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Quadrato lapide: Ancient Architectural Terms in Dalmatian Renaissance Latin

When Renaissance humanists look at ancient architecture, they describe it using technical terms found in ancient authors. Such procedure is especially clear when humanists write in Latin. What are the terms they use, and which terms appear frequently? I will explore this in a digital corpus of Renaissance Latin writings in Dalmatia around 1500, following the use of terms such as quadrato lapide and affabre in works by Juraj Šižgorić from Šibenik (d. 1509), Koriolan Cipiko from Trogir (d. 1493), Marko Marulić from Split (d. 1524), Vinko Pribojević from Hvar (d. after 1532), Ilija Crijević from Dubrovnik (d. 1520), but also by a converted Jew Didacus Pyrrhus (d. 1599) and by Italian teachers active on the eastern Adriatic coast Gilberto Grineo (d. 1501), Tideo Acciarini (d. c. 1500), Palladio Fosco (d. 1520), Daniele Clario (d. 1523), Nardino Celinese (d. after 1528). Further corpus explorations will enable me to show where these authors might have learned their Latin architectural terms—these can be found both in ancient works and in contemporary writers such as Tortelli, Perotti, Alberti—thus providing an outline of the cultural horizon of Cinquecento Dalmatia.

This is a summary of the talk that Neven Jovanović will present on Thursday, March 21, 2024 at the Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting in Chicago.


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Neven Jovanović (March 4, 2024). Quadrato lapide: Ancient Architectural Terms in Dalmatian Renaissance Latin. Croatica et Tyrolensia. Retrieved April 26, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/vy3a