Pisa cathedral_Architectural and conservation issues in light of the new acquisitions

In his fundamental monograph on Pisa cathedral, Sanpaolesi complained that too many studies still tend to reduce architecture to abstract patterns that lie outside the study of real buildings, or they approach them in entirely partial terms in order to confirm attributions to builders and construction chronologies. Nevertheless, when Sanpaolesi claimed that cathedrals were necessarily constructed following an original design whose details were fully developed, he also made a significant simplification. This conviction considerably influenced some of his interpretations of the construction history of the cathedral, such as the dating of the dome which in his opinion should be considered part of the original design devised by Buscheto and already completed by the end of the 11th century. Sanpaolesi’s conviction that the entire domed space was part of Buscheto’s design and recognition of the dome’s extraordinary Romanesque’s character also became the premise that profoundly guided his choices in the restoration of the drum.