Leon Battista Alberti, De re aedificatoria (On Building in Ten Books), Book V, Chapter 3, 71v – 72v
“There should be roof and colonnades, in my opinion, not only for humans but also for beasts, to protect them from sun and rain. A portico, walkway, promenade, or whatever, is most welcome by the vestibule, where young men who are waiting for the elders to return from conversation with the prince may practice at jumping, playing ball*, throwing quoits, and wrestling.” p. 121
*Note 13, p. 383 “It cannot be said with any certainty what form this “game of ball” would have taken. Orlandi translates it as palla. It is tempting, since Alberti mentions that it should be played in ambulationes, to associate it with various ball games played in cloisters, of which games such as palla, jeu de paume, and real tennis are a direct derivative. Cf. Heiner Gillmeister, “The Origins of European Ball Games,” Stadion 7 (1981), pp. 19-51; also Antonio Scaino, Trattato del giuco della palla (Venice, 1555), where the layouts of various early courts are illustrated.”
[Source for the quotation and Note are taken from: Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books translated by Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, Robert Tavernor (MIT Press, 1988; 6th printing 1996)]
The history of De re aedificatoria
A version of De re aedificatoria by Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72) was presented to Pope Nicholas around 1450. A few manuscript copies were made including: 1483 a copy was made for Federico da Montefeltre, duke of Urbino. Two more copies illuminated in Florence were made for Matthew Corvinus, king of Hungary; today, one copy is in the civic library, Modena and the other the cathedral library, Olomuc, Czechoslovakia. There are four other manuscript versions (earlier than 1486) today in: Vatican library, Laurenziana (Florence), Marciana (Venice) and the University of Chicago. The first printed version of the ten books in Latin was produced in 1486 by Niccolo di Lorenzo Alamani with an introduction by Angelo Polliziano and dedicated to Lorenzo de’ Medici. Early copies of this edition were given/lent to: Duke Borso d’Este, Bernardo Bembo (Venetian Ambassador to Florence and father of the humanist Pietro). This later copy was the one most likely bought by Sir Henry Wotton (King James I’s Ambassador to Venice) and is today in the Eton College library (donated in 1639). A portion of Book 9 is from the printer’s proofs and has annotations made by Alberti.
A Paris version printed by Berthold Rembolt by Geoffrey Tory in 1512 – the first to arrange each book into chapters – was followed by a French translation with woodcuts after Bartoli in 1553 by Jean Martin who had also translated Vitruvius (1546). The printed version and standard text until the 20c was translated and printed in Italian with illustrations by Cosimo Bartoli in Florence in the 1550s. Bartoli’s text with a frontispiece by Vasari was the most used version until Giovanni Orlandi and Paolo Portoghesi’s Latin/Italian version published in 1966. The first English/Italian version by James Leoni (Venetian architect who had also produced a translation of Palladio) was printed in London in 1726 with sumptuous illustrations produced by Bernard Picart in Amsterdam.
[Article Source: Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books translated by Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, Robert Tavernor (MIT Press, 1988; 6th printing 1996)]