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1420: *
di Cambio’s design was approved by city council in 1294. He designed 3 wide naves ending under an octagonal dome. The basic features of this dome were also designed by di Cambio in 1296. His brick model, 4.6 metres high x 9.2 metres in length, was sacrosanct standing in a side aisle of the unfinished building. His design called for an octagonal dome higher & wider than any ever built, without buttresses to maintain it. Construction began in 1296; di Cambio’s plan for the eastern end, was greatly expanded in size. After his death in 1310 work slowed for thirty years. In 1331, the guild of wool merchants took over patronage for the construction & in 1334 appointed Giotto to oversee it. Assisted by Andrea Pisano, he continued di Cambio's design & built the famous campanile before he died in 1337. Pisano continued but was halted by the Black Death in 1348. Work resumed next year under a series of architects; slow progress was made. In 1367 a competition was held for the dome design. The commitment to reject traditional Gothic buttresses was made when Neri di Fioravanti's model was chosen over Giovanni di Lapo Ghini traditional model. That choice was one of the first events of the Italian Renaissance, breaking with the Medieval Gothic style, returning to the classic Mediterranean dome. Italian architects regarded Gothic flying buttresses as ugly makeshifts; furthermore, they were forbidden in Florence (the style was favoured by Tuscany’s traditional northern enemies). Neri's model showed a massive inner dome, open at the top to admit light (like Rome's Pantheon) enclosed in a thinner outer shell, partly supported by the inner dome, to keep out the weather. It was to stand on an un-buttressed octagonal drum. Neri's dome would need an internal structures against spreading (hoop stress), but none had yet been designed. It posed many technical problems. The nave was finished by 1380, and by 1418, only the dome remained incomplete. That year the wool merchants announced an architectural design competition for erecting Neri's dome. The 2 main competitors were Ghiberti & Brunelleschi, both master goldsmiths. Cosimo de Medici supported Brunelleschi & not surprisingly he won although Ghiberti was appointed co-adjustor. Work started on the dome in 1420; by 1423, Brunelleschi took sole responsibility. He looked to the great dome of the Pantheon in Rome for solutions to implement his "double shell" design. It was completed in 1436; the cathedral was consecrated by Pope Eugene IV that same year.
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Catholicism: *
Papal ambition: Spengler identifies vaulting papal ambitions as a Faustian characteristic (reach for the infinite). During the 11th century, the East–West schism permanently divided Christianity; it arose over a dispute on whether Constantinople or Rome held jurisdiction over the church in Sicily; it led to mutual excommunications in 1054.The Western (Latin) branch of Christianity became the Catholic Church, while the Eastern (Greek) branch became the Orthodox Church. The efforts of Hildebrand of Sovana led to the creation of the College of Cardinals to elect new popes, starting with Alexander II (1061). Hildebrand succeeded him, as Pope Gregory VII. This pope initiated the Gregorian Reforms regarding the independence of the clergy from secular authority. This eventually led to the Investiture Controversy between the church and the Holy Roman Emperors. Before the Gregorian Reforms the Church was a heavily decentralized institution, in which the pope held little power outside of his position as bishop of Rome; Gregory VII's banning of lay investiture was a key element of the reform, ultimately contributing to the centralized papacy of the later Middle Ages. The resolution of this dispute (1075–1122) was an overwhelming papal victory that by implication acknowledged papal superiority over secular rulers. Within the Church important new laws were pronounced on simony (the purchasing of positions relating to the church), clerical marriage and from 1059 laws extending the prohibited degrees of Affinity. Papal leadership was further enhanced by Urban II who launched the First Crusade in 1095 after receiving an appeal from Byzantine emperor Alexius I to help ward off a Turkish invasion. The Crusades began in 1096, intended to return the Holy Land to Christian control.
Although not as striking or dramatic, important organic Cultural manifestations arose. Individual confession (the sacrament of penance which Spengler argues is uniquely Faustian), bringing confession of sins and reconciliation together, can be traced back to 11th century. This was codified in the Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215); it required every Christian who has reached the age of discretion must confess all their sins at least once a year to their own priest. Equally unheralded was Faustian architecture. St. Michael's Church, Hildesheim (1010-31) was erected, one of the first Romanesque church to emerge.
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city form (new): *
The Italian city-states were a political phenomenon of small independent polities in central & northern Italy, between the 9th & 15th centuries. Urban settlements in Italy enjoyed greater continuity than in the rest of Western Europe. Many were survivors of Antiquity; some feudal lords existed with a servile labour force & huge tracts of land. By the 11th century, many cities, including, Milan, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, Lucca, Cremona, Siena, Città di Castello, Perugia, had become large trading metropolis, independent from their formal sovereigns. Among the earliest of these city-states was the Duchy of Naples (from 661) effectively independent from nominal Byzantine control. From 742 Venice was able to break free of the Byzantine Empire (when the Doge title was finally subtracted from the appointment of the Byzantine emperor), and became de jure independent in the 9th century. Italy was the first to benefit from a number of changes, notably:
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a rise in population (the population doubled in this period)
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an emergence of huge cities (Venice, Florence & Milan had over 100,000 inhabitants by the 13th century)
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the rebuilding of the great cathedrals
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rural to urban migration (in Italy 20% of the population was urban)
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an agrarian revolution
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the development of commerce
Geography prevented the emergence of strong monarchies. The mountains of the Alps prevented the Holy Roman Emperors from conquering northern Italy. After 1177 the authority of the Holy Roman Empire in Italy was weak. Italy’s own mountains prevented strong central authorities from emerging; instead we see autonomous & de facto independent city-states. Most were republics & not monarchies (where absolute power was vested in rulers who often stifled commerce). These city states keeping the Church & Emperor at bay, prospered with commerce based on early capitalist principles. In particular Florence & Venice played crucial roles in financial developments, devising the main instruments & practices of banking. Italian towns exited early from feudalism; their society was based on merchants & commerce, with political freedom conducive to academic and artistic advancement.
Free Imperial cities was a term (used from the 15th century) in the Holy Roman Empire, denoting a self-ruling city that had a certain amount of autonomy & which was represented in the Imperial Diet. An imperial city held the status of Imperial immediacy & was subordinate only to the Emperor, as opposed to a territorial city or town which was subordinate to a territorial prince or bishop. The evolution of these German cities into self-ruling constitutional entities was slower than that of the secular & ecclesiastical princes. A number of cities were founded by German kings & emperors in the 10th- 13th centuries; in the 13th & 14th centuries the emperor promoted certain cities to the status of Imperial Cities; this was done for fiscal reasons. Initially administered by royal or imperial stewards, these cities gradually gained independence as city magistrates assumed the duties of administration & justice. The Free Cities (Basel, Augsburg, Cologne or Strasbourg) initially subjected to a prince-bishop, likewise, progressively gained independence from that lord. In a few cases, such as in Cologne, the former ecclesiastical lord continued to claim the right to exercise some residual feudal privileges over the Free City, giving rise to constant litigation.