From Tuscan to Latin, and not vice versa

Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472), the most influential humanist of the Renaissance, wrote his well-known De Pictura, consisting of three parts or books, between the years 1435 and 1436, in two separate languages: the local dialect of Tuscany, and Latin.

The usual opinion is that the author wrote the text in Latin first and then translated it into the vernacular for the benefit of working-class painters who lacked a classical education. Nevertheless, I propose to demonstrate that Alberti wrote his treatise first in the vernacular(1) and then, later, in Latin. In the later version, enriched by both new information and corrections of earlier errors, the author introduced many clarifications, changing names and terms and even rewriting sentences to improve them, and in the end produced a definitive version. Subsequently, the original vernacular version, extant in only a few manuscripts, was not mentioned again by scholars until the end of the eighteenth century.(2) The Latin draft, however, was reproduced in numerous manuscripts. Perhaps Alberti's final Latin draft was the one printed in Basel in 1540.(3) This Basel printed text is the one that I have translated here into English.

Cecil Grayson's well-known English translation of On Painting (1972) derives from a collation of several Latin manuscripts of De Pictura but largely excludes the Basel version.