by Wayne Kalayjian
EL SEGUNDO, CA – The idea for my recent book took shape years ago while an undergraduate at a small New England college. I had stumbled onto this remarkable story that took place at St. Peter’s Basilica on Vatican Hill—where, in the autumn of 1742, three imaginative mathematicians took a revolutionary approach to save Michelangelo’s famous dome from collapse.
They were the leading scientists of their day and had proposed to use leading-edge Newtonian physics to pragmatically solve the problem. In the process, they invented and unknowingly pioneered the process of modern engineering as we practice it today.
Forty years later, my interest in what had happened under Michelangelo’s dome still held firm. Yet, why was the episode still so little-known, given its scientific and cultural importance? Though convinced that it would make for a terrific story, I soon learned that it is one thing to pitch a proposal and quite another to convince a publisher that it is worth the paper on which it might be printed.
The publishing world is not for the faint of heart; deals are hard to come by (especially for a first-time author) and adding to my discouragement was the knowledge that Saving Michelangelo’s Dome would be a technical challenge to write, since it combined many exotic ideas about physics, construction, and engineering that might confuse the everyday reader.
Despite the obstacles and against these odds, Pegasus Books offered me a contract which then launched for the next eighteen months my long hours in research and writing. It became a journey that spanned 1,700 years and touched many monumental achievements in science, art, mathematics, religion, and politics along the way—played out by a cast of colorful architects, builders, cardinals, emperors, mathematicians, philosophers, popes, and scientists who each contributed to the story in their own, distinctive way. These figures are the heroes and bedrock of my book, and they propelled the tale forward.
In the end, I learned that this was much more than a book about a dome. It was a far-reaching tapestry that linked the greatest minds and the boldest ideas that have come to shape our society: like the Enlightenment, the invention of public schools, the Scientific Revolution, the first museums of art, and of course, the birth of modern engineering.
My favorite moments while crafting the chapters included the exhausting papal election of 1740 (chapter 1); the bitter relationship between Michelangelo and his rivals at the Vatican (chapter 2); the astonishing discoveries in science made by Galileo and Isaac Newton (chapter 5); and the construction genius of Niccola Zabaglia (chapter 9). Above these, my most memorable passage was reserved for the mathematicians, and it appears in chapter 6 of the book:
“But it was the way the Le Seur, Jacquier, and Boscovich structured their next observation that made history. Their philosophy was driven by scientific principles, and in that spirit they proposed to arithmetically calculate the dome’s thrust and then compare it to the tensile capacity of the cast iron rods. This became their method for prescribing the number of rods—with precise dimensions—that were needed to restore equilibrium across the dome and drum.
“No one had thought before now to combine these concepts in physics, mechanics, mathematics, and material science and use them in such a practical and imaginative way. The observation was as profound as it was revolutionary, and it marked a radical departure from the vagaries of intuition, personal judgment, and rules of thumb that had governed the world of construction for thousands of years. In these three short months, they created what we know today as the practice and profession of engineering.”
So, my instincts from forty years ago were right. Something special did happen under Michelangelo’s dome, and to these three mathematicians—and the pope that sponsored them—belongs the credit. It was my privilege to tell their story, and with the suspense and uncertainty in outcome that they would have readily recognized.
Saving Michelangelo’s Dome – How Three Mathematicians and a Pope Sparked an Architectural Revolution is published by Pegasus Books and distributed by Simon & Schuster. Author Wayne Kalayjian is managing director at Secretariat, El Segundo, Calif. He has presented multiple times at Construction Super Conference.
Click Here for a recent review of Saving Michelangelo’s Dome.
Click Here for Wayne Kalayjian’s Sept. 2023 (exclusively in Third Thursday) assessment of the catastrophic collapse of a condominium building in Surfside, Fla.
