Treatise of Architecture and Machinery of Juan de Herrera

Treatise of Architecture and Machinery of Juan de Herrera

The Spanish architect Juan de Herrera, royal architect and counselor to Philip II, is known not only for his famous construction project, the monastery and palace complex of El Escorial near Madrid, but was also active as a scientist and scholar in the fields of mathematics, philosophy, and others, in addition to composing more treatises. His Treatise of Architecture and Machinery is a special specimen, with whose help the famous architect was able to teach his king the operating principles of machines.

The Architect of the Spanish King

Beginning in 1563, King Philip II (1527–1598) commissioned the construction of Spain’s El Escorial, a royal monastery dedicated to Saint Lawrence. Today, the El Escorial palace and monastery counts among the most important sites in Spain and impresses with its gigantic size and austere reticence of the Renaissance architecture. Juan de Herrera (ca. 1530–1597) took over the building project in 1563 from Juan Bautista de Toledo, and directed the work until its completion in 1584, his visions lent El Escorial its distinctive appearance.

An Instructive Text

Juan de Herrera composed a treatise on architecture and machines in order to make the various building projects more understandable for the King, who supported the construction of the St. Lawrence Monastery with his heart’s blood. Probably originating between 1567 and 1577, alongside the theoretical part, it contains seven pages with drafts along with interesting scientific explanations. In this way, for example, the function of pulleys is demonstrated as they would have been employed in the construction of the royal monastery complex. The only signed drawing by the Spanish architect to survive can be found among them. Dedicated to the King, the treatise explains the complex mechanical processes related to architecture in a descriptive manner. With this formula, Juan de Herrera’s document stands in the tradition of Vitruvius, who also employed mechanics in his architectural teachings. Based on geography and natural philosophy, Herrera sought to make the fundamental principles of wondrous machines understandable. The treatise is a grandiose essay of both the architecture and – in the modern sense – engineering of the 16th century.

Architect and Scientific

Herrera’s treatise is stored today in the Archivo General in Simanca. The significance of the author not only as a royal architect, but also as a counsellor of the King in all scientific and technical matters, has not been lost today. Nonetheless, his role as a scholar and a scientist – he owned a large library with countless scientific essays – cannot be overestimated and the Treatise of Architecture and Machinery is considered to be an impressive example thereof.