Architetture della modernità Leon Battista Alberti nel contesto della lettura attualistica del periodo umanistico-rinascimentale

This article aims to situate the thought of Leon Battista Al- berti in the context of Giovanni Gentile’s historical perspec- tive on modernity. More specifically, Alberti’s reflections on architectural theory will be interpreted as a specific mode of understanding the relationship between human action, nature and history. Given that the definition of the nature of this relationship plays a key role in Gentile’s own account of the relation between renaissance and modernity, a comparison between these two perspectives can potentially shed new light on the genesis of Gentile’s interpretation of modernity by taking into account his reception of Alberti’s thought. This philosophical analysis will provide two main contributions to the debate on the relation between renaissance and modernity: 1) a critique of Gentile’s conception of modernityand its most dangerous implications; 2) A picture of the conceptual richness offered by renaissance philosophy.