Saving Michelangelo's Dome
How Three Mathematicians and a Pope Sparked an Architectural Revolution
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
In 1742, when the legendary dome atop St. Peter’s Basilica—designed by Michelangelo—cracks and threatens to collapse, Pope Benedict XIV summons three mathematicians to help, whose revolutionary ideas spark a chain of events that will change the world of architecture forever.
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 world—as 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1742, Pope Benedict XIV was notified by the Vatican's architect that St. Peter's Basilica was cracking and that no one knew how to fix it, notes structural engineer Kalayjian in his meticulous and illuminating debut account. Designed by Michelangelo in 1549, the Basilica, standing at over 25 stories and weighing 33,000 tons, was composed of three main pieces: a drum upon which the dome sat, the dome itself, and a capped lantern. Michelangelo died with only the drum completed, and over the next 120 years a variety of builders completed the project, all implementing different techniques to raise the troublesome dome. Determined to save the structure, Benedict XIV, whose respect for modern science was unprecedented among previous popes, called for three of Italy's most notable mathematicians—Roger Joseph Boscovich, Francois Jacquier, and Thomas Le Seur—to inspect the dome and publish a report utilizing new theories in calculus, statics, equilibrium, mechanics, and material science. Disparaged by the era's architects, their findings were not part of the official plan for repairs but were ultimately implemented by the builders to save the dome from collapse. Kalayjian's narrative propulsively blends a chronicle of one of the world's most famous architectural achievements with the story of the birth of modern engineering. Readers interested in the history of science should take note.
