Product Description

Even in an age of soaring skyscrapers and cavernous sports stadiums, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, with its immense, terracotta-tiled cupola, still retains a rare power to astonish. Yet the elegance of the building belies the tremendous labour, technical ingenuity and bitter personal strife involved in its creation. For over a century after work on the cathedral began in 1296, the proposed dome was regarded as all but impossible to build because of its enormous size. The greatest architectural puzzle of its age, when finally completed in 1436 the dome was hailed as one of the great wonders of the world.To this day, it remains the highest and widest masonry dome ever built. This book tells the extraordinary story of how the cupola was raised, from its conception to its consecration. Also told is the story of the dome's architect, the brilliant and volatile Filippo Brunelleschi. Denounced as a madman at the start of his labours, he was celebrated at their end as a great genius. His life was one of ambition, ingenuity, rivalry and intrigue - a human drama set against the plagues, wars, political feuds and intellectual ferments of Renaissance Florence, the glorious era for which the dome remains the most compelling symbol.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26223 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Amazon.co.uk 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. Completed in 1436, the dome remains a remarkable feat of design and engineering. Its span of over 140 feet exceeds St Paul's in London and St Peter's in Rome, and even outdoes the Capitol in Washington DC, making it the largest dome ever constructed using bricks and mortar. The story of its creation and its brilliant but "hot-tempered" creator is told in Ross King's delightful Brunelleschi's Dome.

King has already established himself as an accomplished novelist, author of Domino, Ex-Libris, and the story of both dome and architect offer him plenty of rich material. The story of the dome goes back to 1296 when work began 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 began 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 completed only months before his own death. King argues that it was Filippo's improvised brilliance in solving the problem of suspending the enormous cupola in bricks and mortar (painstakingly detailed with precise illustrations) that led him to "succeed in performing an engineering feat whose structural daring was without parallel". He tells a compelling and informed story, ranging from discussions of the construction of the bricks, mortar and marble that made up the dome, to its subsequent use as a scientific instrument by the Florentine astronomer Paolo Toscanelli. --Jerry Brotton

From the Publisher
The superb story of the architect Filippo Brunelleschi and the design and construction of the Great Cathedral in Florence - one of the most magnificent achievements of the Italian Renaissance.

About the Author
Ross King is the author of two novels and the highly praised Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling. He lives near Oxford.

Customer Reviews

a fabulous story of human endeavour, genius and weaknesses
as a modern day consultant working on large projects, I found this book very uplifting. Things haven't changed too much! As a regular visitor to Italy it enhanced my knowledge of one of the great wonders. This is a novel, a history book, a study in human nature; it is amusing, enlightening and intellectually sound.

Fascinating reading, but start by visiting Florence...
It is a great book to read. Buy the book, take a week off, go to Florence and read the book THERE - you will admire the book so much more if you visit the Duomo before and after reading the book. It is fascinating how such a project started whitout anyone being sure if it could ever be finished.

It is interesting from so many different angles - architecture, history, project management, change management, life as such, great achievements of mankind, and so on, and so on... - that I find it difficult to classify this book as a history book, an architecture book, a biography, a management text, or something else.

Filippo's Dome Vs. Lorenzo's Doors
This is another great read from Mr. King. A week or two ago I finished his wonderful "Michelangelo And The Pope's Ceiling" and at that point I decided I'd have to read "Brunelleschi's Dome". Over the past year or so I'd seen "Brunelleschi's Dome" in various bookstores and I'd skimmed through the pages- never buying it because I was put off by the technical illustrations. I figured this must be a book meant for architects and engineers. But I was wrong. While there is no denying that the technical aspects are a major part of the book, the illustrations are very useful in helping the lay reader to understand the ingenious solutions that Brunelleschi came up with to overcome the numerous technical difficulties involved in the construction of such a large dome. By going into the nitty-gritty of the construction process, Mr. King allows us to appreciate Filippo's accomplishment. After all, this was a man who was a goldsmith and clockmaker- not an architect! And even though the book is under 200 pages in length, Mr. King manages to include a lot of interesting peripheral information. We learn about the lives of the masons who worked on the dome- how many days they worked (only about 200 per year, actually. They had off Sundays and religious feast days, which came about once a week. They also couldn't work in bad weather); what they ate and drank (surprisingly, although they were a couple of hundred of feet above the ground they drank wine! Considering water quality at the time, wine was considered healthier. Florentines also believed that it "improved the blood, hastened digestion, calmed the intellect, enlivened the spirit, and expelled wind". Mr. King adds that wine "might also have given a fillip of courage to men clinging to an inward-curving vault..."!). Filippo was very safety-conscious. Because of his precautions, only one man died and few were injured during the 26 years Brunelleschi was in charge of the actual construction. A good thing....these were the days before workers' compensation and survivors' benefits! Another interesting theme of the book is the rivalry between Filippo and Lorenzo Ghiberti. Years earlier, Ghiberti had bested Brunelleschi in the contest to see who would be awarded the commission to cast and put up the bronze doors for the Baptistery of San Giovanni. Ghiberti won that competition. This time around Brunelleschi came up with the winning design. However, Ghiberti was still involved in "The Dome" project and there was no love lost between the two men. There was a lot of nasty backbiting behind the scenes of the "this guy doesn't know what the heck he's doing!" variety. Despite the fact that Ghiberti's baptistery doors are considered to be an artistic masterpiece (and were recognized as such by his contemporaries and by those who came shortly after- even the persnickety Michelangelo marveled at the workmanship) the following anecdote will give you some idea of the ill-will between the two men: Lorenzo, who was generally an astute businessman and was always on the lookout for good places to put his money, had bought a farm in the hills above Florence. Mr. King writes, "As the farm, called Lepriano, did not prove a successful investment, Lorenzo was forced to sell it. Years later Filippo was asked what he thought was the best piece of work Lorenzo had ever done, to which he replied- 'Selling Lepriano'". If we add "comedian" to his long list of accomplishments, we see that Filippo Brunelleschi was indeed a true "Renaissance Man"!