This distinguished Renaissance pulpit, set against a pier in the nave of the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella, was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi and realised by his pupil and adopted son Andrea Cavalcanti di Lazzaro, commonly known as Il Buggiano. The work belongs to the mid-15th century and reflects Brunelleschi’s architectural vocabulary: clear geometric structure, classical mouldings, and the controlled interplay of proportion and ornament.

The polygonal pulpit is reached by a curving stone stair that rises around the supporting column. The underside of the sounding board is painted a deep blue, while the bowl of the pulpit is enriched with low-relief narrative panels framed by crisp classical borders. These reliefs demonstrate the early Renaissance concern with spatial clarity and figure modelling, underpinned by Brunelleschi’s command of architectural setting.

Historically, the pulpit is notable as the location from which the Dominican friar Tommaso Caccini preached his attack on Galileo Galilei in 1614, denouncing heliocentrism and warning against the spread of “Galilean novelties.” The association links the work not only with the artistic reforms of the early Renaissance but also with the intellectual controversies that shaped the early modern period.

The pulpit remains one of the key liturgical furnishings of Santa Maria Novella and a significant example of Brunelleschi’s influence on ecclesiastical design in Florence.