Saving Michelangelo’s Dome: How Three Mathematicians and a Pope Sparked an Architectural Revolution

In 1742, when the legendary dome atop St. Peter’s Basilica--designed by Michelangelo--cracks and threatens to collapse, Pope Benedict XIV summons three mathematicians whose groundbreaking ideas spark a revolution in the world of architecture.

1742: the famous dome atop Saint Peter’s Basilica, designed by Michelangelo, is fractured and threatened with collapse. The dome is the pride of Italy and the largest of its kind anywhere in the world. And no one knows how to fix it.

This engaging and colorful narrative tells the overlooked story of how Michelangelo’s Dome was saved from disaster by three mathematicians and Pope Benedict XIV, who had asked them for help. It is a gripping story of decisive leadership, crisis management, and scientific innovation, and the resistance that was faced when sailing into the headwinds of conventional thought.

In Saving Michelangelo’s Dome, Stanford-trained engineer Wayne Kalayjian illustrates how new ideas in science and mathematics established an entirely new way of looking at the world--as well as solving its complex problems. In the end, readers will appreciate that in saving Michelangelo’s Dome from collapse, these three mathematicians and one determined pope unknowingly invented the profession of engineering as we practice it today. With it, they transformed the architectural world and ushered in generations of future buildings and structures that, otherwise, would never have been built.

Wayne Kalayjian is a civil and structural engineer who has designed bridges, buildings, tunnels, airports, pipelines, railroads, data centers, and power stations around the world. Kalayjian lectures at the University of Southern California and is an engineering expert for the California Department of Consumer Affairs. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and art history from Tufts University, a master’s degree in structural engineering from Stanford University, and a master’s degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This is his first book.