Found during excavations to expand the Cathedral museum, the model measures nine feet in circumference and it's made of bricks arranged in a herringbone pattern.
"This building technique had been previously used in Persian domes, but Brunelleschi was the first to introduce it into Europe when he worked at the dome," Francesco Gurrieri, professor of Restoration of Monuments at the University of Florence, told Discovery News.
"Although at the moment we cannot confirm the small dome was the demonstration model for Brunelleschi's plans, it did belong to the yard he created between 1420 and 1436, when he worked at one of the most incredible feats of engineering," Gurrieri said.
The dome of Santa Maria del Fiore is the highest and widest (143 feet in diameter) masonry dome in the world.
For centuries scholars have wondered how the Florentine architect could roof the huge octagonal of the Cathedral using not concrete and steel, but 25,000 tonnes of stone, timber and brick
