifted to the sky. it is transformed into a meanlngful, civlc memory. As an architectural element ln Filarete's design, this monument comprises part of the web of memory devices formed ta enable a noble and worthy city. It is an immortal treasure, incorruptible and pure, and its arrangement into the city ensures the retention of its erudition.6 Filarete composes a merrorial ta leave an etemaJ expression of his Renaissance city, exhibiting its scholarship and preeminence among others, a gesture that "' Ibid. 5 See Jerorre. Commentarium ln Ezekial, PaYolagia cursus camplecus. series Latina 00. J.-P. Migne. (Paris. 1841 -64). AIse. Revelation 10:9: MAnd 1 went unte the angel. and said unto him. glve me the little book. And he said unto me, take it, and eat it up." 6 See Hugh of St. Victor, "De Tribus Maximis Circurnstantiis Gestorum." translated by M. Carruthers, "Apr:endix A", The Book. ofMemary, 261. • architecture and the b.. 1 excavation. 38 speaks of the charaeter of the city. For the prince Sforza, however, the establishing of a • memorial to the past conves his prowess as a ruler. Induded in this mesh are the words of the prior city's king, transmitted to Filarete via the other excavation at Plusiapolis - the unearthing of the stone box. ln crafting his narrative, Filarete creates a story of resurrection. During the excavation arrangements for Plusiapolis a stone box is exhumed. It too, carries with it implications of a grave, containing a likeness ofthe former king as part of its contents. As an archaeological find, the disentombment summons together the ancient wisdom and insight Filarete seeks and breaks it out of its vault, giving the past and present a common place of life. A construeted mnemonie device in the story, its items also impart the knowledge Filarete wishes to explicate about building. Digging foundations for a building reveals "a square stone ... almost like a large chest" It 15 written upon with "/ettere antichissime" in Hebrew, Arabie and Greek and the intenor chamber reveals " a smal/ lood box. .. also a large book ofail gold .. .[that] stood on edge. In the remainder of the hal/ON there were two vases of the same meta! as the book. "7 When the lead box is opened a golden head with a crown full of precious stones is discovered. and the rest of the lead box is filled with colored jewels and a green and red cup. eovered in jewels and carved wi~ an image of the king's head. The placement of these items within the interior lead box lends an aura of weightiness to the king's dominion and the authority of his words as a guide to making a city are ta be revealed in the inf1uentiaJ book of gold, a mnemnonie of text and glosses. 7 Tremise. f. IOlr.-IOlv.. 177-78. Trattato. 385-86. • 39 - books - • The book u was made in an unusual manner so that we had considerable difficulty in finding hON to open it. n8 Again. as in the case of the queen's chest, the case is a challenge to unseal. 1believe this speaks to the nature of the allegories about to be revealed - Filarete desires to bestow a virtuous , unbroken relay oftruths to the city from this box, becoming like an oracle. Merrory, however, is Unot just any strongbox or storagechest - it is particularly the one in which bCXJks are kept... 9 The book rtself is a mnemonic mode!, the place where "dicta n et facta memorabilia 10 are kept; wisdom is stored in the archa of the heart says Hugh of St. Victor. Traditionally, books were kept in horizontal cupboards or recesses in the wall and called arca, armarium, or thesauri, and is among the mos! common of memory metaphors. The arca is al50 understood as the Ar!< ofthe Covenant, which is itself a book, and also the Ark of Noah - an arca preserving life itself. See figure 12, where the Ar!< of Noah is represented as a chest with legs and a lid. The metaphor collapses and doubles simultaneously. The story Filarete relates of finding the box and book is not an oddity, but immersed within this cultural reliance on memory, and he reinvents the metaphor as an archaeological discovery. There are countless variations on the discovery of books in temples and libraries. Hugo of Santalla discovered an astronomical treatise in a secret area of a library; Il Lynn Thorndike tells us about a hermetic book found in a golden ark within a silver chest , in turn placed within a 8 Treatise. f. 101 v.. 178. Trattato. 387. 9 Carruthers. The Book ofMemory. 43. 10 Carruthers. The Book ofMemory. 8 11 W. Eamon. Sdence and the Seaets ofNature. (Princeton. 1994). 42. • • rchltecture and the bee 1 excavation. 40 casket of lead; 12 and a complete copy of Quintilian 's Institutio oratore was discovered by • Poggio Bracciolini in 1416 in the depths of a rnonastic tower. 13 "The genre presented seemingly endless variations on a theme involving the discovery of sacred bocks and the revelation of scientific knowledge. ft 14 Peter of Ravenna, a writer of a popular Renaissance book on rnemory, instruets us that a "well-trained rnernory is mast like a book containing both text and glosses. n 15 The golden book of Plusiapolis transmits this two-fold rrerrory (figure 13). "1 King ZogIia, lNhich means in our vulgor tangue 'Nise, rich, trained in many sdences, feave this treasure in your guordionship, F%non and Orbioti. No one 'Nil! ever be able ta touch this treasure unti/ there cornes 0 man who will rise (rom 0 smalf prindpare and through his own virtù acquire a substantiaf kingdom. "16 The book's form is detailed by Filarete. The largest book he has ever seen, the exterior boards were thlck and covered in gold, with the Figures of Will and Reason depieted earlier in the treatlse. on the coyer. The interior pages were "each one-eighth onoa thick . .. engraved [with] vorious morality ffgures 1 n 17 ail explained in detail to Filarete by the interpreter. He "saw and noted Il L Thomdike. The HistDry ofMagic and Experimental Sdence. vol. 2 (New York), 224. 13 P. S. Boskoff. "Quintilian in the Late Middle Ages." Speculum. (Cambridge, 1952). 76. AIse. see Yates. The Art ofMemory. 56. 112. 14 Eamon. Sdence and the Secrets ofNawre. 43. 15 From Carruthers The Book ofMemory. 109. 16 Treatise. f. 103r.. 181. Trattato. 393. See a/sa n.2. 393. on the anagram of Folonon and OrbJati, possibly explained as "Filelfo. Antonin. and Libro" 17 Treatise. f. 109r., 190. Tra uata, 412. • architecture and the bee 1 excavation. 41 carefully everything and made drawings of the appearance of ail [the] buildings. " 1a There seems • to be a general confusion overthe drawing ofthe golden book in the treatise, with "Memoria Ingegno Inte/leta" on its cover, as it is generally identified as the 'found book', but the drawing, placed earlier in the treatise, corresponds to the 'buried book' of Sforzinda. We can assume that these books are simifar in Filarete 's mind, though, given the fact that he develops their essences as one unit - a made book and a found book, both containing the measures and modes of building. There is, ofcourse, also a third book, the treatise rtself, which undoubtedly Filarete hoped would be preserved as nobly as the two inside the story.'9 The engraved pages of the golden book also resurrect the classical memory metaphor of wax tablets: "he wrote down what he wanted to remember in certain places in his possession by means of Images, just as if he were inscribing letters on wax." 20 The rest of Filarete's own book, his treatise, depends upon the exhumed book for the remainder of Plusiapolis' designs. It guides him with foresight and scholarship - revealing sorne truth of the ancient city impressed upon these pages, hoping ta orient man with his architecture. Is it this foresight he hopes to endow to the prince, helping him obtain a strong, virtuous status as ruler? Filarete's intention stated at the beginning of the treatise entails the teachlng of the "modes and measures" of architecture. 21 He creates a complex composition developed from these episodic stories and condenses them into mnemonic images such as these. The 18 Ibid. 19 Reason and Will are original/y designed as a painting te go in the king's council hall. Treatise. f. 69v, 120. Trottato, 265. See "vice / virtue" chapter for more on this image, figure 24. 20 Cicero. De oratore. Il, Ixxxviii. 360. 21 Treatise. f. 1 r., 3. Trattato. 3. "intendere modi et misure dello edificare." • 42 scholarship given ta Filarete from this book is what he hopes ta translate into buildings that will • enable a virtuous citizen. The overall effect is a community comprised of ail the 'parts' that Filarete determines will enable a 'noble' and etemal city. "What people remember is not 'objects'; but inventionally valuable images, consciously set into heuristic schemes. These images result from extemal and intemal sensory traces 'translated' by imagination ...22 • 22 Carruthers. "Inventional Mnemonics" 106. • figure ri. Body of a Roman girl. Ashmole MS., f. 161 v. • figure 12. Noah's Ark, in the shape of a wooden storage chest. From 'The Ashbumham Pentateuch.' • architecture and the bee 1 excavations 44 • figure 13. Golden book, inscribed "Memoria {ngegno {nœ/letD." Codex Magliabecchianus. • architecture and the bee 1 excavations 45 6 • v c e & v r t u e .. . ' .... ~ ",-. -.. figure 15. House ofVœ and Virtue. Codex Magliabecchianus. • 46 • v c e • y i r t u e ln introducing the House of Vice and Virtue to the king, Filarete describes it with a variety of metaphors that need to be traced in order to grasp the breadth of Filarete's intentions. "La mia fantasia" 1 he narnes it, admitting that he thought ofthe scherne some tirne aga, and indicating the importance he places on this building by calling it 'mine'. He solicits the king by asking to be aJlowed ta describe it in the manner of Ovid's House of Sun and of Envy, Statius' House of Mars, and Vergi['s House of S/eep. 2 Vergil's The Aeneid. chapter VI, begins with the story of Daedalus, his escape From the labyrinth and his building of a golden temple atop a hill; The chapter ends with the portrayal of the two gates of Sleep. "One is of Horn / Md spirits of T ruth find easy exit there, / The other is perfeetJy wrought of g/istening Ivory, / But From it the Shades send fa/se drearns up to the world... 