With the publication of the first anthology of Leonardo da Vinci, edited by Jean Paul Richter, the heterogeneous corpus of writings by Leonardo, scattered among various manuscripts and loose sheets, first became systematically catalogued. The seventh chapter of this anthology (“On the Proportions and on the Movements of the Human Figure”) contains notes related to the proportions of the human body. Since the appearance of this publication, studies of proportion in the work of Leonardo have proceeded along the lines of Richter's thematic groupings, focusing especially on the anatomical drawings of humans (head, face, foot, hand, arms, legs, whole body) and of horses (preparatory for the Sforza and Trivulzio equestrian monuments). Rarely have such studies been concerned with Leonardo's architectural drawings.

Inspired by the opportune appearances of the first three editions of Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism by Rudolf Wittkower and The Theory of Proportion in Architecture by Peter Hugh Scholfield, all of which contain references to Leonardo's architectural drawings as parts of broader discussions of architectural proportions, Carlo Pedretti was the first to examine an architectural drawing by Leonardo da Vinci with the primary purpose of intensively studying its proportions (Figs. 1 and 2). This drawing is the well-known perspective sketch of a sacred building, in the top right margin of f. 238v, conserved in the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice and dating to 1515. Pedretti's study went so far as to deduce from an external perspective view a precise floor plan. Pedretti's example has not been followed.

A systematic study of the architectural drawings of Leonardo was undertaken by Jean Guillaume, on the occasion of an exhibition in Montreal on Leonardo as engineer and architect. This study was undertaken from the point of view of typological groupings, based on attempted planimetric reconstructions from the drawings, similar to what Arnaldo Bruschi had previously done for 15th-century centralized structures. For this exhibit, the premises of which were formally laid out in an essay published the following year, Guillaume and Krista De Jonge examined the same central-plan temple that had aroused the interest of Scholfield, Codex Ashburnham 2037, f. 5v = Ms. B, f. 95v. From a plan measuring 90 × 73 mm and an exterior perspective view measuring 73 × 66 mm, they deduced a complete project (plan, elevation and section).