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Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture | 
 enlarge | Author: Ross King
Publisher: Walker Company
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
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Rating:  103 reviews
Sales Rank: 32804
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0802713661
Dewey Decimal Number: 726.6094551
EAN: 9780802713667
ASIN: 0802713661
Publication Date: October 1, 2000
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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. Completed 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., 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 IBrunelleschi's Dome/I.p Both dome and architect offer King 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 death. King argues that it was Brunelleschi'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, 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. I--Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk/I
Product Description
DIVDIVAnyone alive in Florence on August 19, 1418, would have understood the significance of the competition announced that day concerning the city#8217;s magnificent new cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, already under construction for more than a century. #8220;Whoever desires to make any model or design for the vaulting of the main Dome#8230;shall do so before the end of the month of September.#8221; The proposed dome was regarded far and wide as all but impossible to build: not only would it be enormous, but its original and sacrosanct design eschewed (shunned) the flying buttresses that supported cathedrals all over Europe. The dome would literally need to be erected over thin air.BRBROf the many plans submitted, one stood out#8212;a daring and unorthodox solution to vaulting what is still the largest dome (143 feet in diameter) in the world. It was offered not by a master mason or carpenter, but by a goldsmith and clock maker named Filippo Brunelleschi, then 41, who would dedicate the next 28 years to solving the puzzles of the dome#8217;s construction. In the process, he did nothing less than reinvent the field of architecture.BRBRIBrunelleschi#8217;s Dome/I is the story of how a Renaissance genius bent men, materials, and the very forces of nature to build an architectural wonder we continue to marvel at today. Denounced at first as a madman, Brunelleschi was celebrated at the end as a genius. He engineered the perfect placement of brick and stone, built ingenious hoists and cranes (some among the most renowned machines of the Renaissance) to carry an estimated 70 million pounds hundreds of feet into the air, and designed the workers#8217; platforms and routines so carefully that only one man died during the decades of construction#8212;all the while defying those who said the dome would surely collapse and personal obstacles that at times threatened to overwhelm him. This drama was played out amidst plagues, wars, political feuds, and the intellectual ferments of Renaissance Florence#8212;events Ross King weaves into the story to great effect, from Brunelleschi#8217;s bitter, ongoing rivalry with the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti to the near capture of Florence by the Duke of Milan. King also offers a wealth of fascinating detail that opens windows onto fifteenth-century life: the celebrated traditions of the brickmaker#8217;s art, the daily routine of the artisans laboring hundreds of feet above the ground as the dome grew ever higher, the problems of transportation, the power of the guilds.BRBREven today, in an age of soaring skyscrapers, the cathedral dome of Santa Maria del Fiore retains a rare power to astonish. In telling the story of the greatest engineering puzzle of the Renaissance and one of the world#8217;s architectural marvels, Ross King brings its creation to life in a fifteenth-century chronicle with twenty-first-century resonance./DIV/DIV
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| Customer Reviews: Read 98 more reviews...
 So sorry I didn't climb the dome on my recent trip to florence.... September 13, 2008
Jeffrey Roberts (Long Island, New York United States)
I travel a ton and I am so sorry I didn't climb Brunelleschi's Dome. After reading this book, I want to go back, just to climb and see all the details I just read about. At times the book got slow and technical, but it was overall fascinating.....Stands the test of time....
A short well written story about building a Renaissance church August 30, 2008
railmeat (Emeryville, CA USA)
The story of Brunelleschi's Dome is about a unique architectural accomplishment, one that has not been surpassed in the hundreds of years since it was built. The story is not just about the Dome, but about Brunelleschi and his competitors. It even gives us a glimpse of the era in which it takes place. br / br /The book is short, only 167 pages. It is somewhat superficial; it does not delve too deeply into any one aspect of the Dome, the people or the time in which it was built. Readers with specialist knowledge or interest in any of those areas might be disappointed. Some of the descriptions of the building technics used and of the engineering of the Dome left me confused. More diagrams would have helped. br / br /While this book does not have enough information in any one area to interest specialists, I thought it was a great read. It was an well written narrative on an interesting topic I would not have known much about otherwise. br / br /
 A must-read before visiting Florence April 20, 2008
Florentius (New Jersey, USA)
No, this isn't a book about an Italian guy with a big head, although Filippo Brunelleschi certainly had a massive ego. Brunelleschi's Dome is about the city of Florence generally during one of the greatest periods of genius and creativity in human history. It is also, specifically, about the life of Filippo Brunelleschi, a classic genius of the Italian Renaissance, and his magnificent dome which dominates the skyline of Florence to this day. Like so many of his contemporaries, Brunelleschi had a high level of expertise in a variety of fields. He was an artist, an engineer, a craftsman, a philologist, and an overall solver of impossible problems. He was also a bit of a whack-job whose failures were nearly as spectacular as his successes. br / br /With this book, Ross King has penned an engrossing popular biography of Brunelleschi, as well as a history of the construction of his famous dome. While the book goes into some detail regarding the engineering behind the construction of the dome, the prose is never heavy and is written so that the layman, such as myself, never gets bored or lost. br / br /My wife and I visited Italy in 2000 and climbing to the top of the Duomo was one of the high points (literally!) of the trip. I wish I had read this book beforehand! I therefore highly recommend it to anyone who is planning a visit to Florence. It will give you that much more appreciation for the amount of work--and genius--that went into the construction of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.
A dome for eternity April 17, 2008
ImageMD (Miami, FL USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The dual papacy had been resolved in favor of Rome (1416). Florence was the interim home for the Pope while permanent quarters were being readied in Rome (1420). Florence considered itself the new Athens of the western world, and on August 19, 1418 Filippo Brunelleschi submitted his design for the dome of the city's new cathedral. His design pushed the technology of bricklaying to never seen before sophistication, producing a dome 143 feet in diameter; a dome which is still the largest masonry dome in the world. His radical design and construction techniques for the double-walled dome required no temporary central scaffolding and support. br / br /The work was interrupted by disease, war and political upheavals. Finally, the octagonal dome was completed in 1436 and the lantern on top of the dome was completed in 1461, fifteen years after Filippo's death. Ross King weaves a wonderful story about this technological feat. This book should appeal to all art, architecture and history buffs. br /
Useful History: Short and Fun to Read January 8, 2008
Eric W. Zeller (Dallas, TX)
King's book is historical, but it reads like a novel as it weaves Italian history in with the fascinating account of Brunelleschi's rise from nowhere to become one of the greatest architects and engineers in history. Having toured the Florence Duomo and wondered "How did they build that with no heavy equipment," it is amazing to find out how they really did. This book is reasonably short; well written; and very informative. Highly recommended.
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