This remarkable and beautiful new volume examines twenty-three major artworks that were produced to decorate Sta. Maria del Fiore in Florence, better known to visitors as the Duomo, or cathedral, in the first decades of the 1400s.

These include nine works alone by Donatello, considered one of the greatest and most influential Italian sculptors, including his masterpiece Lo Zuccone, and The Evangelist John which inpsired Michelangelo. There is also a detailed discussion of Ghiberti`s gilded bronze Gates of Paradise, created for the Eastern end of the cathedral , which includes remarkable shots of the doors before, and after, their current restoration.

With four chapters by leading scholars, and a catalog presenting over fifty superb color plates of the artworks, beautifully photographed by leading art photographer Antonio Quattrone, this volume explains how these masterpieces had a profound impact on the art of the Italian Renaissance.

This is a major new scholarly survey, and will become a seminal text on the artistic imagination, creativity, and skill of the Florentine Renaissance.

Mons. Timothy Verdon is the director of both the Diocesan Office of Sacred Art and Cultural Heritage Ecclesiastical and the Museo dell`Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore.

Daniel Zolli is a doctoral candidate in Harvard University`s history of art and architecture department.

Amy R. Bloch is assistant professor of art history at the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY).

Marco Ciatti is director of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence.