Editor: C.A. Brebbia Computational Mechanics Publications BirkhauserCracks and Chains. Unpublished Documents for a History of the Projected Restorations on the Cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore. In appendix: Leonardo and the Cracks on Brunelleschi’s Dome. F.P. Di Teodoro The Armand Hammer Center for Leonardo Studies at UCLA, College of Fine Arts, University of California, Los Angeles, USA ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to explain some still obscure or not well-known aspects of the vicissitudes of the cupola of Florence Cathedral and its cracks in the XVII and XVIII centuries. A considerable amount of unpublished material from some Italian libraries and archives - National Library, Riccardiana Library, Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore Archives in Florence, Marciana Library in Venice, Vatican Library - sheds light on some new aspects of the chains which at the end of 1695 the Survey Commission decided to apply to the cupola to prevent its collapse. This paper makes known the weight, size, number and conformation of the chains and studies the still unpublished documents which Poleni in 1748 drew upon in chapter XVIII of his "Memorie istoriche della Gran Cupola del Tempio Vaticano". It also studies and interprets documents yielding new information on the activities of the 1695 Commission. Alessandro Cecchini's writings published in 1753 by G.B. Clemente Nelli and an intuition of Carlo Pedretti lead to a hypothesis on Leonardo's late studies on arches and cupolas. The suggestion is put forward that these studies have a bearing on Baccio d'Agnolo's gallery begun in 1507-8 on the tambour of the cupola. INTRODUCTION I do not mean here to treat the numerous questions concerning34 Structural Repair & Maintenance of Historical Buildings the debate started at the end of the seventeenth century on the cracks of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore and on the decision whether to furnish it with strong chains or not: on this subject reference can be made to the essays by Paolo Galluzzi (7), Salvatore Di Pasquale (1), Luciano Barbi and Francesco Di Teodoro (6) as well as to the book by Howard Saalman (4). I would like, instead, to present here information provided by unpublished and almost unknown documents which, in my opinion, have been neglected whereas they can clarify some still obscure aspects of that diverse and difficult debate. These documents will be dealt with more extensively on another occasion. THE CRACKS On 4th January 1694/5, Viviani's pupil and friend, Giovan Battista Nelli, presented Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, with a report on the "difetti essenziali" verified in the dome of Florence Cathedral. His report showed such a serious situation that a special investigation commission appointed by the Grand Duke started to work only four days later. This unpublished report (14) (ff.31r-33r) includes the following: - a description of the cracking phenomena in the base of the dome and in the adjoining areas; - a description of the progress, conformation and dimension of the cracks on the North-East wind and Sirocco sides as well as in the vaulting cells of the dome, in the tambour and the two sacristies of the Priests and the Canons; - an attempt at dating the cracks by considering that they were one soldo wide in the masonry, whereas they were only one quattrino of a Florentine braccio wide in the fresco by Vasari and Zuccari; - a description of two phenomena which denoted the persisting progress of the cracks in the dome: 1) on the North-East wind side the mortar used to place some new tiles over the crack in September 1693, split along the crack itself in the nearest part to the ground; 2) the new pavement in the gallery by Baccio d'Agnolo, finished in November 1694, already presented some cracks in December of the same yea: ~ the first census-taking of the cracks in the various elements of the structure of the double dome and remarks on the state of Brunelleschi's wooden chain. Some of these considerations would later be found in the report that the deputies drew up and signed at the end of 1695,