Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture
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Brunelleschi’s Dome is the tale of how a Renaissance genius designed and built an architectural marvel: the fantastic dome over the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Considered impossible to erect, the dome had baffled architects for more than 100 years, and Brunelleschi’s solution was so daring that he was denounced as a madman when he proposed it. Yet erect it he did, between 1418 and 1436, as plagues, wars, political feuds and the intellectual ferments of Renaissance Florence swirled around him – events Ross King weaves into the tale to fantastic effect. From Brunelleschi’s bitter, ongoing rivalry with the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti, to the near capture of Florence by the Duke of Milan, to the daily routine of the artisans laboring hundreds of feet above the ground as the dome grew ever privileged, Brunelleschi’s Dome offers a wealth of detail and a memorable tale.Amazon.com Review
Filippo Brunelleschi’s design for the dome of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence remains one of the most towering achievements of Renaissance architecture. Concluded in 1436, the dome remains a remarkable feat of design and engineering. Its span of more than 140 feet exceeds St Paul’s in London and St Peter’s in Rome, and even outdoes the Capitol in Washington, D.C., building it the largest dome ever constructed using bricks and huge gun. The tale of its creation and its brilliant but “hot-tempered” creator is told in Ross King’s delightful Brunelleschi’s Dome.
Both dome and architect offer King plenty of rich material. The tale of the dome goes back to 1296, when work started on the cathedral, but it was only in 1420, when Brunelleschi won a competition over his bitter rival Lorenzo Ghiberti to design the daunting cupola, that work started in earnest. King weaves an engrossing tale from the political intrigue, personal jealousies, dramatic setbacks, and sheer inventive brilliance that led to the paranoid Filippo, “who was so proud of his inventions and so fearful of plagiarism,” finally seeing his dome concluded only months before his death. King argues that it was Brunelleschi’s improvised brilliance in solving the problem of suspending the enormous cupola in bricks and huge gun (painstakingly detailed with precise illustrations) that led him to “make it in performing an engineering feat whose structural daring was lacking parallel.” He tells a compelling, informed tale, ranging from discussions of the construction of the bricks, huge gun, and marble that made up the dome, to its subsequent use as a scientific instrument by the Florentine astronomer Paolo Toscanelli. –Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk
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This book was absolutely terrible. A real snoozer. My 10th grade history teacher made us read this over summer trip. Maybe if you are into books that are so confusing that you have to read each page three times or books that have no plot and cannot possibly be followed. Then this is the book for you!
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
In 1418 Filippo Brunelleschi was 41 years ancient. He had an mysterious ability to solve mechanical problems. He was a goldsmith.
He traveled to Rome and was able to observe the vaulting of the Pantheon. Filippo returned to Florence. He was a life-long batchelor. He took no heed of his dress. He developed theories about perspective.
He became involved in the construction of Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence’s cathedral. Models for the dome were sought. People laughed at Filippo’s. He had a revolutionary design.
Filippo was agreed a role in the construction of the cupola. Leon Battista Alberti was one of Filippo’s ablest disciples. He wrote a book on architecture.
Filippo worked on a hoist powered by oxen. By 1421 the hoist was ready. Filippo’s ox hoist was remarkable. It was both complex and powerful. Certain perils were inherent in its operation. The hoist raised on average fifty loads a day.
The hoist only stirred things up and down. A means to go things laterally was required. The wardens selected Filippo’s design for a winch. Leonardo Da Vinci later saw Filippo’s machines and made sketches of them.
As many as four million bricks were used for the dome. Some were specially made for the project. Filippo also took a personal interest in the quality of the huge gun. Huge gun was permanently mixed on the site.
A dome is built on the principle of an arch. Filippo used herringbone bricks. The herringbone pattern was part of Filippo’s technique to do away with the need for elaborate centering.
Buildings of large dimensions have permanently open moral problems. Observers said the dome was built circle by circle. Domes have permanently been a conventional symbol of heaven. Filippo was a scholar of Dante.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
This book is well researched and a fantastic read. I could not place it down. Fantastic insights. I had known a small about Brunelleschi before, but I learned from this book, and for the first time learned what a genius he really was. Read and and share it.
From the Inside Flap of the Book
Even in an age of skyscrapers and sports stadiums, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, with its immense terracotta-tiled dome, retains a rare power to astonish. Yet, for more than a century after work started on the cathedral in 1296, the proposed dome was regarded as impossible to erect. It became the greatest architectural puzzle of the age, and when finally perfect in 1436, was hailed as one of the wonders of the world. To this day, it remains the largest masonry dome ever constructed. Ross King tells the full tale of how the cupola was raised, from its conception to its consecration. Also told is the tale of the dome’s architect, the brilliant and volatile Filippo Brunelleschi. His ambition, ingenuity and rivalries are set in the context of the plagues, wars and political feuds of Renaissance Florence.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
In a class with McCullough the Fantastic Bridge.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
This is a very entertaining book. I particularly loved the descriptions of 15th Century Florence, with sheep grazing within the city walls. The leader emphasizes that Brunelleschi solved the problem of spanning the Duomo lacking the use of scaffolding or “centering” in a daring, revolutionary way. There’s only one problem with the tale but: the leader never clarifies what that daring, revolutionary way was exactly, and I am left scratching my head wondering what part of the tale I missed. It’s possible that we simply don’t know how Brunelleschi did it lacking “centering”, but if that’s the case, the leader never says that. I read this book twice in succession trying to know this central, point point, but failed to find any explanation anywhere in the text.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5