3 The construction of these !wo cholces is the basis ofthe building's ideology. The House of Vice and Virtue is also portrayed by Filarete as a mountain: "Oro dira la forma de/la ediffdo come l'ho pensata, benché io l'abia dinanzi in disegno fatta aguisa d'una montagnan4 The description ofthe figures of Virtue and Vice atop the House are named as a 1 Trattato. f. 142 v.. 531. Tra ttarD , 531. w 2 The ltalian for 'sleep' is "sonno , as rt: is written in the TranarD. However, Spencer translates It as 'dreams', which is "sogno". 3 Vergil. The Aeneid, VI, lines 893-99, p. 145. P. Dickinson, tranS, (New York. 1961). 4 Trattato. f. 143 v., 535. Spencers translation, Trearise, 247: "Now 1will tell you what 1have thought about the form of the building, even though 1 said previously 1 had designed rt: in the form of a mountain." • 1 & architecture and th. b.. vice viflu. 47 rnountain too. As noted by Grassi, this description ofthe statues is an a1legory of the whole • building, which is in tum, presented as a microcosm ofthe world. 5 The building is where the seven liberal arts are to be taught, a place where anyone can pursue knowledge and virtue. At the end of the progression through seven components of leaming, one arrives at the apex, at seven bridges, where the student can "go ta a very pleasant, beautiful and deJightfUl place. "6 The purpose of ereeting this structure is the acquisition of virtue and knowledge. that which makes man happy in this life and the Iife hereafter. "There are two things in man through which he acquires renOMl. Generally [he acquires it] on/y through one. but sometimes by both. although the one by which he acquires perfea (ame is unique. This is virtue. This is wnat makes man happy."7 Though no more is mentioned about this beautiful place at the apex, its vague placement atop the House ofVirtue, coupled with the building's description as a mountain is a suggestive association that has not been previouslyexplored. In considering the full breadth of this metaphor. the cohesiveness of Filarete's House of Vice and Virtue cames to light. The building is a spiritual edifice, and envelops Filarete's instructional, sociologicaJ, memorative and ethical concerns in one scheme. The various elements we have traced in the Trattato and Filarete's career are collected and recolleeted into a singly composed idea of architecture. - la mia fantasia - ~av'tCl 5 Trattato. n.l. 534. 6 Treatise. f. 142v.. 246. Trattato, 532. • 7 Ibid. (in Greek). "The imagination makes images, but memory bath puts them away and hauls • them out again, not as "random objects" but as parts of a construction, a network, a web, a texture of associations. ,, 8 Mernory is an "inventional faculty"9 and there is a translation with each recolleetion. When Filarete caUs his designs for the House of Vice and Virtue "fa mia fantasia" there is an awareness of this transformative process. It is an opening remark to his attempts at making dear the idea ofthe building with words and drawings, and is a cognizance of the many faceted existence of architecture and this network of correlations. The fantasia compose FiJarete's character, as a demonstratien of his love for ethical construction. Whife preparing for the king to arrive sa he can explain his designs for Sforzinda. Filarete writes: "'0 che stavo 'stratto e a fantasticare e misurare. ,,1 0 He is inventing and measuring, in a back and forth process of imagining. fantasizing and turning it over, ordering and marking off the architecture in a regular fashion. Filarete is giving a hierarchy ta the built world - an "orderly arrangement [that] is a cJarity of knowledge." Il He lets the king take what he has worked on to look over and read and the rest of the day is spent working and "follONing my fancy." or, "seguire la mia fantasia. ,,12 The explanation of his design for the Houses of Vice and Virtue ln Plusiapolis is aise 8 Carruthers. "Inventional Mnemonics" 106. 9 Ibid. 104. 10 Trattato. f. 46 V., ISO. Treatise, aD. ri Hugh of St. Victor. "De Tribus Maximis Circumstantiis Gestorum.· trans. M. Camrthers. In The Book. of Memory. Appendix A. 261. 12 TrattatD. f. 46 r., 181. Treatise. 81. • .rchltectur. .nd th. b.. 1 vic. & vlrtue 49 introduced as "/a mia fantasia. ,,13 Filarete begins by suggesting, "al/ON me to describe it with • words." He explains he will tell us the whole design and then darify it, point by point. The explication method shifts From a general physical overview of the structure, to its theoreticaJ and philosophical ideas, followed bya specifie discussion of the statues of virtue and vice. He 4 then says, "1 et me arrange the building" r and c1arify everything. The drawings ofthe building's elevation are referenced next, leading us to understand that "arranging", or "vi ordini" the building is an ordering of it through the drawing - a step back to observe and el ucidate the design. He then gives us a description of the interior rooms and t'len finally, the plan. MartIn Kemp touches on this process: "fantasia for Filarete is an all-pervasive factor, embracing every facet in the conception ofa work ofart or architecture." 15 Filarete's transformative description of a projeet. his fantasia, mirrors the transmutation the invention makes through the memory and its aetualization, and important/y [ocating this as the raie ofthe architect. Returning to the notion of memory as an inventional process, invenzione is the unearthing of truth as described by Cicero: "invention is the discovery of things true or probable." 16 N5 the primary source on mnemonics in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Cicero's discussion of invenzione and memory feeds this design process. For our fifteenth century architeet, we can begin ta see the full circle relationship betvveen fantasia, memory, invention and ethics. If memory is an inventional process and invention is a search for truth. 13 Trattata. f. (42v., 531. Trearise, 245. 14 Treatise. f. 143 r., 247. Tratrata, 534: "Egli è (orse il meglio ch';o VI ordim questo edificio, pal agnI casa VI chiariro insieme." 15 M. Kemp. "From Mimesis te Fantasia." 370. • 16 Cicero. De invenzione. 1.7. .rchlt.ctur••nd th. b•• 1 vic. • vlrtue 50 memory readily becomes an ethical act, and performs as the binding element of one's • imagination. This had not escaped the work of St. Thomas Aquinas and A1bertus Magnus who denoted memory as a part of Prudence, one of the four cardinal virtues. The fantasia of Filarete, however, reinvents memory and virtue in regards ta architecture. Rather than a static system, the mnemonic mechanism breathes. The mode of praetice for Filarete is not yet tempered by our own modern predilection for positivistic operations such as the prescriptive blueprints of plan & section, offering a procedure unreferenced ta human conditions and values. With its discursive interpretation, the descnption of Filarete's building occurs in a hermeneutical and poetical rnanner. "The concern here is with ethics, the wall-builder's charaeter, not with reproduction ... [but] with recollection, not with rote. n 17 - the mouotain - The physicaJ description given by Filarete is a difficult ta follow trail of measurements and Filarete himself acknowledges the building is better understood by the drawings. Regarding figure 14, an elevation drawing shows the reetangular base and a circular tower rising above. Of ail the drawings, this one can be interpreted most c10sely to resemble Filarete's idea of the building as mountain. A monumental and oversized structure. the building is firmly planted before us as an axis mundi - the meeting of earth, heaven and hel!. Painting towards a celestial city, the House of Vice and Virtue in the form of a mountain leads us upward in body and spirit. associating this place of education with a temple. This building- 17 Carruthers. 'Ihe Poet as Master Builder." 89 1. • & 5 1 architecture and th. b.. 1 vice vlflue mountain is an earthly manifestation of the city of Gad that is "Iocalized among us in sacred • urban enclosures, primarily the temple and palace, within whose highly wrought premises we fulfill our capacities for craft and art, finding the completion in ritual and worship of our capacity for politics. that is. the life of men in cities. nl8 The symbol of the mountain as a place of connee.tion to heaven is a common idea. Distinct and powerful in its ability to have survived the Flood, it is perhaps the one place that still contains ail that has existed since the expulsion From Eden, and remained untouched. This mountain aets as the center of its own world, its own city. epitomizing the Renaissance microcosmic-macrocosmic understanding of the world. Not only is the entire building a mountain, but the apex, surmounted by the figure of Virtue also stands upon a "mountain. n The House of Virtue becomes the site to ascend to heaven. Mount Zion was traditionaJly thought to be only eighteen miles From heaven 19 and the summit of the House of Virtue IS an attainable pursuit for the city of Plusiapolis as an earth-bound reconstruction of the gate to heaven. A similar construet in essence was the ziggurat - a "symbolic image of the Cosmos, its seven stages represented the seven stages represented the seven planetary spheres: by ascending them, the priest attained to the summit ofthe Universe.n20 This center. this "place in question being a 'sacred space'. consecrated by a hierophany, or ritually constructed [... is] a sacred rnythic geography. n21 Carruthers calls this 18 W. A. McCiung. The Architecture of Earthly Paradise. (Berkeley, 1983). 14. 19 R. Pataj, Man and Temple in AndentJev.ish Myth and Ritual. (London, 1947), 131. 20 M. Eliade. Cosmos and History: the myrh of the eœmal retum. 42. • 21 M. Eliade. Images and Symbols. 39. • rchltectur. and th. b.. 1 vic. & vlrtue 52 kind of ritually constructed place in the imagination "machines for making encydopedic fiction: • churches, monastery buildings of every sort, casties, towers (or strongholds), amphitheaters... 22 Upon ascent to the entrance of Filarete's building, one approaches two doors - Porta Areti and Porta Chachia.23 What awaits inside exists as this encyclopedic experience, a bCXJk of rremory and knowledge fills and comprises the interior. The 5tair inside Porta Areti is seven braccia high and these words are written above the doorway: .. Difficu/ty with joy" and "chis is the path ta acquire virtue with difficulty.,,24 The 5tairs for Vice are steep and have no treads. Above its dCXJrway it is written "pleasure wich pain" and "here enters the troop ofpleasure-seekers 'Nha willlater repent in grief. ..25 - adam- The beginning ofthe treatise sets the complexity of Filarete 's metaphors in motion with the naming ofAdam as the tirst architeet (figure 15): "/t is ta believed chat vvf1en Adam was driven out of Paradise, it was raining. Since he had nothing else at hand to caver [himseJO, he put his hands over his head ta protea himself from the roin. Adam had made 0 roof of his hands 21 Carruthers. ·Poet as Master Builder.· 882. 23 Porta Areri: Gate o(Virtue and Porta Chachia: Gate o(Vice. 24 Trearise. f. 143 V., 247. See also Trattato, 535: "faricG con gaudio" and "questa è la vIa ad andare acquistare la virtù con (arica." 25 1bid. "Piacere con trisrizia" and "qui entrate, brigata, che goderete e poi con di spfocere il piagnerete." • 1 archll.clur. and th. b.. vic. & vlrtu. 53 [and] it seems ta me that he was the first ta invent habitation. "26 • Filarete also references Vitruvius in this explanation of the origin of architecture. Vitruvius clairns the tirst building to be done by men who lived in the forests. making huts and grottes as they could.27 Filarete takes this one step further, by coupling architecture not only to Christianity. but direetJy to the FaU of man and his ensuing need to constantly remake himself in what is now an incomplete world. "As emblem of the condition of fallen or degenerated human nature. architecture is evidence that compatibility with nature - the naturaJ world, and human nature properly understood - has been lost. n 28 Once expelled. Adam makes architecture in an attempt to regain the earthly paradise. 1n contrast. while still in Eden, Adam only "pursues the one acceptable craft of gardening. n 29 While this a reference ta Adam in Milton's Paradise Lost. it raises a relevant issue discussed by Joseph Rykwert in On Adam's House in Paradise. Upon reading Genesis and conjeauring on what eJse must have been in Eden if there was a garden - wine. cups. plates and cupboards - Rykwert wonders about the "implied house n that must have existed. 30 For Filarete this house did not need to exist until 26 Trearise. f. 4v.. p. ro. The ltalian i5 as follows: "Chi (usse il primo che (acesse case e ob,raz/one cerro non abbiomo, ma è da credere che subito che Adamo (u cocciato dal Paradisio, e piovendo e non avendo alrro p,ù pre~c.O ricovero, si misse le mani in capo per difendersi dafl'acque. ... Si che. se cosi fUr è veflSlmiie che Adamo fulle il primo." (Tranata, 23-24) 27 Vrtruvius. The Ten Books on Architecture. Book Il. chapter 1. While the origin of archrtecture slmilarly comes from a specifie need - protection from rain - the origin of architecture for VitruVIUS 15 the discovery of fire. drawing men together into a social. communal setting. and noting thelr upright stature. "gazlng upon the splendour of the starry firmament. and also in being able to do with ease whatever they chose wlth thelr hands and fingers. they began in that tirst assemble to construct shelters." 38. 28 McClung. Architeewre of Paradise. 48. 29 Ibid. 16• 30 J. Rykwert. On Adam's House in Paradise . • • rchlt.ctur. and th. b.. 1 vic. & virtu. 54 after the expulsion. • ln Genesis 2: 15, it is written "the Lord Gad took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it... 31 However, upon the expulsion, this tilling ofthe sail becomes a burden. T 0 till the soil is an analogy for the constant remaking of oneself: "Therefore the Lord Gad sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to til! the ground from which he was taken. "32 Thorns and thistles, however, are ail man is cursed to be able to extraa from the ground and this metaphoricaJ remaking of oneself also becomes conneeted to alchemical processes. Adam and Noah were commonly portrayed as alchemists in fifteenth century :;tories.33 Adam knew the full nature and properties of the world prior to the Fall, and alchemy represents an attempt to defy the now fragmented 1 imperfeet state of man and obtain a wholeness of spirit and souf. 34 Architecture, for Filarete, is born to protect man from the newly hostile world, and becomes the remaking of our new center, our attempt at recreating Eden and in a1chemical terms, as a resurrection of our intact being. This earth-bound, man-made center of rebirth becomes the House of Vice and Virtue in the treatise. Knowledge, obtarned under unethical Clrcumstances in Eden, becomes the path to man's salvation, and the path to a complete existence for the citizens of Sforzinda and Plusiapolis. Under the conditions that it is remembered weil and properly. knowledge allows one to reach the mountain top and reside 31 Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version. &. 32 1bid. Genesis 3:23. Genesis 17-18 says "Cursed is the ground because of you; ln torl you shall eat of ft all the days of your Iife; thorns and thistles it shaJJ bring forth to you." 33 G. Roberts. The Mi"or ofA/chemy. (London. 1994), 20. • 34 See T. Burckhardt. A/chemy: sdence ofthe cosmos. sdence ofthe saul. archltectur. and the bee 1 vice & vlrtue 55 • with Virtue. - the am- Another use ofthe mountain - as - center symbolism cames with Hugh of St. Victor, in his work De Arca Noe Mystica (1 129-30).35 He describes a drawing (now lost. if it ever existed) of the ark of Noah sited at the center of a map of the world. This ark contains the personification of vices and virtues, representing the four stages of Hugh's "rnystic quest", or path to wisdom. While there are other aspects ofthis schema ta be discussed later, of interest to us presently is the sequential nature of the imagery and the form of the ark itself. The construction of this dravving has been shown to be an extension of the traditional art of memory.36 It transforrns the art ofthe ancient rhetorician in a manner which personalizes it to Hugh 's religious training. 37 Wisdom becomes the object of the art of memory rather than rhetoric, and the use of the vices and virtues in conjunction with a memory device foreshadows the later medieval emphasis of A1bertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas on memory as a Christian attribute. Remembering weil, is "to impress wisdom on the mind [and] to partîcipate in the goodness. immortality and incorruptibility ofWisdom. "38 The four stages of the quest described by Hugh each have three degrees or steps. These steps are each represented by a ladder and atop the ark is the final stage of "union", 35 Zinn. "Mandala Symbolism" Hisr.ory of Religion. (Chicago. 1973), n. 11. 36 See G. Zinn's scholarship in MHugh of St. Victor an the Art of Merrory" 37 Zinn. MHugh of Saint Victor and the Art of Memory." 38 Ibid. 216. • archlt.ctur. and th. b.. 1 vic. & vlrtue 56 with its three degrees oftemperance , prudence and fortitude. 