Chapter 4 Summary and Analysis

The cupola of the Duomo contains a device which determines the summer solstice. It uses the sun's rays that fall onto the dial on the floor made out of marble flags. This is under the dome of the cupola. Lorenzo de-Medici had a clock made. This clock not only told the time but gave the signs of the zodiac and the actions of the planets and the sun. Many of the people in Florence had an interest in astronomy and in optics. Both are evident in the exhibits at the Museum of the History of Science. The well known mathematicians, Toscanelli and Brunelleschi also helped develop the navigational instruments of the time. These instruments and the improved maps made travel by sea safer. This was the time of the invention of the camera obscura attributed to Alberti.

Many of the artists...