How did the Alberti family’s exile from Florence affect Leon Battista Alberti’s early life?

Because the Alberti family was in exile from Florence at the time of his birth, Leon Battista Alberti was born in Genoa, where his father, Lorenzo, was managing the family’s business interests. Following his birth, the family moved to Venice, where Alberti was raised.1

This period of exile meant that Alberti grew up outside of his ancestral city, shaped by his father’s professional life as a merchant-banker rather than by the immediate political environment of Florence. Despite this displacement, his father remained dedicated to his upbringing and education, providing him with mathematical training and, later, a formal humanistic education at a boarding school in Padua. The family’s banishment, enforced by the rival Albizzi family, lasted until 1428, though they did not regain full civic rights until 1434.12