39 Hugh's students would have • committed this drawing to memory and proceeded to use it in their pursuit of a virtuous and studious life. It is a rnethod for the novices to lead themselves properly through the stages of learning and the use of symbols aet as "agents of transformation. "40 This symbol of the ark, notes Zinn, is made in the form of a truncated pyramid.41 The ark becomes conneeted to two significant mountains: Mt. Sinaï and Mt. Zion. The relationship of Filarete's scheme to this upward progression of learning will be discussed further in the next section. As mentioned previously, Filarete describes the figure of Virtue at the building's summit as a mountain. "1 make t'NO drdes like mountains ... 1thrON on arch from one of the mountains ta the other, through which one con go ta the top ofVirtue [and) the mountains are made Iike stairs", and From these mountains a spring issues forth like Helicon on Mount Parnassus. 42 The association with Mt. Sinai integrates the story of Moses and his ascent to the mountain top to hear the voice of God - a metaphor of magnitude for the reltgious novice who wishes to achieve greatness. As weil, Mt. Zion is the site of the reunification of ail nations after the fragmentation of rnankind from the Fall. Hugh says the 39 Temperance is deplcted by Hugh as the Hebrews at the foot of Mount Sinai; prudence as Moses' ascent ta the mountaintop; and fortitude as Moses' entrance into the cloud of darkness at the summit to recelve God's ward. From Zinn. "Hugh of St. Victor and the Art of Memory." 230. 40 Ibid. 41 De Arca Noe Mystica, IV, PL J 76:686 AB. Hugh refers to it by saYlng, '1his IS the mcuntaln of the house of the Lord established in the top of the mountain. unto which ail natIons flow. and go up from the ark's four comers as from the four quarters of the earth." "Mandala Symbolism." n. 13. See aise lsaiah 14: 13. The truncated pyramid - mountain image of the ar1< is also present in Ghiberti's bronze doors ln Florence, where Noah's ark is represented as a mountain. 42 Treatise. f. 145 v., 250. See also TrattatD, 542, specificaJly. note 3, where it is mentioned that Helicon is considered to be the spring of the Muses and Apollo. and Mt. Pamassus the spring of Agamppe and Ippocrene. the church ofthe Musses and Castalia. sacred te the god Pan and the Nymphs. • • rchlt.ctur. and th. b•• 1 vic. & vlrtu. 57 contemplative quest is like lia building, a house. a d'Nelling for Gad." 43 ln Filarete, we see the • quest for virtue also acting as the spiritual rrountain center of reunifieation. What we find in the treatise. though. is not a medieval contemplation of Gad solely through an iconographie drawing kept in the memory. The citizens of Plusiapolis are not religious novices dedicated to a life of solitary study, but are instead. pursuing this in an interaaive site of merchants, craftsmen. and public ceremonies. Rather than an inward retreat, the Renaissance city splays open the hermetic cell. Ivan Illich expands this contemplative role of the medieval ark-schema: "Hugh's moral and spiritual Arl< of Noah is more than a mnerrotechnic palace with biblical features. The ark stands for a social emity. a process that begins with creation and continues to the end of time. n44 1 think this representation of the ark as a broad-reaching entity may exist in the mind of the medieval scholar, but with the late quattrocento architect. it escapes this boundary and with Filarete's design transmutes into an aaualized, physical existence. It allows for a social ritual through its culmination. There is an intent for Filarete's drawing ta be construeted. and for the ascent to the mountain top to be aaualized as a public rite. The schema is. rather than solely refleaive, one experienced wholly with the body in virtuous study and ethical action. This is a pivotai difference in regards to how the use of memory and virtue adapted and in this case, was engaged through the experience of the built edifice. 45 There are other uses of the 43 Zinn. "Mandala." 334. 44 1. Illich. In the Vineyard of the Text. 46. 45 Illich says of Hugh: NFrom 1150 on, new artificiaI finding devices provide some of the key rnetaphors according to which the mechanics of memory and the rnetaphors for its training are devised. ... Ali this gives ta Hugh's two mnemontechnic treatises ... exceptionaI importance." ln the Vineyard of the Text. 45. • architecture and the be. 1 vice &. vlrtue 58 mnemonic 'ark' rnetaphor already discussed in the chapter on excavations that apply here as • weil. In a microcosmic relationship, the arca is a memory device to hold books, and the building-mountain enclosing vice and virtue is a larger representation of the arca. It too, is a merrory book open for discovery. "Through wisdom is a house built; and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge shaH the chambers be tilled with ail precious and pleasant riches."46 And for Plusiapolis, through the pursuit of its path shall the city achieve a virtuous and etemal position. - the palb- "Only persans can justly cIaim to be architeets who from boyhood have mounted by the steps of their studies and. being trained generally in the knowledge of arts and sciences, have reached the temple of architecture at the top. n47 The acquisition of this knowledge. wisdom (sapientia) , is a process of discovery in the treatise. The inhabitant of Plusiapolis is able ta approach these steps and work at reaching the rrountain summit and observe the heavens. This is where we again reach the issue of designing a mnemonic structure. a memory scheme withln the intellect versus the actualized building of this edifice in the city. j believe this is the innovative and imaginative faculties of Filarete at work, acting upon bath aspects of writing a text on architecture - that it will be read and remembered as an instructional work. and also hoped that the programs devised will be built. The House ofVice and Virtue intends to allow the city ta obtain and remember wisdom by an actual physical enactment of study. ïhe 46 Proverbs 24 : 3-4. 47 Vltruvius. On Architecture. Intro.• 1. 11. • • rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 vic. & vlrtue 59 freedom of ideas a1lowed by the narrative dialogue format in designing this scheme is indicative • of they way in which "humanism sees in the ars memoriae an important weapon for social SLïccess, ta ensure, by rreans of an infallible memory, advantage over others."48 This is what is at stake for the architeet Filarete. Not only must his noble charaeter be realized, but the city's success depends upon his designs. Not merely whimsicaJ digressions, the proposed struaures bear the awesome responsibilities of entire kingdom. The initial approach to the house of study is through a single door, dwarfed by the immensity and blankness of the facade of the house and centered on its base. To reach it. one must mount nine steps. Regarding the plan (figure 16). and following Filarete's words, after entering the building, the participant finds "three other doors, each ofwhich leads into the other. Then he enters a doister in which there will be a room with eight doors which ail endose it. This room will cantoin three rooms and each of them wiff be subdivided inta three other rooms. ln these there wiff be different places and rooms. One con exit only by another [door] and he chen passes along a steep way, that is a stair. thot enters into another room separated from the others. "49 Mer digressing to descriptions of the figures of Vice and Virtue, the descent into the house of Vice, and an explanation of the formation of the plan, Filarete returns again to these three doors. There is a "door in the midd/e with two others on either side, made as stoted above. The first order ofthis (lrst square is ten bracdo high at the entrance ta Porta Areti. When one has entered, he (lnds a stair w11ich ascends ta the (lrst levef of this square. When one has mounted this stair. he finds a square place on columns like 48 Cou/iano. &05 and Mafic in the Renajssance, 33. From Yates. The Ar! ofMemory. 1t 2. 49 Treatise. f. 142v., 245. Trattato, 532. • .,chlt.ctur. and th. b.. 1 vic. & vlrtu. 60 a loggia. At the head of chis stair there ;s a door through which one enters te ascend te the top ofthis building. Through chis sarne loggia one goes on through a • portico chat leads to the places and rooms where 011 branches knONledge are ta of be taught. "50 The house is open ta everyone to learn and proceed towards obtaining a doctorate. AIl the rooms ofteaching are gone through before reaching the summit. Atop the a1ready mentioned stair, one passes through "twenty-chree doors six bracoa apart. After one has passed ail these doors he ffnds eight more eight bracda apart. Then he ffnds (ive more ten bracoa apart. Then he f1nds three, 12 bracoa apart. .. 