> But scholars aren't quite sure how this goldsmith with no formal architectural training managed to construct it.
That's just slightly patronizing to say about a man who came up with various inventions and innovations in his time—including the first linear perspective method, among other things.
You're not kidding - I hadn't read about him before, but wow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filippo_Brunelleschi Architecture, ship engineering, mathematics and sculpture. The dome itself is the largest brick-constructed dome in the world.
Not directly related to the article but if you visit Italy make sure you go to Florence and see the dome. I was there less than a week ago, it wasn't my first time in Florence but it was the first time I went up to the lantern on the dome, it is that impressive
And the Museo Galileo https://www.museogalileo.it/en/, a History of Science museum is within a 10 minutes walk. with telescopes of Galileo, items of the Medici family, and so on.
My family didn't want to go in and I had to hurry as they waited outside, but I think people here would appreciate it a lot.
Another must-see is the museum right next to the dome, the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. Inside is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen--the hand-cast "Gates of Paradise" doors of the Baptistery, by Lorenzo Ghiberti. Simply incredible!
Fun fact about Ghiberti and the doors he made: he won a contest in 1401 to create the first set of the doors. The runner-up? Brunelleschi.
>Over the summer in 2015, Guardincerri and her students built a mock-up of the dome's thick inner shell out of radiation-shielding concrete bricks ... After just 17 days, all three iron bars were clearly visible in the resulting image.
IMO a better analogy would be him making a binary, throwing away the source code. Self-documenting code is always the most up-to-date documentation, and a valuable source of insight. Additional documentation would also be required, of course.
Given the other things that have appeard on the front page today, this is an exemplary tale of the importance of open source. Some day people could die because our software is closed and undocumented. We are not all lucky enough to build such an iconic structure that governments will fork over millions of dollars hundreds of years after our deaths to reverse engineer our code.
edit: Heh, looks like this has touched a nerve with some subset of the readership, which means that I have done my duty.
Actually we'd appreciate it if you wouldn't bring the hot flames of the day into some completely unrelated thread, thus starting them up there and hijacking the discussion. That has the same effect as trolling.
It's especially important not to this when the topic is a subtler one, because those can so easily get trampled.
> Brunelleschi built a wooden and brick model of his plan but deliberately left out crucial details and left no comprehensive blueprints so his rivals could not steal his secrets.
This sentence makes me so angry. If you’re going to come up with a great new way of doing something then the worst thing you could do is to keep it a secret so it’s impossible to figure out how it works and it ends up forgotten.
Really? This is the first that came to mind for me. The only one that might "outrank" it in my mind is the Pantheon, but I wouldn't think anyone would refer to that as "Italy's famous dome", they'd just say "the Pantheon".
Plus the original title in the URL specifically calls it "Brunelleschi's dome", which even if you don't know/remember Brunelleschi, does rule out the Pantheon just from the name.
[+] [-] Hoasi|7 years ago|reply
That's just slightly patronizing to say about a man who came up with various inventions and innovations in his time—including the first linear perspective method, among other things.
[+] [-] adriand|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ginnungagap|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Scarblac|7 years ago|reply
My family didn't want to go in and I had to hurry as they waited outside, but I think people here would appreciate it a lot.
[+] [-] jihadjihad|7 years ago|reply
Fun fact about Ghiberti and the doors he made: he won a contest in 1401 to create the first set of the doors. The runner-up? Brunelleschi.
[+] [-] cageface|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tim333|7 years ago|reply
You can see the iron bars and muon images here, pdf, pages 11 and 13 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1601.01291.pdf
[+] [-] tqi|7 years ago|reply
"Don't worry, the code itself is the documentation." - Brunelleschi, probably
[+] [-] manmal|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] p1mrx|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 8bitsrule|7 years ago|reply
"Great Cathedral Mystery" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kCZeN6d1cA
[+] [-] pauldavis|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] hyperion2010|7 years ago|reply
edit: Heh, looks like this has touched a nerve with some subset of the readership, which means that I have done my duty.
[+] [-] dang|7 years ago|reply
It's especially important not to this when the topic is a subtler one, because those can so easily get trampled.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
[+] [-] saagarjha|7 years ago|reply
This sentence makes me so angry. If you’re going to come up with a great new way of doing something then the worst thing you could do is to keep it a secret so it’s impossible to figure out how it works and it ends up forgotten.
[+] [-] samatman|7 years ago|reply
This is neither the first nor the second famous dome in Italy that came to mind.
[+] [-] acheron|7 years ago|reply
Plus the original title in the URL specifically calls it "Brunelleschi's dome", which even if you don't know/remember Brunelleschi, does rule out the Pantheon just from the name.