Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture

The construction of the cathedral dome began on August 7, 1420. The workers celebrated on the site, though their jobs were marked by low pay, long hours, dangerous conditions, and sporadic availability of shifts. Including the men at the nearby quarries, as many as 300 worked on the dome. They worked every day except the sabbath or saints’ days. Though 270 days of work were scheduled each year, bad weather could lower this to just 200. The men ate on site and, on Brunelleschi’s orders, a workers’ kitchen was installed to increase productivity. The workers celebrated in 1420, even though they were unsure whether Brunelleschi’s ambitious plans were feasible. His “experimental” (56) plans were put into practice, however, though the Opera del Duomo continued to defer the decision on whether the dome would require vaulting.

The construction of the dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral was helped by the invention and construction of innovative new machines by Filippo Brunelleschi. Leon Battista Alberti, a philosopher and Brunelleschi admirer, wrote in the 1440s about the “construction of giant hoists and cranes” which allowed workers on the site to lift huge weights to lofty heights (58).