ABSTRACT
The chapter analyses a passage from Leon Battista Alberti's I libri della famiglia (On the family, c. 1437), in which Alberti discusses the role of female beauty in conception and the birth of beautiful children. According to Alberti, a woman's beauty stems from physical proportion and virtuous behaviour. It is this harmony of body and character that determines the quality of future offspring. By advising men to choose their wives with discernment, Alberti translates aesthetic and moral order into a principle of biological transmission. His argument reflects the efforts of the early Renaissance to naturalize beauty as a signifier and guarantor of both inner virtue and reproductive value. Drawing on contemporary medical thought, particularly that of Michele Savonarola, Alberti associates beauty with procreative efficacy. This suggests that the beautiful body was considered an object of desire and an active instrument in producing beauty across generations.
