Rating: 
Summary: A good place to begin
Review: Bruneslleschi's Dome is Ross King's first non-fiction work. It is relatively short at less than 170 pages of main text - but it does contain plenty of notes at the end of the book. The building of the dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore church in Florence, Italy, is an interesting story. Fillipo Brunelleschi's design for the dome, and for the machines used to hoist the many thousands of tons of stone and marble to heights unheard of before, was simply ingenious. King points out that Brunelleschi departed from contemporary techniques in a number of ways and that the inspiration for some of them surely lies with classical Greek and Roman models. When the source is simply unknown, and when, in some cases, it is unclear precisely how Brunelleschi achieved what he did, King does a credible job of making a guess. Though there are illustrations throughout, they are generally small, always in black-and-white, and fail to adequately illustrate the engineering principals that King is trying to describe. And though he does include anecdotes about Brunelleschi's life he falls short of the colorful, lively portrait he paints of Michelangelo in his book, "Michelangelo and the Popes Ceiling." Unlike the latter book, this book paints the political and social environment surrounding the subject matter in broad brushstrokes, adding more detail for the design and building of the dome itself. Consequently, it seems less like a full-length book than a very long essay. I enjoyed reading the book and you can see the beginnings of the style that King would use more successfully in, "Michelangelo and the Popes Ceiling."
Rating: 
Summary: Great Architect, Great Book
Review: Anyone who has been to the ancient Italian city of Florence recognizes the big dome that dominates the city. It is atop the cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore, and is larger than the dome of the US Capitol, St. Paul's in London, or even St. Peter's in Rome. It was built before any of them, in 1436. The architect, Filippo Brunelleschi, solved many problems to produce the wonder. He did away with any central scaffold on which to build the dome, and his design for such machines as an ox-powered hoist were innovative and useful. 70 million pounds of brick, mortar, marble, and more were hoisted into the air. The dome gradually rose, while below it were plagues, wars, jealous arguments against Brunelleschi, and financial problems. The book is exciting as it traces the progress of the dome, and it brings out the personality of Brunelleschi well. It gives details of Renaissance life, such as guilds, food, transportation, and brickmaking. Fascinating.
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Summary: Renaissance & Antiquity re-discovered
Review: Remarkable! The author provides details and analysis that makes this worth - while read, to say the least; the Renaissance is definitely a time of great inventions, including the falsification of medieval and antique chronology. Read "History: Fiction of Science" by the author-mathematician Fomenko. His findings are all the more shocking that they are proved with math and astronomy...
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Summary: New light on the history of a world famous building
Review: You'd think it was scarcely possible to write yet another book on Renaissance Florence, and yet produce something fresh, original and illuminating. But Ross King has done exactly this - and what's more he's chosen as his subject one of the most familiar, most studied - and most visited - buildings in Europe, Florence cathedral. Every guidebook says that Brunelleschi designed the dome, or cupola, of the cathedral, and that it's the biggest masonry dome ever built. But to learn how it was built, you normally have to turn to some pretty specialised works of art history. Ross King has drawn on these. But he goes much further, and brings the Florence of the first half of the fifteenth century, and especially the people engaged in building the great cathedral, tremendously to life. Brunelleschi himself is portrayed as an argumentative and moody man, with no doubts of his own importance. But he also emerges as one of the most imaginative and daring architects and engineers of any era. His dome is shown to be not just an artistic triumph, and one of the defining structures of Western architecture, but also a technical masterpiece, studied by architects to this day. In many ways this book reminds one of Dava Sobel's "Galileo's Daughter". The style is very different, and Ross King writes of Florence two hundred years before Galileo, but in taking such an original and captivating look at an apparently familiar subject, "Brunelleschi's Dome" stands comparison. Certainly if you enjoyed one, you'll like the other.
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Summary: Compelling portrait of early Renaissance
Review: Ross King gives us a portrait of early Renaissance Italy vivid enough we can smell the cheap wine swilled by laborers in Florence. The true story of the construction of this cathedral, including its astonishing dome, is foolish and wonderful. The emergence of Brunelleschi and his competition with Lorenzo Ghiberti (who produced the amazing doors of the Baptistery, where a replica now stands) serves as a story which shows the creativity but also the competitiveness and vanity of a time that is often romanticized. Laymen interested in the mechanical details of Brunelleschi's groundbreaking machines and designs may find themselves up against the limits of their imagination, as the book restricts itself to prose descriptions and relies on period drawings to illustrate the mechanics.
