
Saving Michelangelo's Dome
How Three Mathematicians and a Pope Sparked an Architectural Revolution
- 384 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Saving Michelangelo's Dome
How Three Mathematicians and a Pope Sparked an Architectural Revolution
About this book
In 1742, when the legendary dome atop St. Peter's Basilicaādesigned by Michelangeloācracks and threatens to collapse, Pope Benedict XIV summons three mathematicians to help, whose revolutionary ideas spark a chain of events that willchange the world of architectureforever. 1742: the famous dome atop Saint Peter's Basilica, designed by Michelangelo, is fractured and threatened with collapse. The dome is the pride of Italy and the largest of its kind anywhere in the world. And no one knows how to fix it.This engaging and colorful narrative tells the overlooked story of how Michelangelo's Dome was saved from disaster by three mathematicians and Pope Benedict XIV, who had asked them for help. It is a gripping story of decisive leadership, crisis management, and scientific innovation, and the resistance that was faced when sailing into the headwinds of conventional thought. In Saving Michelangelo's Dome, Stanford-trained engineer Wayne Kalayjian illustrates how new ideas in science and mathematics established an entirely new way of looking at the worldāas well as solving its complex problems. In the end, readers will appreciate that in saving Michelangelo's Dome from collapse, these three mathematicians and one determined pope unknowingly invented the profession of engineering as we practice it today. With it, they transformed the architectural world and ushered in generations of future buildings and structures that, otherwise, would never have been built.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Timeline of Events: Circus of Caligula to the Hoover Dam
- Timeline of Events: 1400 to 1750
- Chapter 1: The Popeās Problem
- Chapter 2: Building the Basilica
- Chapter 3: Master Builders and Their Methods
- Chapter 4: The Able Assistant
- Chapter 5: āMattematicaā and āScienzaā
- Chapter 6: The Opinions
- Chapter 7: Critics at Every Corner
- Chapter 8: Professor Poleni
- Chapter 9: A Magicianās Touch
- Chapter 10: The Memoirs
- Chapter 11: The Advent of Modern Engineering
- Epilogue
- Photographs
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Copyright