Brunelleschi's Dome

In preparation for my trip to Florence, I read Ross King's book about the building of the Duomo. The finished product is so impressive. You can see the dome from all over the Renaissance parts of the city, and it is so massive that it appears closer than it actually is. It was the first dome built in Europe in modern times, and is considered to be what heralded the beginning of the Italian Renaissance.

Brunelleschi is best remembered for his architectural and engineering skills. He was born in 1377, and he started off as an artist as well as an engineer. When the Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore) was being built, there was a competition to design it's dome--luckily for posterity--and Brunelleschi--his design for the Baptistry doors was bested by Lorenzo Ghilberti, so he was free to study dome construction. He went back to the ancient Romans and how they built the Pantheon as a start for his plan. He sifted through rubble and used his mathematical skills to design a dome within a dome, and the results are history. Very impressive. My single favorite non-engineering skill that Bruneschelli demonstrated was a sense of what his workers could tolerate--he brought them food and winde on their breaks so they did not have to climb up and down the scaffolding every time they needed a break--he realized that that would be wasted energy, and judging from the peposo I had in Orvieto, said to be based on his recipe, the workers ate very well.