In 1971, an Italian professor named Piero Sanpaolesi presented research proving that Brunelleschi's method to build the dome of Florence did not spring from his singular genius, but from Iranian domes that Florentine merchants and clergy had seen and knew well. Western academia ignored it entirely.

Sanpaolesi kept working. He moved to Iran, where ENI, the Italian energy company, had a major presence. He taught there, led the restoration of the Dome of Soltaniyeh which he called the architectural twin of the dome of Florence, and developed a generation of students until the 1979 revolution forced him to leave. He died in 1980, still working on this research. That same year, Howard Saalman's landmark book on the Duomo was published and lauded without a single mention of Sanpaolesi.

Breathless articles still appear today marveling that engineers can't understand Brunelleschi's ingenious methods. But we have the answer. Sanpaolesi crystallized it in 1971.

Iranians suffer under a brutal dictatorship — there is no doubt. But what kind of free people are we if we aren't willing to update our stories, especially when the truth makes them even more beautiful?