ABSTRACT
Della pittura, and De Re Aedificatoria, there was no Della Teoria. As a writer, Alberti had
to act existentially, ab initio, without a guide. To notice this, may subvert not just theory’s
priority, but that of any privileged mode in exposition or in examination. It may, too, shift
emphasis from Platonic speculation on general and abstract principles to something
more like Socratic enquiring: particular, critical and oriented to performance and practice.
