Music and architecture.doc

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Title:

Music and architecture in the historic faade of the University of Salamanca.

Abstract:

The relation between music and architecture is a common place in the Renaissancearchitecture. It can be seen both in specific buildings and in many architectural treatisesof the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The use of musical symbolism in theRenaissance architecture (mainly through the use of musical ratios and proportions) has

been widely studied in italian examples since Wittkowers classicalArchitecturalprinciples in the age of humanism. However, the Spanish Renaissance architecture hasnot deserved the same attention (one of the few exceptions is Villalpandos treatise,which has been studied by Taylor and is the center of interest of at least one doctoraldissertation which is nowadays in process).The current paper analizes the use of musical ratios and symbolism in a paradigmatic

example of the early spanish renaissance architecture: the historic faade of theUniversity of Salamanca. This plateresque faade of the first third of the sixteenthcentury has been widely studied from an iconografical-structural point of view, but itsrelation with the musical thougth of the time has never been rigurously examined.Taking the work of the architect Pablo Andrs, who analyzes its structure and measures,as starting point, we present a study of the use of musical ratios and symbolism in this

building placing them in the cultural context in which this emblematic faade was built.

Architecture and music in the Renaissance

The relation of music and architecture in the Renaissance arises from twointerconnected ideas: the search of the Renaissance architects for a higher status of theirart and their conviction that architecture must express the universal harmony. Let usdiscuss these two ideas.

Science, in the Middle Ages, was restricted to the system of the Liberal Arts. Thissystem, stemming from the Classical world, was structured in two branches: thequadrivium and the trivium. The quadrivium contained the four mathematicaldisciplines: arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy. The trivium was composed bythe three linguistic disciplines: grammar, rhetoric and dialectic (or logic). Only thedisciplines contained in this system had an intellectual, high status. All other activities,

like the visual arts, architecture, or medicine, were considered mechanical, manual; theywere thougth to be practised exclusively by manual means and for money.

This was the situation at the beginning of the fifteenth century. But at that momentsome Italian painters, sculpturers and architects began to claim a place in the system ofthe Liberal Arts. In order to do so they began to focus the attention on the intellectualaspect of their activities, and, moreover, they began to look at the only artistic activity(and here I intend the modern meaning of art) which from the time of Pythagoras hadalways been considered an intellectual activity: music. Music had its place in thequadrivium thanks to the mathematical speculation which had always accompanied it.In the fifteenth century, Italian painters, sculpturers and architects turned their eyes to

music in order to seek dignity, and they found that the intellectual recognition of their

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own arts lied in the use of mathematics1. Of all the visual arts, architecture had thebetter starting point because, actually, architects had always used measures andgeometry.

On the other hand, in the fifteenth century the Italian Humanistic movement was

rediscovering and reinterpreting ancient texts and ideas. Architecture counted with aclassical treatise which could serve asAuctoritas, the Ten books on architecture by theRoman writer Vitruvius. In the fifteenth century it was rediscovered, reread and itsdoctrines reinterpreted. This book was published for the first time in 1486.2Vitruviushimself had included music as an important discipline for an architect and, followingAristoxenus, he had explained the basic musical system of Antiquity. He had also talkedof mathematical harmony through the use of a system of ratios and proportions, which,ultimately, he connected with the forms and proportions of the human body, but he didnot explicitely talk of musical ratios.

Another classic idea important for us is the neoplatonic concept of the Harmony of the

spheres. 3It had been known during the Middle Ages through Boethius. His idea of themusica mundana had always been available since BoethiusDe musica circulatedwidely in manuscripts and could be found almost in every educational institution andmonastery4. In the fifteenth century the idea gets a new impulse through Ugolino ofOrvieto, Giorgio Anselmi, Ficinos translation of Platos Timaeus and, above all,Franchino Gaffurio, who was the most important humanist music writer of the latefifteenth century and who vigorously defended Boethius theories. 5

Renaissance Italian architects were, then, convinced that architecture was amathematical science which used ratios and proportions, and that those ratios and

proportions had to express the cosmic order, just like music did and just like the humanbody did. By doing so they were imitating God, the Supreme architect. God hadmodelled man and world following that universal harmony that could be heard inmusical sound, and the architecture had to follow the same principle: it had to expressthe harmony of the universe through the use of the musical ratios and proportions thatthe Pythagorean tradition had handed down to them.

The first architect to explicitely recomend the use of musical proportions for the designof architectural spaces was Alberti in his treatiseDe re aedificatoria6writen in themiddle of the fifteenth century. Alberti was one of the first Renaissance readers ofVitruvius and, in fact, much of his theory comes from the Roman architect. But he also

includes a very interesting novelty: he uses musical ratios between lengths, widths andheights of rooms, in an attempt to make architectural space harmonic in a musical way.The ratios he used were, basically, the pythagorean consonant ratios.

