The Cathedral & the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond

Ten years later another French architect, Jean Mignot, was called from Paris to judge and improve upon the work done, as the masons needed new technical aid to lift stones to an unprecedented height. Galeazzo gave the Fabbrica del Duomo exclusive use of the marble from the Candoglia quarry and exempted it from taxes. In 1389, a French chief engineer, Nicolas de Bonaventure, was appointed, adding to the church its Rayonnant Gothic. Visconti had ambitions to follow the newest trends in European architecture. Orsenigo initially planned to build the cathedral from brick in Lombard Gothic style. The construction program was strictly regulated under the 'Fabbrica del Duomo', which had 300 employees led by first chief engineer Simone da Orsenigo.

Enthusiasm for the immense new building soon spread among the population, and the shrewd Gian Galeazzo, together with his cousin the archbishop, collected large donations for the work-in-progress. Maria Maggiore was exploited as a stone quarry. Stephen at the Spring, while the old church of Sta. Before actual work began, three main buildings were demolished: the palace of the Archbishop, the Ordinari Palace and the Baptistry of St. The construction of the cathedral was also dictated by very specific political choices: with the new construction site the population of Milan intended to emphasize the centrality of Milan in the eyes of Gian Galeazzo, a prominence questioned by the choice of the new lord to reside and maintain his court, like his father Galeazzo II, in Pavia and not in Milan. Start of the construction coincided with the ascension to power in Milan of the archbishop's cousin Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and was meant as a reward to the noble and working classes, who had suffered under his tyrannical Visconti predecessor Barnabò. In 1386, Archbishop Antonio da Saluzzo began construction of the cathedral. When a fire damaged the cathedral and basilica in 1075, they were rebuilt as the Duomo. The old octagonal baptistery, the Battistero Paleocristiano, dates to 335 and still can be visited under the cathedral.

An adjoining basilica was erected in 836. It seems to share, on a slightly smaller scale, the plan of the contemporaneous church recently rediscovered beneath Tower Hill in London. The first cathedral, the 'new basilica' ( basilica nova) dedicated to St Thecla, was completed by 355. Milan's layout, with streets either radiating from the Duomo or circling it, reveals that the Duomo occupies what was the most central site in Roman Mediolanum, that of the public basilica facing the forum. Saint Ambrose barring Theodosius from Milan Cathedral by Anthony van Dyck

The Cathedral & the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond