The Medici family financed the church, with Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici offering in 1419 and the family assuming responsibility for the whole church in 1442. Filippo Brunelleschi began the design around 1419. After his death in 1446, either Antonio Manetti or Michelozzo finished it, and scholars are unsure which. It was largely complete by 1459, though the infobox says 1470.
The article calls it a milestone in Renaissance architecture. It uses a square aisle bay as its module, Corinthian arcades and local pietra serena stone. The Old Sacristy, square and domed with decoration by Donatello, is the oldest part and the only part finished in Brunelleschi's lifetime.
Michelangelo began the New Sacristy and Medici tombs in 1520, but never finished them. Michelangelo's facade, commissioned in 1518, was never built, so the plain brick front remains.
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