Some Account of Gothic Architecture in Spain

by George Edmund Street

Declaration or Judgment which was pronounced in Salamanca in a Junta which was held Sept. 3rd, 1512, by the Masters of Architecture Anton Egas, Juan Gil de Hontañon, Juan de Badajos, Juan de Alava, Juan de Orozco, Alonzo de Covarrubias, Juan Tornero, Rodrigo de Saravia, and Juan Campero, as to the mode of constructing the Cathedral.

That which appears to the Masters who were called and assembled by the most reverend and most magnificent in Christ, Father and Lord Don Francisco de Bobadilla, by the grace of God, and of the Holy Church of Rome, Bishop of Salamanca, and of the Council of the Queen our Lady, and by the Reverend the Dean and Chapter of the Church of Salamanca, to give the plan of the site and building of this holy church and temple, which it has been unanimously decided by the said Lord Bishop and Chapter—our Lord helping—to make and begin, is as follows:—

Firstly, the said Masters decided that the site of the church should be in length as far as the church of San Cebrian, and in width as far as the Schools.

Item.—That the three clear naves should begin from the line of the tower unto the place of the Schools, so that all the three doors of the front may show themselves and be clear of the tower.

Item.—They determine that the church should be directed and turned as much as possible to the east; and it appears to them that it can turn directly to the said east.

Item.—They determine that the principal nave may have fifty feet in width in the clear, and a hundred and ten in height.

Item.—That the side naves shall have thirty-seven feet in clear width, and seventy feet in height, or seventy-five, not being of the height of the other.

Item.—They determine that the chapels opened in the side walls may have twenty-seven feet in clear width, and forty-three or forty-five in height.

Item.—That the three gable walls of the west front may have all three seven feet of thickness, and the side walls throughout the church six feet; but to some of the said Masters it appeared that the end walls should be eight feet in thickness.

Item.—That the buttresses of the end walls may project beyond the wall twelve feet, and in thickness may have seven feet in front.