"This is the first study of Renaissance architecture as an immersive, multisensory experience, combining first-hand experiences with historical analysis. Questioning the universalizing claims of contemporary architectural phenomenologists, David Karmon emphasizes the infinite variety of meanings produced through human interactions with the built environment. He reconstructs the Renaissance understanding of the senses, examines how architecture and the senses shaped daily practices and contributed to new forms of understanding, and presents literary and visual sources that provide abundant evidence for sustained attention to the multisensory experience of the built environment in the Renaissance world. By exploring how the 'experiential trigger' of architecture creates a multi- faceted dynamic experience between the object and the individual, Karmon's book offers a new and innovative approach to the study of Renaissance architecture"--

This is the first study of Renaissance architecture as an immersive, multisensory experience that combines historical analysis with the evidence of first-hand accounts. Questioning the universalizing claims of contemporary architectural phenomenologists, David Karmon emphasizes the infinite variety of meanings produced through human interactions with the built environment. His book draws upon the close study of literary and visual sources to prove that early modern audiences paid sustained attention to the multisensory experience of the buildings and cities in which they lived. Through reconstructing the Renaissance understanding of the senses, we can better gauge how constant interaction with the built environment shaped daily practices and contributed to new forms of understanding. Architecture and the Senses in the Italian Renaissance offers a stimulating new approach to the study of Renaissance architecture and urbanism as a kind of 'experiential trigger' that shaped ways of both thinking and being in the world.

Traces the architectural life of Italy from the thirteenth thorugh the sixteenth centuries, discussing the development of architecture as it was practiced by various artists and in different locations throughout the country.

Urbino, Rome, Florence, Milan, Ferrara... but also Mantua and Imola, Carpi and Saluzzo, Naples and Sicily: a collection of case studies on the Renaissance renewal of Italian court palaces from a comparative perspective.

"There may not be any book on architecture so delightful to dip into; one wishes there were a pocket edition to take on an Italian vacation—not only for its information and vision but for such pleasant reminders as that the citizens of Treviso carried Tullio Lombardo's friezes through the town in triumph before they were attached to a building."—D. J. R. Bruckner, New York Times Book Review