Abstract

the paper begins by looking at the most recent edition of Alberti’s latin works, whose textual and literary acquisitions are taken as a starting point for further analyses of a key problem in Alberti’s writings: that is the question of originality, first of all in comparison to classical authors. the paper will focus on this crucial theme, through a close examination of paradigmatic introductions, from De commodis to Momus, and selected passages from vernacular works, particularly from Profugiorum ab erumna libri. the pursuit of writing “something new” – as far as difficult or nearly impossible to get for a modern author, because ancient authors wrote everything – not only joins latin and vernacular works but shows Alberti’s subtle and depth consciousness of the original foundations that mark his modernity