What was Christopher Wren’s first design for a dome at St. Paul’s Cathedral?

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Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren, detail of an oil painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1711; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Christopher Wren created his first design for a dome for St. Paul’s Cathedral in the spring of 1666 while at Oxford. This initial design was accepted in principle on August 27, 1666, just one week before the Great Fire of London destroyed the existing cathedral and much of the city.1

Following the fire, Wren’s design process for the cathedral evolved through several stages, including the "First Model" of 1670 and the "Great Model" of 1673, before he eventually arrived at the "Warrant Design" in 1675. The final structure, completed in 1710, features a sophisticated dome consisting of three nested shells, a design informed by Wren’s background as a mathematician and his study of the catenary curve.23