Chapters 1 and 2 Summary

"Brunelleschi's Dome" tells the story of the designer of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, Filippo Brunelleschi. This artisan and master problem-solver is the one person able to design and construct the massive, and what many thought to be impossible, dome for Santa Maria del Fiore, a Florence cathedral that had been under construction for more than a century.

Chapter One begins with the original announcement for the August 19, 1418, competition for the design of Florence's magnificent cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, which had been under construction for more than a century. The winner of the competition would receive two hundred florins, which was a good deal of money for that time and more than a skilled craftsman could make in two years of work. Artisans from across Tuscany enter the competition and are given six weeks to build a model...