This paper presents a research on the use of shape grammars as an analytical tool in the history of architecture. It evolves within a broader project called Digital Alberti, whose goal is to determine the influence of De re aedificatoria treatise on Portuguese Renaissance architecture, making use of a computational framework (Krüger et al., 2011).Previous work was concerned with the development of a shape grammar for generating sacred buildings according to the rules textually described in the treatise. This work describes the transformation of the treatise grammar into another grammar that can also account for the generation of Alberti’s built work.