51 This series of rooms brings one completely around the perimeter of the reetangular base of the building. to the front again. where "then he finds another square loggia. Here is a stair chat mounts to che top ofthis square, chat is co the height of 20 bracoa, and CO the next floor. "52 On the plan drawing, these rooms are labelled A through Z (figure 16). ln analyzing Filarete's sequentially ordered and rising system of circulation within the body of this mountain-building, [ arrive at the work of Raymon Lull ( 1235-1 3 16). Yates writes that his ideas "continued into the Renaissance and combine with the c1assical art in some new synthesis whereby memory should reach still further heights of insight and power."53 Lull's 50 Treatise. f. 144 V., 248. See also, TrattatD, 538...... una porta nel mezzo con altre due ail entrara d'essa prima porta, le quali alfa similitLJdine antedetta sono fatte. E questo prime quadro è alro If primo sua ordine died bracda, dove che per la detta porta Areti s'entra; ed entrara, SI truova una scala la quale saglie a questo primo quadro, 0 vero a quesra primo piano di qUestD quadro; e salira questa scola, SI truova uno luogo quadra. il quale è in colonne. come dire una loggia. E diritto di questa scala si è una porta, per la quale s'entra per andare af/a sommità di questo edifido; e per questa medesima loggia si va alrre per uno portico va alli luoghl e stanze dove che le sdenze s'hanno a leggere ..." 51 Treatise. f. 144v., 249. Trattato, 538. See aise . n. 3, 538. 52 Ibid. 53 The Art of Memory. 173. • architecture and the bee 1 vice & vlrtue 61 system of rnemory is essentially based uç:on the goodness of Gad and what he believed to be • inherently universal about the divine's attributes. 54 The art he devised is of a tri-partite struaure, a ref1eetion of the Trinity and built of three facets designed to find and know truth, train the will to love truth, and ultimately to remernber truth.55 Of particular interest is Yates' discussion of Lullism and his introduction of movement Inta the memory arts by the use of recollection with two important tropes: his inventive, revolving alphabet-based wheels and the imagery ofthe ladder. These methods do not entail static figures to be memorized in situ. as with the c1assical structures. 56 See figures 17 and 18 as examples of the development of the ladder to heaven imagery used by Lull. The trope of the ladder is the configuration of creation and each step is named in Lull's system, with figures representing the elements of the world in an hierarchlcal struaure. Stars are. for example, on the step coeJum, stones and trees on the lower, earthly steps. One ascends this ladder into the heavens, carrying one of Lull's wheel devices (figure 19). The final destination Îs the House ofWisdom. Yates say:; ofthis system: "It is fundamental for the approach to the Lullian Art ta realise that it is an ars ascendi et descendendi. Bearing the geometrical figures of the Art [the wheels]. inscribed with their letter notations. the 'artista' ascends and descends on the ladder of being, measuring out the same proportions on each level. The geometry ofthe elemental structure ofthe world of nature combines with the divine structure of its issue out of the Divine Names to form the universal Art which can be used on ail subjeets because the mind works through it with 54 Ibid. 174. 55 Ibid. 174. 56 See the next section on 'rooms' and the structure of the c1assical art-of-memory technique. • architecture and the bee 1 vice & vlrtue 62 a logic which is pattemed on the universe."57 • The learning process to reach the House of Wisdom in Lull's art extends outward into the world below, through allieveis of the earthly experience. At the obtainment of knowledge, one enters the house of Gad, the heavenly walled fortres5, through the gate of the tower and resides there, proteeted under its roof. ln The Book. ofMemory. Carruthers reiterates Yates' conclusions on Lu" by succinaly saYlng, "Lull's art was designed to be bath a key to universal knowledge and a rnemory art... 58 The system devised by Lull was one that does not fit neatly into the method put forth by the c1assical writers, with set loci and images. His tropes of ladders and a1phabetic construaions, however, round out the tradition's breadth of influence in the Renaissance and are another illustration of what 1believe ta be part of the humanist world of Filarete. He used common symbols and figures that appear ta readily fall into Filarete's narrative and attempt ta relate ta bath king and citizen. The rising up of man through the procuring of wisdom is a microcosmic portrayal of the heavens and "his redemptian, his rising up ta the divinity, must include the ascensIon of ail things.... Not only man rises up ta Gad ...[But] the universe is redeerned within man and thraugh him... 59 - rooms- The revolving wheels and moving systems of memory were established modes of learning techniques in the medievaJ classroom monastic prayer tutelage traditions. While 57 Yates. The Art of Memory. 181. 58 Carruthers. The Book ofMemory. 253. 59 E. Cassirer. The Logic of the Humanities. (New Haven, 1960), 40. • • rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 vic. & vlrtu. 63 Carruthers places these memory techniques into her own categories of diagrammatic • sehernes and meditationaJ devices, Filarete's transformation of mnemonic technique does not fit neatly anywhere. The notion of a master, tutoring or reading to the novice for training pertains directJy to the treatise, as it was proposed to be read aJoud to the king. The dialogue throughout is of instruetionaJ nature, a description of the larger socio-philosophicaJ issues and the smaller scale story-making of everyday details and events. This theme culminates in the fabrication ofthe House of Vice and Virtue. with its rooms of leeturing rnasters. The labeling ofthe rooms of study with the twenty-three letters of the alphabet (figure 16) does not seem ta correspond to any divisional hierarchy of instruction 1 but perhaps operates as a mnemonic device related in essence to the use of animaIs and the alphabet. Eaeh room couJd designate a compendium of knowledge, assoeiated to its eorresponding letter. The letters used by Lull in his wheels (figures 20, 21) form his basic concepts on the "dignities of Gad," utilizing a sort of logie based on triadic structures of creation.60 Through these one can reach the Trinity and each part of the system relate a different meaning, according to which step of the ladder you are on.61 Filarete does not construet this level of detail or complexity, but by designating a room of learning to each letter, he imparts an encyclopedic book-metaphor to the building. ln this scheme, after progressing through the perimeter rooms, the student proceeds lnward to the circular tower which is divided into seven parts. There is a portico on the first level and each of the seven rooms ofthe seven liberaJ arts rises one story. 60 Yates. The Art ofMemory. 179 . 61 Yates. The Art of Memory. 179. For example, the letter "B" refers ta the bonitas found in an • ange1, man, imagination. animais. vegetables, virtues. etc. archltectur. and the bee 1 vice & vlrtue 64 'The first cornes at the top of chis square at the height of twenty bracda. It is • divided into seven principal pans. The first is an endrding portico through which one can go al/ around this division. It is three bracda I},fde and 12 high. ... AlI of this is vaulted .. .[And] the first room has a daor above which is carved a pgure dressed in lined robes of various colors. This is done as Q symbol of Logic. In this room are carved the inventors of this art as weil as ail those who were excellent in this discipline. From chis room there is a stair that rises to another ffoor. It is in the same form as this Iittle drOVlling. . .. In the sarne \4ICJY there is a door aver which another robed figure is carved vvith a book. in her hand. This is Rhetoric. Ali rhese rooms continue in the same order, form and dimensions, leveJ by leveJ up ta the summit with pgures over the doors each a symbol of its science. "62 The ordered, regular formation of these rooms echoes the classicaJ art of memory which evolved as a way to imprint places - loci - on the mind in order to retain the ideas to be discussed by the rhetorician. Architecture is established as artificial rnerrory's site ofoperation, ln which construeted images are placed. The author of Ad Herennium recommends that the loci be places of moderate size. at a regular intervaJ from one another, perhaps thirty feet or 50. Iv:; weil, Quintilian clarifies the "rules for places: "Places are chosen, and rnarked with the utmost possible variety, as a spacious house divided into a number of rooms. Everything of note therein is diligently imprinted on the mind, in order that thought may be able to run through ail the parts without let or hindrance. . .. What 1have spoken of as being done in a house can also be done in public buildings, or on a long journey, or in going through a city."63 62 Treorise. f. 145r., 249. Trattota.540. 63 Insriturio oratorio, XI. ii, 17-22. • .rchlt.ctur••nd th. b•• 1 vic. • vlrtu. 65 The other aspect of the art depends on the construction of rnemorable images ta • recall the specifie ideas and precepts: choose lIimages which are active, sharply defined, unusual and ... have the power of ... penetrating the psyche ... 