By all accounts, Filippo Brunelleschi, goldsmith and clockmaker, was an unkempt, cantankerous, and suspicious man-even by the generous standards according to which artists were judged in fifteenth-century Florence. He also designed and erected a dome over the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore-a feat of architectural daring that we continue to marvel at today-thus securing himself a place among the most formidable geniuses of the Renaissance. At first denounced as a madman, Brunelleschi literally reinvented the field of architecture amid plagues, wars, and political feuds to raise seventy million pounds of metal, wood, and marble hundreds of feet in the air. Ross King's captivating narrative brings to life the personalities and intrigue surrounding the twenty-eight-year-long construction of the dome, opening a window onto Florentine life during one of history's most fascinating eras. List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. A More Beautiful and Honourable Temple
2. The Goldsmith of San Giovanni
3. The Treasure Hunters
4. An Ass and a Babbler
5. The Rivals
6. Men without Name or Family
7. Some Unheard-of Machine
8. The Chain of Stone
9. The Tale of the Fat Carpenter
10. The Pointed Fifth
11. Bricks and Mortar
12. Circle by Circle
13. The Monster of the Arno
14. Debacle at Lucca
15. From Bad to Worse
16. Consecration
17. The Lantern
18. Magni Ingenii Viri Philippi Brunelleschi
19. The Nest of Delights
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

Book Sense Book of the Year Nonfiction Award

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