Filippo Brunelleschi Filippo Brunelleschi is considered to be the first modern engineer. By Kevin Honeywell

Life In Florence In 1401 he entered a competition to design a local baptistery's new doors. He designed a pair of doors from bronze, but he never entered them into the competition. – He wanted full control of the competition, which he was not allowed to have, and so he never entered. – His rival Ghiberti won the competition. – Then, he decided to leave the city of Florence altogether.

Life In Rome Filippo Brunelleschi decided to move to Rome. – He went and lived with Donatello. – They studied Ancient Roman architecture together. – Brunelleschi was particularly interested in the invention of the vault as seen on the Pantheon. – He stayed for a total of ten years.

Return To Florence Filippo Brunelleschi returned to Florence. – The Silk Merchants Guild had him build them an orphanage in – He redesigned the Medici perish church before this. The re-appearing of pillars in these structures caused for a boom in their construction, which had been unseen since Ancient Roman times. – This included Roman style windows, capitals, and carved stone, too.

Florence’s Cathedral Dome Filippo Brunelleschi decided to come up with a design for a dome for Florence’s Cathedral. – The authorities had called for such a dome, but they were skeptical of Filippo Brunelleschi’s design for the dome. – Timber was sparse in Tuscany, which meant they could not construct a scaffolding. – His design contained an inner dome surrounded by a brick dome. – This was all to be held together by nine sandstone. rings.

Problems With Building The Dome Many problems arose while building the dome which he had to overcome, such as: – The dome took sixteen years to complete. – Three deaths occurred during its construction. – A hoist was built so oxen could put up the sandstone pieces, and it included the first reverse gear. – The chance of death was lowered by keeping workers on schedules, employing a safety net, and he kept the builders sober. – The lack of timber forced them to use oxen over scaffolding.

Benefits Of The Dome Many benefits came from the Cathedral’s dome. – Filippo Brunelleschi invented perspective while sketching a model. – Filippo Brunelleschi invented the reverse gear to lift oxen. – The dome being 37,000 tons and containing 4,000,000,000 bricks made it a triumph for all of Florence. – Cosimo de'Medici invited the pope to spend Easter Sunday of 1436 at the dome.

Picture 1 Florence’s Cathedral where Brunelleschi added the dome on top.

Pictures 2 Pictures of Filippo Brunelleschi

Pictures 3 Rome was a great inspiration for Brunelleschi's architecture, which started the Greco-Roman style rebirth.