On Architecture was considered the fundamental book of Western architecture until the nineteenth century. It was the first architectural treatise to appear in print (in 1585) and it was the basis for a long series of architectural treatises of later centuries, such as those of Serlio, Palladio and Scamozzi. Leon Battista Alberti, born in Genoa in 1404, was one of the main figures of the Italian Renaissance. He was a writer, philosopher, painter and architect, and theoretician of architecture, painting and sculpture. His De re aedificatoria (On Architecture) of 1452 can be seen as a counterpart to the Ten Books on Architecture by the Roman architect Vitruvius and is considered the starting point of Renaissance architectural theory. Alberti emphasized that architecture is not a craft, but an intellectual discipline and a social art, for which two skills are indispensable: painting and mathematics. Architecture had to reflect the social and political order of society. Thus Alberti developed proposals for new, modern building types, including prisons and hospitals.