Brunelleschi's Dome: The Story of the Great Cathedral in Florence - Hardcover

King, Ross

3.9

26,730 ratings by Goodreads

9780701169039: Brunelleschi's Dome: The Story of the Great Cathedral in Florence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701169036 ISBN 13: 9780701169039

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2000

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This work tells the story of the largest masonry dome ever built, describing the tremendous labour, technical ingenuity and bitter personal strife involved in its creation. Initially regarded as impossible to build, the construction of the dome, for the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, became the greatest architectural puzzle of the age, and, when finally completed in 1436, was hailed as one of the great wonders of the world. Also told is the story of the dome's architect, the brilliant and volatile Fillippo Brunelleschi. His ambition and ingenuity, personal rivalries and intrigues are set in the context of the plagues, wars and political feuds of Renaissance Florence.

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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

Review:

"Compelling... professional jealousy, committee intrigue, feats of bluff and fascinating scraps of obsolete lore... Where Longitude had ocean wastes, Brunelleschi's Dome has vertigo" (Spectator)

"As each novel feat of genius engineering flowers high above the ground, details of scandals and pranks blow up from the city streets to create an altogether enchanting tale" (Dava Sobel, author of Longitude)

"An adventure yarn set on the wild frontiers of human knowledge... abounding with excellent stories" (Financial Times)

"A wonderfully vivid little book" (Daily Telegraph)

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