Ross King's Epic Tale of the Construction of Brunelleschi's Dome

Anna W: Interesting well written book

United States on Nov 15, 2023

Thomas Holthus: Great book to read the history of Florence’s Duomo dome creation

United States on Sep 23, 2023

Edward Harris: if you like the Duomo in Florence
read about the man who made the dome a reality

United States on Sep 16, 2023

Sammy: Beautifully detailed and well set out in plain and simple language. Needs to be read a few times to remember all the details but its an enjoyable read. Recommended.

Australia on Aug 04, 2023

S L Collison: Fascinating book and the engineering that occurred to effect the Dome was incredible for the time.
The blood sweat and tears the workers encountered were graphical described.

United Kingdom on Jul 13, 2023

Amazon Customer: Erudite, entertaining, informative, this wonderful is, in itself, a literary ‘work of Art’: a fitting, entertaining memoir to true genius.

United Kingdom on Jun 04, 2023

Mr. T. A. Pitman: This was a reading group selection and having admired the cathedral and dome 3 times in person, this book gives an excellent account of its construction. It covers the huge difficulties in its construction and also gives a very good account of the social history of the times in which it was built. The latter was fascinating. Perhaps there could have been more detail about this - for example the author cites that many senior male figures in Florence were bachelors. Did they fret about their population size given that Florence was a small republic.

The book does put the slow building of Sagrada Familia in perspective and makes one think that Crossrail delays are not so bad after all!

The book will certainly accompany us if we visit Florence again and will enhance any such future visit.

United Kingdom on Nov 03, 2020

Ricardo Mio: It was some contest. And some prize. The contest had come down to this: who among the achitects could stand an egg on its end. The prize was designing what would become the signature architectural landmark of Florence, Italy--the octagonal Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore. The year was 1418.

Such an undertaking would require more than mere artistic vision. It would require engineering techniques yet to be developed and something more: unshakeable optimism, for nothing like it had ever been done before. Indeed, few believed it could be done. The dome would have to begin at a height of 177 feet above the ground, span an opening of 138 feet, and rise to a height of 375 feet. To put it into perspective, the dome would rise from an opening 18 stories above the street, and top out at the equivalent of a 38-story building. Just getting building materials up to a height of an 18-story building to begin to begin the job would be a formidable undertaking in itself.

How the dome was built is the subject of "Brunelleschi's Dome" by Ross King. It's a fascinating story, and well told. Below are a few of the details.

Filippo Brunelleschi won the contest by challenging the other...

United States on Apr 10, 2014

G. Catalfamo: I’m so glad to have stumbled across this great book (for some reason, the Amazon.com store does not carry the Kindle edition, while the .it store does.

The story of Filippo Brunelleschi’s amazing architectural skills is told with a thriller-like tension that makes this a true page turner.

Of course, having seen the Santa Maria del Fiore church (privileges of living in Italy, I guess…) and having seen with your own eyes the immensity of what is still today the largest brick and mortar dome ever built by man adds to the awesomeness: man, this thing is BIG (45.6 m in diameter or almost-twice-the-span-of-the-Capitol-big for my US-bound readers)!

From an architecture history point of view, you may argue the Pantheon in Rome is perhaps even more stunning, having being built to a similar span (“only” 43.3mt) fifteen centuries before, using concrete technology long forgotten, but the perfectly spherical shape of the Pantheon means the oculus at the summit is exactly 43.3m high, while the lantern crowning Brunelleschi’s dome starts at around 100m !!

Even more awesome is the fact that the Great Man had to invent all the devices to haul the massive...

Italy on Dec 05, 2012

Bruce Loveitt: 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 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 thought it looked too technical. I was put off by the various technical illustrations and thought, "Oh, this is really a book for an architect or engineer". 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 information other than the material which concerns the construction process. We...

United States on Feb 12, 2003