Some Account of Gothic Architecture in SpainStreet, George Edmund
History
Some Account of Gothic Architecture in Spain
Street, George Edmund
Architecture, Gothic -- Spain; Church architecture -- Spain
In A.D. 1395 it was proposed to erect a Chapter-house, and the canons in
charge of the fabric (“canonigos fabriqueros”) presented in writing
their reasons for not erecting it where proposed by the Chapter--at the
south end of the refectory. They said that the works of the church
itself ought first of all to be gone on with, and that the proposed work
would destroy a good and convenient refectory, and make it obscure and
ridiculous: and it seems that their report had the effect of staying the
work. In A.D. 1416 Guillermo Boffiy, master of the works of the
cathedral, proposed a plan for its completion by the erection of a nave;
and though the chevet had an aisle and chapels round it, he proposed to
build his nave of the same width as the choir and its aisles, but as a
single nave without aisles. This proposition was deemed so hazardous,
and created so great a discussion, that the Chapter, before deciding
what plan should be adopted, called together a Junta of architects, and
propounded to each of them separately certain questions, to each of
which they all returned their answers upon oath. In the September
following, these answers were read before the Chapter by a notary, and
it may be supposed carefully digested, for it was not until March 8th,
1417, that Guillermo Boffiy, the master of the works, was called in and
in his turn interrogated with the same questions. Immediately after
this, on the 15th of the same month, at a Chapter-meeting presided over
by the Bishop, it was decided to carry on the work as proposed, with a
single nave. The story is so well worth telling in full, that I have
given in the Appendix a translation of the entire document, which equals
in interest any with which I am acquainted, bearing on the profession of
architect in the middle ages.[323] It is valuable also, incidentally, as
giving us the names of the architects of several other buildings, most
of those who were examined having described themselves in a formal style
as masters of the works of some particular church or churches. It is
difficult to say exactly when the nave was completed, but the great
south door was not executed until A.D. 1458, and the key-stone of the
last division of the vault seems to have been placed in the time of
Bishop Benito, so late as circa 1579.[324] In A.D. 1581 the same bishop
laid the first stone of the bell-tower, and in 1607 the west front and
the great flight of steps leading up to it seem to have been commenced.
We have thus the story of the periods at which the church was founded,
altered, and enlarged very fully told, and it now only remains to apply
it to what is still to be seen in the existing building.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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