Brunelleschi Completes the Dome of Florence Cathedral

What happened

Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) completed the vast brick dome of Florence Cathedral, making it the largest and tallest building in Europe of its time. He raised it without the fixed wooden centring builders had always relied on, using a self-supporting double shell braced by ribs and bricks laid in a reinforcing herringbone pattern. In the same years he conducted his famous public experiments in linear perspective.

Why it matters

One of the founding achievements of Renaissance architecture and engineering, the dome became the emblem of Florence and of a new confidence that the study of classical methods and mathematics could surpass the medieval world.

Sources

• World History Encyclopedia. Filippo Brunelleschi · Reputable source