64 The author of the Ad Herennium does not provide any lengthy details nor examples of images but expeets the student will develop their own. The sarne expeetation occurs in Filarete's roorns of the liberal arts. With his memory rooms we are told each door is marked by a figure symbolizlng that particular liberal art. Within each room are contained the images of invenrors and distinguished teachers of the discipline. What takes place in each room is not explained, and it IS left to our imagination as to whether a professor is present there to instruet, or if there are books to study. The suggestion is each student enters the room alone, with the portraits to guide him, with an perception that the soul never thinks without a mental image,65 and they stamp upon his memory the knowledge needed to graduate further, c1imbing upward to the summit. The images aet as agents of our transformation from leaming. Each morsel a1low the participant to delve deeper inward to antoher stage of knowledge. As already mentioned, Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas Aquinas, in thelr comrnentaries on AristotJe's De memoria et reminiscentia 1 conneet merrory to virtue, a part of Prudence. modifying the traditional association of memory to rhetoric. A1bertus writes: "Memory can be a moral habit when it is used to remember pas1: things with a prudent looking forward to the future...66 ln striking similarity to Filarete's emblem of Will and Reason (figure 64 Ad Herennium. Il, Ixxxvii, 358. 65 Aristotle. De Anima. 427, 18-22. 66 Yates. The Art ofMemory. 62, quoted from de Bono. • erchlt.ctur. end the b.. 1 vic. & vlrtu. 66 22). Prudence has been described as a "lady with three eyes ... to remind her ofthings past, • present and future. n67 Prudence allo'NS man to derive universal knowledge through the senses by means of studying the particulars, a relationship which is facilitated by the memory. However, the citizen of Plusiapolis pursues knowledge with a tenacity facilitated byall the vin:ues, bath the four cardinal virtues and the three theologicaJ. It is more to the realm ofthe prince that prudence applies, as Filarete tells us on his self-portrait medal (figure 7). A factor in the development of the virtuous memory for Cicero is solitudo, 50 as to preseNe the sharpness and power of images. ,Aquinas refers ta this, but changes the term to sof/iciwdo, memory that requires devotional study of an emotional nature. Ethical aaion Inherently is 'worrisome', being fraught with serious contemplation, and Carruthers argues that thi5 alteration ofthe ward is intentionaJ in relating rnemorative study to the rnonastic life. 68 The solitude and concentration required for study a/50 alludes to monastic cells. Besides being the site of medieval study, they evolve as other metaphors for memory. Cella refers to a storeroom in memory designs and ceJ/ae are stalls and nesting cells for birds, as weil as books' storage place in libraries. 69 The section drawing of the House of Vice and Virtue (figure 23) reveals a similar structure comprised of many cells, densely packed in the ark-building. The image recalls the srnaller scaled honeycomb in the tree of Filarete's self-portrait medal (figure 7). a cut away trunk full of goodness. We return ta the metaphor of bees, memory and 67 Ibid. 67. 68 Carruthers. The Book of Memory. 173. Solficitudo translate to W worry" in English. and IS related to the idea that the mind wvexes" the emotions to make and store rremory images. 69 Hugh of St. Victor uses the metaphor and in his Oidascalicon, writes: "The foundatton and principles of sacred reaming is history, from which, Iike honey from the honeycomb, the truth of a1legory is • extracted." 138. building, illustrated by their honeycomb of knowledge made of ceJ/ae, where the divine food is • created and ingested. - symmit- IIDirect your course hither to wisdom, and seek her ways, which are ways of surpassing peace and plenty. Whatever seems conspicuous in the affairs of men ... is nevertheJess approached by a difficult and toilsome pathway. It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness; but if you desire to scale this peak. which lies far above the range of Fortune, you will indeed look down from above upon ail that men regard as most lofty. n70 At the culmination of this transformative journey, the student reaches the sumrnit of the mountaÎn. ready to cross over into the mast central moment of the building. Mer moving round the perimeter and slowly upward and inward through the rooms, one arrives at an open floor circumscribed by a portico of figure-columns (figure 24). It is divided imo seven sections that form seven bridges (figure 25). Each one of these has one of the seven virtues carved above its entrance. Il They are arranged in such a VIOY that it is necessary ta pass over ail ofthem ta get ta the drde in the middle. n71 At the summit of the most inner circle there is an open space with figures of the nine muses.72 "Above these / make a cupo/a in the form of a 70 SeneCQ. Epistua/e Morales. 285. 71 Treatise. f. 145v.. 250. Trattato. 541. 72 The nine muses are the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (the daughter of heaven and earth). Each 15 Identified with one of the arts: Calliope. epic poetry; Clio, heroic poetry (her 5ymbol 15 often an open chest of books); Erato. love poetry: Euterpe. music; Melpomene. tragedy; Polyhymnia. sacred poetry and hymns; Terpsichore. choral song and dance; Thalia. comedy; Urania, astronomy. • architecture .nd the bee 1 vice & vlrtue 68 diamond. Above this 1put the figure ofVirtue made ofbronze. ,,73 (figure 26) The figure of Virtue • atop Filarete's microcosmic diamond-mountain is a double of the entire building. The mirrored mountains are like stairs, he says, 50 you can walk up them as a ritual representation of the prcxess the student has just performed. Il No one should be permitted ta come here who has not acquired the aforementioned ans. 1174 While there are three exceptions to this rule foreigners, those not trained that are accompanied by a doetorate, and special celebrations thls edia IS taken quite seriously. It is the place of persona! reward for the noble deeds of study - where the student arrives at the "very pleasant, beautifu/, and delightful place. ,,75 Mer passing over the seven bridges - passages through the seven virtues - we arrive at the apex, where all seven virtues are represented into one figure. Virtue is an emblem that embodies ail things worthy and memorable. It is an "armed figure. His head would be like the sun. In the right hand he holds a date tree and in the left a laurel. He stands ereet on a diamond and (rom the base ofthis diamond there issues a mellifJuous liquor. Fame fis] above his head." 76 Filarete places virtue atop his diamond perch as a symbolic structure that fulfills a sort of "double role of representation and interpretation:77 It represents ail the virtues melded into one body and stands for Filarete's theories on virtue as the highest achievement of man. As 73 Treotise. f. 145v.. 250. TronarD. 541. 74 Ibid. 75 Treatise. f. 142v.. 246. TronarD, 532. 76 Treolise. f. 143r., 247. Tro ttarD, 533. 77 P. DaJy. &nblem Theory. (Liechtenstein. 1979),68. • architecture and the bee 1 vice vlrtue 69 &. weil. standing as a symbol above the city, it is left to interpretation?B It can identify for each • inhabitant of the city, and each student that has passed upward to the mountain, their own construet of personal imagination and memory. We must remember that it expresses the desired essence ofthe city to outsiders and possibly, it seems sure Filarete must have thought, to those that might unearth this city someday. It embodies the etemal struggle - an armed figure - of Renaissance rnankind to recover Eden. Alberti writes: UVirtue maintained with constancy and strength far outshines ail that is subjeet to fortune's sway, ail that is transitory and destructible. Il 79 These thoughts illustrate Filarete's general philosophy on architecture and his interest in being nobly remembered. of One arrives at Virtue by untrod paths and after great tabors. Il 80 The figure is a strong personification and has been already conneeted to the story of Hercules at the Crossroads, a Christian athlete holding symbols of vietory and fruitfulness, and Apollo.8 [ Complete with armor and wings, Virtue almost f10ats above the earth, balanced assuredly atop the diamond. He synthesizes not only these historical figures and ail virtues into one form, but manages to capture the nobility and dignity that is accessible and pursued by the Renaissance through their own synthesis - or mellification - ofthe riches excavated and awakened in man. The figure of fame flying above Virtue is surrounded by winged senses - four eyes, two 78 See V. L. Volkmans. "Ars Memorativa." whîch shows images from a German memory treatlse conslSting of standing figures that hold various objects in a similar mode of Virtue. 79 Della Fam/glia., r48. 80 Treatise. f. 69r.. 1 19. Trattato. 264. 81 See E. Panofsky, Hercules am Scheidev.Ege und andere antike Bildstoffe in der Neuren Kunst. 1930: T. Mommsen. "Petrarch and the Story of the Choice of Hercules." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld • Institutes. 1953; and 1. Spencer, Treatise. n. 1.246. • rchll.ctur••nd th. b•• 1 vic. &: vlrtu. 