The rediscovery of concrete was the key to completing the dome atop Il Duomo. Filippo Brunelleschi found the lost recipe for concrete, a recipe that was lost in the Middle Ages; prior to the Middle Ages, concrete was used often by the Ancient Romans.

Renaissance architecture made use of attributes of Ancient Roman architecture. Namely, Renaissance architects utilized Ancient Roman column types, such as Doric, Ionic, Tuscan, Composite, and Corinthian, often used decoratively rather than structurally.

The "voussoir" is a wedge-shaped block that makes up a true arch.

Protestant theology greatly changed church architecture in Northern Europe after the sixteenth century. Catholic churches, even for the tiniest, poorest parishes, featured ornate statuary and imagery before the Reformation. The Protestant-built churches, by contrast, were much less ornate, featuring fewer images, with altars creating less of a barrier between clergy and congregants.

The Italian architect Andrea Palladio was well known for his own buildings in his native Venice, but gained greater fame for the work of architectural theory he composed in 1570, The Four Books of Architecture. Drawing on Greek and Roman influences, Palladio called for symmetry, domes, columns, and grand spaces. Each of these elements would become hallmarks of neoclassical architecture during the eighteenth century.

Neoclassical art and architecture came about in Europe hand in hand with the philosophical era known as the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century. Just as the Enlightenment reacted against Catholic Christianity and embraced reason over emotion, Neoclassical artists sought to go back to antiquity, to a "pre-Christian" era. Thus, Neoclassical architecture brought back the chief elements of Roman architecture, like columns, domes, and collonades.

In brickwork, particularly when used in the construction of large buildings; different terms are used to describe how bricks are laid out and how they relate to each other. A stretcher is a brick laid lengthwise, facing out on its larger face, a header is a brick laid with its shorter end facing out on the wall, and a soldier is a brick laid on its small end with its long side facing out.

Inigo Jones, who drafted this plan for a new Palace at Whitehall, was the first notable English architect, working in the seventeenth century. His greatest contribution to English architecture was to bring Italian ideals of neoclassicism to the British Isles. Neoclassicism's use of perfect symmetry and Greco-Roman aesthetics was a sharp departure from the overly wrought palaces and red brick houses of Tudor England.

Image: Plan for A New Palace at Whitehall by Inigo Jones (1638). <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ingo_Jones_plan_for_a_new_palace_at_Whitehall_1638.jpg>

The pride of Jefferson regarding Monticello was the cupola, or dome, over the top of the building. The building of the cupola was a massive architectural problem, needing intense calculations and measurements just to keep the dome upright. Jefferson placed his own study in the cupola, as it also provided the best light and airflow of any room.

Image accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons. Author: YF12. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monticello_2010-10-29.jpg

The Great London Fire of 1666 destroyed many of the buildings in the city, including the original St. Paul's Cathedral, and necessitated massive architectural projects. The largest beneficiary of this was Sir Christopher Wren, a mathematician as well as an architect, who created over fifty churches and rebuilt St. Paul's. Wren's legacy found its way throughout baroque architecture, and his St. Paul's design influenced the Pantheon in Paris, the U.S. Capitol, and many other buildings.