What an unexpected little treat this was. An account of the building of the dome of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Begun in 1296 and completed in 1436, the dome itself took nearly a quarter of a century to construct, and even when it was initially designed regarded as potentially impossible to construct, the original designers essentially shrugging their shoulders and hoping God would provide. Provision came in the form of bad-tempered genius Filippo Brunelleschi, master goldsmith, whose years spent treasure-hunting the ruins of Ancient Rome equipped him with the ideas and inspiration which would ultimately not only pull of an amazing feat of engineering, but also do it without the wooden structure that normally provided 'centring' while domes were being erected. Along the way, he came up with a few minor inventions that would turn out to be decades ahead of their time, and nobody's quite sure how he did it. This is to say nothing of the ravages of the plague, warfare, professional and political rivalry (with dueling sonnets) the odd disaster and even a spell in prison. It's an epic of human ingenuity. You'd almost say folly, but the end result has endured in its beauty and splendour and made important contributions to the world of art and science, and stands testimony to what humanity can achieve with time, genius, money and an army of workers. The dome endures, but alas, the sonnets are lost.