5.1 Renaissance and Engineering

Beginning about the late 1300s the southern parts of Europe experienced the initial stirrings of a profound movement now known as the Renaissance. This rebirth refers specifically to an artistic and intellectual renewal movement which sought to encapsulate the idea that it was time to put aside many of the unenlightened Medieval practices and seek a revival of the more uplifting facets of classical cultures of the Ancient World, especially that of Greece. This idea enjoyed considerable appeal and eventually spread throughout Europe.

For engineering, the Renaissance proved to be highly consequential for three underlying reasons:

1. Crafting Proficiency
   The onset of the Renaissance coincided with the attainment of an accomplished and widespread crafting proficiency.

2. 
   Private Wealth Accumulation of private wealth provided capital for architecture, commercial ventures, and patronage of the arts.

3. Interest in Novelty
   Innovative thought stimulated a growing interest in novelty and varied choices of ingenious devices.

Society now also became more inquisitive and adventurous and the ensuing European Industrial Revolution provided considerable opportunity for device development. Indeed, this emerging Renascent Engineering era became the springboard to an Expansive and subsequently Modern age.

5.2 Florence Dome

Like the beginning of the Medieval era with its exceptional Hagia Sophia of ~530 CE, the beginning Renascent period also coincided with a remarkable building project.

In the 1430s, the multitalented Italian craftsman Filipo Brunelleschi became the principal designer and construction supervisor for a most prestigious project of the time: the dome for the cathedral in Florence,...