70 ears, a mouth and a nase. These senses are precisely the gathering tools necessary to reach • this pinnacle as explained by A1bertus in obtaining universal knowledge. The attainment occurs through our experience that culls together the nectars and digests them into the sweet f1uid of virtù. The piece of land that the emblem is sited upon appears earlier in the treatise with the drawing of Reason and Will (figure 22) and implies to me a Paradise in its use atop the House of Vice and Virtue. Filarete describes Will as a nude woman, ',,"wth one foot on a wheel, wings on her feet and shoulders, and her head full of eyes. In one hand she [will ho/d] a balance with one side lower thon the other and with the other hand she \Alill appear ta seize the worfd. ,,82 She is literally tied to Reason, with five strings that correspond to each of the five senses. "She sits on a heart; in one hand she holds balaneed seoles and in the other reins.. .. On her feet she wears lead slippers. ,,83 Will uses the senses to colleet and fly about. storing elements from the world, while Reason acts as an ordering structure. The heart that she sits upon is also a mnemonic trope, related to the phrase "Iearn by heart" and the Latin recordari. 84 ln her hands. the world is kept baJanced and pure. At the House of Vice and Virtue. this aJlegory of collection, recollection and ordering becomes architecture. - lrotto- "1 think vve ought ta show the things pertaining to bath Vice and Virtue, .. .For this reason 82 Tr€Gtise. f. 69v. J 20-21. Trattato. 267. 83 Ibid. 84 See Carrurhers, The Book. of Memory. 48-49. According te Varra, the secand-century B.e. E. grammarian. the ward derives from revocare, to "cali back", and cor, "heart"; it evalved into the Italian ricordorsi. • .rchltecture and the bee 1 vice & vlrtue 7 r anyone 'Nha saw them would be urged ta fol/ON virtue and to shun and avoid vice. "85 • When Filarete creates the lower half of the House of Vice and Virtue, it is with a peculiar irony. Aetually building and instrtuting a program pertaining to sin and corruption is a questionable ad. Yet, its presence is crucial to the success and monumental consequence of the path to virtue. The critical element of sight in the societal mechanism proposed by Filarete. 1believe, expresses the role that mnemonics assumes throughout his ideas. The images described are the 'rnernorial notes' that are "moraJised into beautiful or hideous hurnan figures as 'corp::>real similitudes' ofspiritual intentions ofgaining Heaven or avoiding Hell.n86 The figure of Vice, a naked satyr, sits on a wheel with seven spokes in Filarete's Invention. "In one hand he ho/ds a plate of things ta eat and drink. and in the other a boord with three dice on it. As a founcain of sweet Iiquor emerges (rom the diamond. so seven rivers of mud and frlth issue trom this and make a pool of ff/th in which a pig lies. n87 This assemblage of sin sits within a 5ubterranean grotto at the foot ofthe mountain. While virtue is a lofty. difficult goal. vice IS easily entered. The House of Vice, counterpoint to Virtue, buries itself underground. creating a worldly Hell. The components of aetivity here is a list of emblematic devices that follow in theme the inventors and professors of the liberal arts. but with more specificity. Bacchus rides atiger under a vine, holding a glass and grapes. He is naked, with goat homs and yet, "beautiful in a Feminine way" - a seducer of unscrupulous behavior. Priapus. ugly. bearded and malformed, holds a sickle in one hand and in "the other he [holds] over his sign. It 85 Treatise. f. 69r.. 119. Trattato.265. 86 Yates. The Art ofMemory. 77. 87 Treatise. f. 143r.. 246. Trattato. 534. • • rchltecture .nd th. b.. 1 vic. & vlrtu. 72 appeared he menaced the women w;th the latter and the men w;th his sickJe. "88 Venus is also • present, as is her son Cupid. These figures even speak, giving suggestions on how ta conduct oneself with decadence, using the uinstrument of Priapus" and hedonism of Bacchus. ln understanding the issues at stake for Filarete we must see the presence of vice in his deSigns as it pertaîns to both king and city. Rather than aetualizing an unrealistic 'ideal' aty, Filarete embraces the full scope of the 'fallen' body of mankind. It appeals also to the occassions in which a prince must aet in opposition to virtue, capable uof changing readilly, according as the winds and changes of fortune bid hÎm. "89 Perhaps the mast relevant issue in the consideration of memory and Filarete is the way he creates this festival of vice ta remind the citizens and readers ofthe alternative to vÎrtue. The images evolve the ideas on the what the various places În Hel! are, and creates them into emblematic lad. The remembering of Heaven and Hell becomes a part of memary treatises in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, frequently with diagrams on their construetion90 (figure 27). The scenes are distinct and controlled in a manner that cOÎncides with the cl assical art prescribed in Ad Herennium and Cicero. uThe keenest of all our senses is the sense ofsight, and that consequently perceptions received by the ears of by refleXÎon can be mast easily retained if they are also conveyed to 88 Treatise. f. 148r, 253-54. Tratrato. 550. 89 N. Machiavelli. The Prince. 87. 90 Yates. The Art of Memory .• see pp. 60, 94-5, 108-1 l, 115-16. 122. This scheme was utilized by Boncompagno da Signa. working in Bologna at 1235 : "We must assiduously remember the Invisible JOys of Paradise and the etemal torments of Hell"; and Jacopus Publicius. whose work Oratoriae anis epitome was published in Venice 1482. writes: "simple and spiritual intentions slip easily from the memory unless joined to a corporeal similitude"; also Cosmas Rossellius. publishing in Venice, 1579 his work Thesaurus artificiosae • memoriae. with mernory place diagrams of Paradise and Hell. • rchll.clur. .nd Ih. b.. , vic. • vlrtu. 73 our rninds by the mediation of the eyes.,,91 The images fed to the mind are ta be aaive • similitudes. "as striking as possible", a precept conveyed ta the Middle Ages and Renaissance through the Ad Herennium, and echoed by Filarete's inventional concepts. Those who 'distinguish' themselves are rrnrked with corresponding ornamentation: the wearing of a vase of wine and cup. or a priapic symbol strung around their neck, and then led through the territory 50 everyone could see them. There is a civic ritual ta Filarete's scheme, involving the people who choose ta descend into the depths of vice that unfolds the active image into the materiaJ world. - rituals • When Filarete creates his drawings for the treatise, laying out the linea, he begins the building with hls own sort of memory device, a diagram ta keep in his mind and etch on the earth.92 The building's ensuant construaion is given over ta the city, and evolves into a site of meaning and memory for the citizens. The complete imparting ofthe architeaure occurs W1th the rituals and aaivity of the city, as exemplified by the cererronies invoked with the House of Virtue. The students of virtue are rewarded and marked in a public display. Their charaaer is comp05ed within the House of Virtue and in turn, begins ta compose the city. Filarete professes, "Gad \NÎshed that man, just as he was made in His image, should make something similor ta himseJf. In this way [man] partidpates in Gad by making samething in his image through 91 Gcero. De OratDre. Il. Ixxxviii, 357. 92 See Carruthers. "The Poet as Master Builder." • .rchll.clur. .nd Ih. b•• 1 vic. & vlrlu. 74 the use given intellect...93 • The completion ofstudy in the House ofVirtue involves a cermonious examination to ~rst determine if the student is worthy of the degree. Il They would place him in a room of the art 'With a gor/and of laurel upon his head. He passed ~rst through ail the places where he had studied and left. the gar/and nailed up there w;th his nome. He left it in one and then 1Nef1t up ta the ~rst room in the drde abOIe the square. ... Here they put another laure! on him ta the sound of instruments. ..94 Mer another examination, they take the garland from his head and put it on the figure ofthe liberal art in that rcom. Proceeding upward through each room with a simiJar procedure, they arrive at the figure of Virtue and "'Mth noble words they took. the gor/and tram his head and put it on the head of Virtue. It was left there al/ day. Then after they had gone around it once to the sound ofmusic and rejoidng, they descended,,95 accompanYlng him home wrth a parade ofcelebrations. Honor is given to those acquiring "virtue (rom the exercise of their persan and of their spirit in this manner. " 93 Trearise. f. Sv.• 11. Trattato. 26. 94 Treatise. f. 147r.. 252. Trattato. 546-47. • 9S Ibid. .rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 vic. & vlrtu. 7S • or-.·f :- -~":_ •. - \:-~, - '. 1; figure 15. Adam as the first architeet. Codex Magliabecchianus. • architecture and the bee / vice - virtue 76 • i.~.F .•.. ~"" '." ..., .. ~ f~-~~'::: • figure 16. Plan of House of Virtue. Codex Magliabea:hianus. • architecture and the bee 1 vice - virtue 77 • figure 17. The ladder of Virtue. Herrad of Landsberg. Hortus Delidarum, ed. A. Straub and G. Keller. • architecture and the bee / vice - virtue 78 • figure 18. Ramon Lull with the Ladders of his Art. 14th century miniature, Karlsruhe Library, Cod. St. Peters 92. • architecture and the bee 1 vice - virtue 79 • figure 19. The Ladder of Ascent and Oescent. from Ramon Lull's ùber de ascensu et descensu intel/eaurs. ed. of Valencia. f 512. • architecture and the bee 1 vÎce - virtue 80 • figure 20. 