Brunelleschi's Dome

This book is the little story of the way competition combined with a big problem combined with clever brain synapses resulted in the completion of a puzzle which was fitfully struggled with for years.

Oh man, so capital-L Life got in the way of my properly absorbing this book, and I spent most of it just skimming with eyes glazed over. But, in the rare moments I was able to actually focus, I did enjoy it. Ross King captures the personalities and politics of 15th century Florence, with the irascible Filippo Brunelleschi vs. the vain/ambitious Lorenzo Ghiberti. Who knew!

Here's a Khan Academy video on the Dome itself, and why it's magnificent from an engineering (and not just aesthetic) perspective. Go, Filippo. Go, Florence. Go, Renaissance.

Il Duomo dominates Florence, and I was so happy I had read this book before I saw Il Duomo.