Since it has now to be decided how the Church of Salamanca may be made, in order that the building and its design may be made as it ought, I agree that you may be present there. I charge and command you that, instantly leaving all other things, you may come to the said city of Salamanca, and, jointly with the other persons who are there, you may see the site where the said church has to be built, and may make a drawing for it, and in all things may give your judgment how it may be the most suited to the Divine worship and to the ornature of the said church; which, having come to pass, then your salary shall be paid; which I shall receive return for in this service.
Done in Valladolid, the 23rd day of the month of November, 1509, &c.[456]
Order of the Queen Doña Juana to the same.
Recites that the King, her Lord and Father, had given an order, which she repeats, quoting the document above given, and then proceeds:—“And now, on the part of the Church of the said city of Salamanca, relation has been made me, that, although the said order was notified to you, until now you have not come to do anything in the business of which mention is made therein, making various excuses and delays; and it has been demanded of me, as for this cause of your not having come there is much delay in the work of the said church, to order you at once to come to the said city of Salamanca to make yourself acquainted with the affairs contained in the said order, as was by it commanded, or as my will might be; which, being seen by those of my council, it was agreed that I should order this my letter to be given for the said reason; and I find it good, as I command you, that immediately that this my letter shall be made known to you, without making any excuse or delay, you shall go to the said city of Salamanca, according and as by the said order was commanded, in order that, conjointly with the other persons who have to make themselves acquainted with the before-said matter, thou mayest give a plan how the said church may be made, which done, the salary will be paid you for the said church, which you are entitled to have for the coming, and staying, and returning to your house; and thou mayest not fail in this, under pain of my displeasure, and of 50,000 maravedis for my treasury.
“Given in the most noble city of Valladolid, 26th day of the month of January, from the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ 1510 years.”[457]
Writ of Ferdinand the Catholic to Anton Egas, ordering him to go to Salamanca to choose the site and make the plan for the Cathedral, November 23rd, 1509.
Anton Egas is ordered to go at once, and, jointly with the other architects there assembled, make a plan, &c.; which done, his salary, which he receives on service, shall be paid him there. This writ is endorsed as having been served on his two maids, Maria and Catalina, he and his wife being both away.
Declaration or Information which Alonso Rodriguez and Anton Egas made before the Chapter of Salamanca on the mode of constructing the Cathedral.
In Salamanca, the second day of the month of May, 1510, Señor Gonzalo de San Vicente, representative of S. A., being with the Chapter, present the Reverend Señors D. Alfonso Pereira, Dean of Salamanca, and other persons, dignitaries and beneficiaries, who were in Chapter, in order to acquaint themselves touching the order and plan of their church, oath being taken in the due form by the Señors Alonso Rodriguez, Maestro of Seville, and Anton Egas, Maestro of Toledo, persons deputed by his Highness for the ordering and planning of the said church, that all affection and passion, partiality and interest, or any other cause, being well and faithfully postponed, they determine and declare, according to God and their conscience, the most commodious plan and site that may be fitting for the adornment of the said church, and for the utility of it and of this city, without prejudice and wrong to the Schools of this University of Salamanca; both of whom made the said oath, and replied to its confession, and said, “So I swear, and Amen.”
And under the said oath they presented a plan and outline of the said church, drawn on parchment to the heights and widths of the naves, and thicknesses of the walls, and projections of the buttresses, the whole taken in writing by me the said notary; the which they affirmed by their names in my presence, and said that the site marked out by them for where the said church—our Lord permitting—ought to be, would not do any wrong or prejudice to the said Schools, rather they would be benefited and adorned, because the site of the said church commences ten feet further from the gate “del Apeadero” of the Schools, being set back from the street by the said Schools fifty feet, in front of the said church, from the line of the church as it now is. And because there was a diversity in the opinion of these Masters as to the proportion of length to breadth in the Capilla mayor, they agreed to meet in Toledo in ten days, and to select an umpire between them if it were necessary, so that the decision should be arrived at with more circumspection, and sent within fifteen days to the said Señor San Vicente, or to this Chapter.[458]