1 For examples of the seek for dignity of the visual arts in the fifteenth century and its relation to musicalmathematics see: Peter Vergo, That Divine Order (London / New York: Phaidon Press, 2005), 137-ff.2 Marco Vitrubio Polin, De Architectura (Roma: Eucario Silber, 1486).3 The harmony of the spheres is, originally, a pythagorean theme which is further reinterpreted by Platoand the hellenistic writers.4 Claude V. Palisca, Humanism in Italian Renaissance Musical Thought (New Haven and London: YaleUniversity Press, 1986), 36.5 Ibid., 161-178. On Gaffurios defense of Boethius theories against Ramos de Pareja, see: Amaya SaraGarca Prez, El concepto de consonancia en la teora musical: de la escuela pitagrica a la revolucin

cientfica, Biblioteca Salmanticensis 289 (Salamanca: Publicaciones Universidad Pontificia, 2006), 227-236.6 It was written in the middle of the fifteenth century, but it was first published in 1485.

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Since Albertis treatise, many other Renaissance humanists and architects, likeFrancesco Giorgio or Palladio, began to use musical ratios in architecture. This interestfor musical ratios is not exclusive of Italian architects. We can find them also in Spanisharchitecture treatises, as for example in Villalpandos reconstruction of the Temple of

Solomon, where musical ratios explicitely (and implicitely) appear between differentarchitectural elements7. An example of the explicit musical intervals as given byVillalpando appears in Figure 1.

The ratios and proportions used by Renaissance architects were the ones discussed byPlato in his Timaeus, by Boethius in hisDe musica and by almost every Pythagoreanauthor of the Antiquity. As Boethius had survived in the European musical thoughtthrough the Middle Ages, the pythagorean musical ratios and proportions had always

been available to music theorists. But with the humanistic movement of the Italianquattrocento the mathematical aspect of music became a field of interest not only formusicians, but also for all sorts of intellectuals.

The relation between music and mathematics has an ancient origine, which can betraced back to the discovery of the musical ratios. This discovery was traditionallyattributed to Pythagoras. The most famous story about the discovery of musical ratios isthe Tale of the blacksmith, which goes back to NicomachusEnchiridion (I A.D.) andis further inserted in many treatises of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Accordingto this Tale, Pythagoras passed by a blacksmiths workshop and he heard the soundsemitted by the hammers hitting the iron. In these sounds he recognized the consonancesof the octave, the fifth and the fourth. He measured the weights of the hammers andfound that the heaviest hammer had 12 units of weight, the second one had 9 units, thethird had 8 units and the ligthest had 6 units. So, he found that the octave stands in theratio 2/1 (12/6), the fifth in the ratio 3/2 (12/8 and 9/6) and the fourth in the ratio 4/3(12/9 and 8/6). He, then, investigated other musical instruments to prove that in all ofthem these ratios worked the same way.

This Tale of the blacksmith is obviously fiction since weights do not behave in theway it is related, but in spite of this fact, this was the most widespread story about thediscovery of the ratios of the musical consonances. It appeared in many music treatisesof the Roman, Medieval and Renaissance times. Boethius, of course, included it, butalso Gaffurio, the most important Italian humanist music writer of the late fifteenthcentury included a version of the story and a beautiful ilustration where Pythagoras is

supplanted by Jubal, the biblical inventor of music, as we can see in Figure 2.From this Tale four numbers arise: 12, 9, 8, 6. These are the weights of the hammersand constitute the most important pythagorean musical tetraktys, since they contain theoctave divided arithmetically and harmonically in the two possible musical ways: eithera fifth plus a fourth (12-8-6), or a fourth plus a fifth (12-9-6). Figure 3, from amanuscript copy of BoethiusDe musica of the thirteenth century preserved in theUniversity of Salamanca, show these four numbers of the Tale of the blacksmith andthe musical intervals arising from them.

7Juan Bautista Villlapando,De Postrema Ezechielis prophetae Visione (Typis Illefonsi Ciacconij:

excudebat Carolus Vulliettus: Romae) 1604 (1605). A doctoral dissertation about the music inVillalpandos treatise is currently being writen by Sabina Snchez de Enciso Defarge in the UnviersidadComplutense de Madrid.