21. COmblnaoon wh"",s. from Ramen lulrs Ars Brews. • arChitecture and the bee 1 VIce • virtue 81 • figure 22. Reason and Will. Codex Magfiabecchianus. • architecture and the bee 1 vice - virtue 82 • . . .~ .~ '~~?':'T' -I!_> : :.. ~>'~'~';'-': ::~...:-.:. .'tl.;: ,:~-j .. ~ .. -;t ,.,. . , .. )~~, ~: .\~ -- _•..1 figu re '23. House of VICe and Virtue. Codex Magliabecchianus. • architecture and the bee 1 vice - virtue 83 • figure 24. Caryatid figures atop House ofVirtue. Codex Magliabecchianus. • architecture and the bee 1 vice - virtue 84 • figu re 25. Plan of House of Virtue. Codex Magliabecchianus. • architecture and the bee 1 vice - virtue 85 • figure 26. Figure of Virtue. Codex Magliabecchianus. • architecture and the bee 1 vice - virtue 86 • ....~~======-=:11 figure 27. Cosrnas Rossellius. Memory images of HeU and Heaven. • architecture and the bee 1 vice - virtue 87 • 7 c o n c u s o n figure 28. Emblem 149. 'The Mercy ofthe Prince" from AJciato's Book ofEmblems. • architecture and the bee 1 conclusion 88 • c o n c u 5 o n Man's desire in the Renaissance to create and search our harmony through the built world becomes an attempt to reproduce a celestial concordance, an ordering of the essential substance of life. Filarete's attempt to fay its groundwork within the written story appears to depend upon an understanding of mnemonic tropes to create the new city. It enables man to discover this accord by remaking himseff uthrough the use of his God-given intellect." The archrtect is the master-builder, and architecture the mnemonic structure designed "not as a device for repetition, but as a collecting and recollecting mechanism with which to construet one's own education,"! like the bee culls and then distends the cells of its home with liquid neetar.2 Filarete, as an architect, is the body in which the mellification occurs. The wisdom From the golden book passes through his imagination and is remade for the prince and his citizens in a translated form. It is the architect's position to instill in the gathered pollen the capability for an independent life; she aets as filter and catalyst. The relevance of striving to unearth the foundations of Filarete's treatise as a memorative structure lies with the essence of a mnemonic model's operation. ContinuaI reinterpretation and retelling over time of the cues provides the framework of memoria. The cells of Filarete's House of Vice and Virtue are literally passed through - during the initial solitary pursuit of knowledge and the ensuant 1 Carruthers. ïhe Poet as Master Builder." 887. 2 Virgil. Fourth Georgie. • .rchlt.ctur. .nd th. b.. 1 conclu.lon 89 community ritual of bestowing honor to the student. The golden book(s). too, are read and • reread; translated From Greek to ltalian; and interpreted from words and images to buildings. It is the hermeneutie quality of stories and life that lets a meaningfu1 interaction take place, and mis 15 the issue at stake in rnaking architecture. Filarete's methods and mooes of colleeting and retrieving in his fantasia and imagination stands out as a potent metaphor in our burgeoned twentieth century storehouse of data. The architect has becorne lost in the immensity or our present condition. Rather than being able to exist as the philosopher - magieian, transfiguring the world into a fertile construct, she is left fighting to even provide an empty diagram. Filarete's eities have been called utopie, but it is not an architecture of "no-place;" 3 it is our current situation instead that speeds reeklessly towards the sea of nowhere - cities where "evaluations, opinions and attitudes replace the certainty of shared conviction." 4 While it seems our intellect is constantly called upon ta narrow and specialize in response to the expanding social responsibilities, the Renaissance architeet Filarete planned Wlth the ethics of a hunting bee collecting varied nectars. His designs are plans of action for the prince and sketches of civic institutions for the citizens, providing bath with a specific, meaningful order. The hierarchy Filarete devises 1S motivated by his perception of virtù. Activated by the central building of vice and virtue, the city contains the varying qualities of virtue as it pertains to architecture. The three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity; and the four cardinal virtues of justice, prudence, fortitude and temperance form one body-building in the treatise to symbolize the universal nature of architecture. 3 See T. More's Utopia, an island of 'nowhere'. of D. Libeskind. "Symbol and Interpretation." Be~n Zero and Infinity. (Rizzoli, 1981),27. • .rchltecture .nd th. b.. 1 conclu.lon 90 There is a painting by Piero della Francesca, Allegorica! Triumphs (ca. 1472)5 that • presents Federico da Montefelto and his wife Battista Sforza riding towards one another in carriages; Battista is depieted with the theological virtues and Federico with the cardinal virtues. The segmentation of virtue in this painting demonstrates the two parties to whom Filarete also must address himself: the king and the people, each with their particular virtuous achievements and hierarchies to consider. The virtue of Sforza, like Federico. depends on the strength of being a soldier and his prudent. yet swift acquisition and ruling of his new city.6 The city a1lows Sforza to show himself as merciful. humane and just. and as weil, able to "show himself [as] a loverofvirtue and honor ail who excel in any one ofthe arts."? The theological virtues of faith, hope and charity seem to speak of the qualities desired by an inhabitant of the City 1 pursuing it in one 'Nay with the acquisition of an intelleetual virtue at the House of Virtue. ln a rnedieval mindset, this theoretical quest is enacted through scholastic study. creatlng an abstraet reality. The citizen of Plusiapolis, however, must locate the means to obtain this goodness through public rituals. They pursue this knowledge by experiencing the path through the architecture, and its storage ofacademic material. Ultimately though, it seems that greater than the scholarly aspirations, the inhabitant is made complete and fulfilled by forming a public, ceremonious representation of the pursuit. It is through the eyes of the others that he / she becomes whole, versus the private redemption through the eyes of a medieval Gad. 5 From the Diptych lNith Portraits of Federico da Montefe/to and Battista Sforza. Uffizi, Florence. See A. Cole, Virtue and Magnificence, 13. for an image of the painting. 6 The city of Sforzinda was caJculated to only take ten days to build. with 12,000 masons a/one laYlng 2500 bricks a day! 7 Machiavelli. The Prince. 110. • .rchlt.ctur••nd th. b•• 1 conclu.lon 91 Architecture arrives at a position of providing a societal order, a concrete theater of • memory and participation that indudes bath the virtuous ideals of life and its perhaps necessary vices. The Renaissance city unvei/s the abstract scholastic schema of medieval man and gives birth to a site that is dependent upon an ethicaJ thickness of memory and action. Our own condition, however, has broken open the orca of hermetic knowledge into a quantifiable operation, reducing architecture to a homogenous body of indifference. Filarete's Ideal program of a fulfilled, animated culture that is aetivated by architecture is a detached, a1ien ldea to our present political and private situation. We are quickly slipping into a world where even the modem museum becomes obsolete and the vast libraries of knowledge too are Increasingly accessed without leaving our homes. 1 do not condemn this condition; the challenge ofthis added complexity that tends to reduce knowledge ta information, is one we must embrace in order ta create architecture that extends beyond a pragmatic equation. The meditative, gestationaJ process of architecture that guided Filarete is a metaphoric procedure that 1 believe expresses the patent capacity of the architea, but has been sublimated by our instrumentation of imagination, and overlooks the very issue that Filarete, as "lover of virtue", is concerned - an ethical order of architecture that still recognizes the fragmented nature ofwoman / man and the need to remake our center. Filarete's unearthing of the ancient relies and golden book reaches out ta the past to reconcile and reform the present earthly orders. Our late twentieth century memorative unearthing is of course, not 50 straightforward. The complexity of architecture can be approached with a hermeneutic course ofaction that mobilizes the imagination to discover truth; the "task of architecture is that • architecture and the bee 1 conclusion 92 of interpretation."a It is a matter of revealïng and concealing gathered staries in a manner • that differs not 50 much From the shuttling action of the bee. The cities of Sforzinda and Plusiapolis are immersed within a culture of remembering and inventing anew From the exhurned pasto The hope for our own society is that architecture can thus emerge as an interpretative site, concerned with society's charaeter and ethos. where ail that is publicly and privately compiled, mellifies into a complex wholeness, feeding us spiritually and politically as we pass through rts doors and inhabit the world. 8 K. Hames. The Ethical Funetion ofArchitecture. 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