Brunelleschi's Dome

How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture

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. Filippo Brunelleschi 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.

Filippo Brunelleschi

At first denounced as a madman, Filippo 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.

Ross King

Ross King is the author of two novels, Ex Libris and Domino. Brunelleschi's Dome is his first book published in the United States.
Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper)
ISBN: 0142000159