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The article explores Italian slave labor particularly the employment of slaves in the construction of the Royal Palace of Caserta in Italy. Topics discussed include the accidental death of a slave named Robis of Tripoli during the construction, the religious and political aspects of slavery in the region, and brief details about the work conditions, housing, and conversion of Muslim slaves at Caserta to Christianity.

The article discusses the history of Florentine architect Giuliano da Sangallo's design of the royal palace for the king of Naples, Ferrante of Aragon, which was commissioned by Lorenzo de' Medici in 1488. Topics discussed include the cultural exchanges and diplomatic relationships between Naples and Florence, the role of architecture in Italian Renaissance states' diplomatic activity, and the survival of three autograph drawings of the palace. Also mentioned are the rebuilding of Castel Nuovo, da Sangallo's study and use of antiquities of Naples, and the Neopolitan design of the palace.

An essay is presented which discusses history of the design and construction of the palace the Palazzo Tolomei in Siena, Italy from the mid 13th century through the early 14th century. The article offers several photographs of Siena's architecture, including of the Palazzo Vecchio, north façade of the Palazzo Pubblico and the Piazza San Cristoforo. An overview of the use of the Palazzo Tolomei for public and private purposes is provided.

The article examines Cardinal Giovanni Battista Pamphilj's use of architecture as a means of self-representation. He commissioned a palace that doubled the size of his ancestral home in the Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy. The palace offered more space to accommodate separate households for the cardinal and his brother. According to the article, the palace represented a culminating moment in the efforts of the Pamphilj to forge and articulate an identity in Rome. It adds that Pamphilj's palace embodied the aspiration of several generations of the family to gain a visible and impressive presence in the Piazza Navona.

Cosimo de' Medici's great house on the Via Larga in Florence, begun in the mid-1440s, was the model of Early Renaissance palace architecture. By the time he moved into it, however, sometime before 1458, Cosimo's life had nearly run its course. Most of his years had been spent in the house of his father, the casa vecchia of the Medici, also on the Via Larga. Possibly at the same time as the construction of the new palace, this first Medici palace underwent a transformation that united the main house and flanking buildings behind one vast facade. This article seeks to ascertain the precise nature and location of the old Medici complex on the Via Larga through examination of the visual and documentary evidence of the casa vecchia and all adjoining properties. An inventory of the house made in 1418 suggests a tentative reconstruction of the interior of the old palace, while comparison with other 14th-century houses may warrant certain assumptions about its external appearance. It will be seen that a striking similarity exists between the 1418 inventory of parts of the first Medici palace and the order of the palace begun by Cosimo de' Medici in the 1440s. As was usual in Early Renaissance architecture, the components and arrangement of an earlier house became the point of departure for the program and layout of a new house. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented which discusses topics including the Mediterranean island-city architecture, the employment of slaves in the construction of the Royal Palace of Caserta in Italy, and the political issues surrounding public housing policies in Portugal.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the design of a royal palace in Naples, Italy in 1488, an architectural exposition in Paris, France in 1937, and the Electric Farm at the 1939 New York World's Fair.