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Summary: Fabulous construction
Review: Ross King has done a terrific job of chronicling the construction of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Along the way he paints a broad-brush canvas of the entire Italian Renaissance. Brunelleschi's construction techniques were nothing short of revolutionary, although many may have been reverse engineered from his Roman Empire predecessors. His personality was almost a caricature of the Renaissance genius--gifted, quirky, paranoid, and secretive. He and his contemporaries come alive as they compete for commissions, take time out for wars, and play practical jokes on rivals. But, the most fascinating part of the story is the design and construction of the dome itself. As an engineer, I found myself asking, "How did he know how to do that?"
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable read
Review: This was a thoroughly enjoyable book. It combines serious technical discussions of architecture, biography, history, and amusing anecdotes. The scope of this book is particular enough to be manageable, but it also paints a broad canvas of Renaissance life. Reading it while visiting Florence this spring helped me appreciate the story behind the dome a lot better. What I find amazing about this story is that the architects were largely improvising their modi operandi, and taking enormous risks along the way. No one was sure whether they would succeed in theis enormous feat, or whether the dome would collapse! All in all, it was a remarkable and astonishing acheivement. Two complaints about the book, however: the technical descriptions were a bit complicated and hard to grasp, especially without many diagrams - maybe, though, the problem is with me. Secondly, the author or editors need to correct the various misplaced accent marks in Italian words (eg. "felicita", "trinita", where the accent should go on the final letter). This may have been corrected in later editions, but in my edition the accent marks are on the wrong letters.
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Summary: Concise very interesting
Review: This story was more than I expected for a book containing fewer than 200 pages. The story revealed architectural elements such as the load and force considerations required in its design and I found the events surrounding its construction intriquing examples of Florentine socio-economic life during the early 1400s. Obstacles such as designing the sophisticated ox-hoist to raise heavy stone to dizzying heights, invasions by the Duke of Milan, the recurring black plague, arbitrary pay cuts in the masons salary and shipping the Domes carrara marble precariously down the Arno river added dimension and depth to understanding the difficulties experienced while constructing the Dome during that era. If you have been to Florence, this fascinating story will encourage you to return and stand in sheer awe at the Dome's architectural brilliance again!
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Summary: A triumph of seat of the pants engineering
Review: This is a tale of Renaissance engineering and organization with a nice healthy dose of intrigue, competition, and betrayal, and with tales of eccentricity and practical jokes thrown in for good measure. It is an engrossing read, with lots of diversions and asides about the pranks of men in their prime. On the whole it is clearly and cleverly written, and is, as they say, hard to put down. I only wish his explanation of some of the details of the construction had been accompanied by a few more diagrams--occasionally they were a little obscure. But no big deal, I don't intend to construct a dome--I was hugely entertained anyhow. The people and their society are all brought to life in an engaging way and the interaction of the guilds, artists and patrons are seen to be only little changed in how such projects are sometimes brought together today. The biggest difference may be in their absence of safety committees, OSHA, quality circles, ISO 9001, six sigmas, and other such impediments to achievement. The dome itself was and is a staggering achievement in planning and execution, and would today, no doubt, engage more than a few computers and engineers for a couple of years before even a brick were laid. How it was brought about by Brunelleschi in a time even before Newton, courses in statics and strength of materials, finite element analysis and all the rest, is a wonder to behold. Giants with hearts of steel stalked the earth then.
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Summary: The man who made the view of Florence
Review: If you have an interest in architecture, building, ancient Italy, or Florence, this book is definitely for you. I first purchased it for a friend who was going on a trip to Italy. He had never been to Italy, but I thought with his construction background the book would provide a nice tie to the beautiful Duomo in Florence. Was I ever right! It took me a while to pick up another copy, but I am very glad I did. This book is great. I had spent a semester in Florence over a decade ago. During that time I became quite familiar with the city, the Duomo, and the competition for its construction. However, the details outlined in this book far outstripped anything I had learned. The author does a great job of setting the scene in quattrocento Italy. The crumbling of the Roman Empire, the plague, militarism, politics, and scientific rivalry are all covered. Great artists and thinkers of the time: Ghiberti, Donatello, Da Vinci, and Brunelleschi. Research has been thoroughly conducted on the building project and prime players referencing (sometimes dispelling) past works by Vasari and other biographers. Anyhow, get the book. It's great and has made my appreciation of the city and the magnificant accomplishment of the Duomo's construction even greater.
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