Brunelleschi’s innovative design for the dome of Florence’s cathedral was bold and revolutionary. Nobody expected a peppery goldsmith with no experience in architecture to come up with a truly inspired design. Italy had repeatedly built that same dome of the Florence cathedral many times without any breakthrough. Excessive winter rains and the heat of Florence caused the dome to collapse time and time again. Nobody knew how to build a dome so vast and elevated from the ground. Their only foregoing experience was with buttresses, large projecting supports, and scaffolding. The fathers of Florence encouraged the greatest architects to creatively solve the problem of the collapsing dome by offering a large gold sum-200 gold florins-for whoever
