While I was in Italy, I was completely fascinated by all of the amazing architecture around me. I mean, I've seen castles before. You can sort of understand a castle - big bricks on top of other big bricks make a big wall. However, when it came to the churches - enormous arches and domes, perfectly smooth and fitted marble sheets, etc. The engineering astounded me. I wanted to learn how they did all that amazing stuff. While I was over there, I saw a book with a blue cover titled Medieval Engineering or Renaissance Engineering full of descriptions of the machinery and technology used to design and build some of the most beautiful buildings standing in the world today. Unfortunately they wanted 60 Euros for the book, and after the exchange rate that would have been an $85 book. So I figured I would just get the book on Amazon.com when I got home. Of course, now I can't find it. I can find these books and I wondered if anyone had read anything on this subject and had any recommendations.
- this one looks more like a story than a general "How'd they do it" book, but it covers one of the most impressive buildings I've ever seen
- written by an actual engineer, this might be too technical
- a set of essays rather than a single book, this covers topics all around the actual technology and might prove to be fascinating too (although it receives poor reviews)
Does anyone have any recommendations?