From the cover:

Even in an age of soaring skyscrapers and cavernous sports stadiums, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence still retains a rare power to astonish. Yet the elegance of teh building belies the tremendous labour, technical ingenuity and bitter personal strife involved in its creation. For over a century after work on the cathedral began in 1296, the proposed dome was regarded as all but impossible to build because of its enormous size. The greatest architectural puzzle of its age, when finally completed in 1436, the dome was hailed as one of the great wonders of the world.

This book tells the extraordinary story of how the cupola was raised and of the dome's architect, the brilliant and volatile Filippo Brunelleshi. Denounced as a madman at the start of his labours, his life was one of ambition, ingenuity, rivalry and intrigue - a human drama set against the plagues, wars, political feuds, and intellectual ferments of Renaissance Florence, the glorious era for which the dome remains the most compelling symbol.