Construction site machinery

Leonardo, who was in Florence as an apprentice in Verrocchio’s workshop, was impressed by the complex construction machines built for one of the most important enterprises of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Brunelleschi’s construction of the Florence Cathedral dome.

For this construction site, which remained in operation for more than 50 years, between 1420 and 1471, Brunelleschi designed wenches and cranes capable of moving enormous weights and of hoisting them up to heights of nearly a hundred meters, but he left no plans or drawings behind.

Fortunately, Leonardo and other artists and engineers of the 15th century were witnesses to this grandiose work, and could observe from close by and make detailed drawings of the extraordinary machines enabling the construction of the largest masonry dome ever built.