Alberti, Leon Battista: Italian Renaissance author (1404-1472) of Books of the Family, in which he gives advice regarding the proper conduct of individual family members and the proper way to run a household. His work was popular among the upper merchant classes of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries during the Renaissance and Reformation. He e mphasized "true thrift," that is, buying quality foods and clothing. He believed that when looking for a wife a man had to choose a woman who exhibited certain qualities, such as, "good conduct and virtue." She should also appear to be able to bear healthy children, but she should not be too fat or too thin. He believed that babies should be treated especially gently, and it was best if they were often in the hands of their mothers. It was important, according to Alberti, that fathers, while the ut most authority in the family, exhibit dignity and kindness. They were to "maintain authority through love." Alberti also touched on the subjects of dowries, inter-class marriages, education, and discipline. --James Beals