Brunelleschi's dome : how a Renaissance genius reinvented architecture / Ross King.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

King, Ross, 1962- author.

Contributor:

Martin and Margy Meyerson Endowment Fund for the Built Environment.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Santa Maria del Fiore (Cathedral : Florence, Italy).

Brunelleschi, Filippo, 1377-1446.

Brunelleschi, Filippo.

Domes--Italy--Florence--Design and construction.

Domes.

Florence (Italy)--Buildings, structures, etc.

Florence (Italy).

Italy--Florence.

Physical Description:

194 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Edition:

Paperback edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Bloomsbury, 2013.

Summary:

Brunelleschi's Dome tells the story of how a Renaissance genius bent men, materials, and the very forces of nature to build the main dome of Florence's Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral, an architectural wonder we continue to marvel at today. Filippo Brunelleschi, not a master mason or carpenter, but rather a goldsmith and clockmaker, engineered the perfect placement of brick and stone, built ingenious hoists and cranes to carry an estimated seventy million pounds hundreds of feet into the air, and designed the workers' platforms and routines so carefully that only one man died during the decades of construction-all the while defying those who said the dome would surely collapse. This drama was played out amid plagues, wars, political feuds, and the intellectual ferments of Renaissance Florence-events Ross King weaves into the story to great effect. Offering a wealth of fascinating detail that opens windows onto fifteenth-century life, King illuminates the celebrated traditions of the brickmaker's art, the problems of transportation, and the power of the guilds. Even today, in an age of soaring skyscrapers, the cathedral dome of Santa Maria del Fiore retains a rare power to astonish. Ross King brings its creation to life in a fifteenth-century chronicle with twenty-first-century resonance. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 A More Beautiful and Honourable Temple 1

2 The Goldsmith of San Giovanni 12

3 The Treasure Hunters 21

4 An Ass and a Babbler 32

5 The Rivals 43

6 Men without Name or Family 49

7 Some Unheard-of Machine 56

8 The Chain of Stone 70

9 The Tale of the Fat Carpenter 76

10 The Pointed Fifth 82

11 Bricks and Mortar 91

12 Circle by Circle 100

13 The Monster of the Arno 108

14 Debacle at Lucca 118

15 From Bad to Worse 128

16 Consecration 137

17 The Lantern 141

18 Magni Ingenii Viri Philippi Brunelleschi 153

19 The Nest of Delights 160.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-177) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Martin and Margy Meyerson Endowment Fund for the Built Environment.

ISBN:

1620401932

9781620401934

OCLC:

810534052

Publisher Number:

99958863285