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The building of the University of Salamanca and the reforms of the sixteenth

century

The University of Salamanca was created in 1218. It is the oldest surviving Spanishuniversity. In the 13th and 14th centuries classes were given in different rooms, mainly ofthe cathedrals cloister. At the beginning of the 15th century a specific building for theUniversity was planned. It seems that at the middle of the 15 th century this first buildingwas already built in a gothic style following the european new college typology: acentral square open court surrounded by rooms.8

Since the beginning of the sixteenth century a series of reformations were taken whichwould definitively change the original gothic appearance of the building. Thesereformations culminated about 1525 with the construction of the famous plateresquefaade.9 The chapel was enlarged, the library was placed in the upper floor behind the

faade, a bigger staircase was built and, finally, a new faade was placed in front of thelibrary. This faade has the peculiarity that it is not superimposed over the old one, but,instead, it stands out of the old building, creating a new advanced entrance. Toregularize again the building in the outside, a crenellated wall was erected at both sidesof the faade. Two little open spaces appear between this wall an the old wall, whichcan be accesed by two doors open in the new entrance. So, after the reformations of theearly sixteenth century, the building has a first entrance, a second entrance (which is theold entrance) and then the central open court. The current plan of the building of theUniversity is shown in Figure 4. This figure shows the second floor of the building. Thenew entrance is in the lower part of the picture. The old entrance is juxtaposed to it,

below the library, which appears on the figure.

Some of these reformations had obviously a practical goal: to enlarge the chapel, tobuild a new, bigger library and a bigger staircase and, of course, to build a new richfaade (the fachada rica, as it was called). But, why was another entrance built up,creating this strange and odd-looking structure? Why did not they just superimpose thenew faade over the old one? According to Pereda10, who has studied profuondly the

building of the University, these reformations had not only a practical goal, but alsosougth to adequate the old building to the new antiquarian tendencies of the time. Infact, the plan of the new construction, with the two succesive entrances, can becompared to Vitruvius domus romana, as it was interpreted at the time.

The first ilustrated edition of Vitruvius was made by Fra Giocondo de Verona in 1511.In Fra Giocondos edition, the domus romana of Vitruvius is interpreted in what seemsan erroneous way11. Figure 5 shows the ilustration of the domus by Giocondo de8 Felipe Pereda, La arquitectura elocuente: El edificio de la Universidad de Salamanca bajo el reinadode Carlos V, Coleccionarte (Madrid: Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoracin de los Centenarios deFelipe II y Carlos V, 2000), 17-43.9 The order and possible dates of the reformations are discussed by Ibid., 65-75. The faade was probablyinitiated in 1519 or 1520 and finished in 1525 or 1526.10 Pereda, La Arquitectura Elocuente.11 Marco Vitrubio Polin, M. Vitruuius Per Iocundum Solito Castigatior Factus: Cumfiguris Et Tabula Ut

Iam Legi Et Intelligi Possit, ed. Giovanni Giocondo de Verona (Impressum Venetiis ac magis q[uam]

unquam aliquo alio tempore emendatum: sumptu miraq[ue] diligentia Ioannis de Tridino alias Tacuino,1511). For our following discussion about the domus romana and the reconstruction by Fra Giocondo wefollow: Pereda, La Arquitectura Elocuente, 165-175. (BG 12898)

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Verona. As we can see, there is a vestibulum (the entrance), then an atrium whichfunctions as a second entrance, and finally the square court here called cavaediumwhich constitutes the center part of the house. At both sides of the vestibulum two opengardens (pomaria sive ortus) appear in Giocondos illustration, which can be accesed bytwo doors in the vestibulum.

These two gardens are not present in Vitruvius original description of the domus. Theerror of Giocondo lies in the fact that Vitruvius used two words to refer to the same partof the house.Atrium and cavaedium are, in the original vitruvian description, twodifferent names for the same square court. Giocondo interprets these two words asdifferent parts of the house, and then he reconstructs the domus as having first avestibulum, then an atrium and then, next to it, a cavaedium. This forces him tointroduce the two gardens to keep the regular structure of the outside.

This erroneuos interpretation of Vitruvius can also be found, some years before, inAntonio de NebrijasDiccionario latino-espaol, which was published in Salamanca in

1492. Let us talk for a minute about Nebrija, who is a fundamental figure in ourpresentation. Nebrija was the most important humanist figure in the circle of theUniversity of Salamanca at the end of the fifteenth and begining of the sixteenthcenturies. In fact, he was professor of rhetoric from 1505 to 1512 in the University. Hehad studied in the Universities of Salamanca and Bolonia, were he got in contact withthe new humanist and anticuarian tendencies of the time. He is mainly known for hisworks on grammar (he is the author of the first Spanish grammar and of the firstdiccionary Latin-Spanish), but he has also minor works on cosmography, on numbersand measures, on pedagogy, on Roman rests, etc. In other words, starting from alinguistical point of departure, he was also interested in all other fields of knowledge.

In hisDiccionariolatino-espaolhe translates atrium by el portal de la casa (theentrance of the house), while he translates vestibulum by el portal fuera de la casa (theentrance outside the house)12. So, Nebrija had read Vitruvius by the end of the fifteenthcentury, and, according to Pereda, it seems that he had also read Alberti. In fact, Nebrijawas very much interested in ancient Roman architecture. In some of his works hedescribes the Roman rests of Merida, using terminology and concepts that clearly comefrom Albertis treatise.13

As we can see, the structure of the Universitys building after the reformation resemblesvery much this interpretation of Vitruvius, both in Giocondos ilustration and in

Nebrijas description. So, the reformations taken in the building of the University at thebegining of the sixteenth century were also intended to adequate it to the structure of thedomus, as it was interpreted at the time by Giocondo and by Nebrija. The interest inRoman antiquity and in its reconstruction seems to be the central idea behind all thesereformations. According to Pereda, the antiquarian bias of these reforms can be seen notonly in the overall structure, but also in the ornamentation of the parapets of the stairs(Figure 6), in the hieroglyphs inserted in the parapets of the second floor of the court(Figure 7),14 and, of course, in the ornamentation of the faade (Figure 8). Peredaconcludes that behind all the reformations of the University there must have been a12 This erroneous interpretation of theDomusstructure was quite common in the first Renaissance (see:Pereda, La Arquitectura Elocuente.) and it seems that it could come from Aulio Gelio. This roman author

was a source used by Nebrija in various of his works.13 Felipe Pereda, Un tratado de elementos de arquitectura antigua, en Medidas del Romano, 1526th ed.(Toledo: Antonio Pareja Editor, 2000), 57.

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humanist, someone with an antiquarian interest, concerned with the reconstruction ofthe classic, Roman spirit.

The fachada rica

This faade, with its horror vacui treatment of ornamentation, became a paradigm of theearly Spanish Renaissance style, which has been called plateresque style. It is a socalledfachada-tapiz(tapestry faade), for it covers with ornamentation the real structureof the building. The faade presents an architectural structure in three horizontal levelsand five vertical lanes which does not correspond with the structure of the inside.Unfortunately, the actual conditions of its construction can not be completely cleared up

because most part of the oficial documentation of those years is missing. Many scholarshave been interested in the iconographical aspects of the faade and many differentinterpretations have been made, but we will not focus on them.15 Pereda himself analizesthe iconographical aspects of the faade in order to prove how an antiquarian interest

can be seen in the architecture a lo romano used in it, both in the grutesqueornamentation and in the characters represented.

However, the structural aspects of the faade have deserved less attention from modernscholars. The only study of the structure is by the architect Pablo Andrs.16 He analizesthe possible use of different units of measure in its design, and he proposes the humanistAntonio de Nebrija as the probable designer of the structure17.

The first evidence about Nebrijas implication in the sixteenth century reformations ofthe University comes from his own testimony. In june 1510 Nebrija makes a speech inthe University about units of measure,Repetitio sexta de mensuris, which was shortlyafter published18. In this text he argues for the need to use common and stable units ofmeasure. He then proposes the romanpes (i. e. the roman foot) as the unit for length.19And to establish the actual measure of the foot he uses the Va de la Plata. This is aRoman road which connected the south of the Peninsula with the north. Nebrija

14 These hieroglyphs (as they have been called by Pedraza) seem to derive from the ilustrations of theHypnerotomachia Poliphili (Venetia, 1499), an alegoric novel probably written by Francesco Colonnawhich presents an oniric description of Ancient Roman architecture. See: Mara del Pilar Pedraza yMartnez, La introduccin del jeroglfico renacentista: los enigmas de la Universidad de Salamanca,Cuadernos hispanoamericanos 394 (1983): 5-42. And Santiago Sebastin Lpez y Luis Corts Vzquez,Simbolismo de los programas humansticos de la Universidad de Salamanca (Salamanca: Universidad de

Salamanca, 1973).15 The main studies, appart from the one by Pereda, are: Ibid.; Santiago Sebastin Lpez, La universidadrenacentista como palacio de la virtud y del vicio: discurso ledo en la solemne apertura del curso 1991-

1992 (Valncia: Universitat de Valncia, Servei de Publicacions, 1991); Paulette Gabaudan, El mitoimperial: Programa iconogrfico de la Universidad de Salamanca, Estudios de arte 12 (Valladolid: Juntade Castilla y Len, Consejera de Educacin y Cultura, 1998); Cirilo Flrez Miguel, La fachada de laUniversidad de Salamanca: Interpretacin, 1st ed., Acta Salmanticensia 59 (Salamanca: EdicionesUniversidad de Salamanca, 2001); Pereda, La Arquitectura Elocuente.16 Pablo Andrs Bravo, Portae lucis: proporciones y cbalas sobre la fachada del Estudio (Salamanca:Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Len, Delegacin de Salamanca, 2007).17 Pereda (Pereda, La Arquitectura Elocuente, 174.), however, discards this possibility due to the fact that

Nebrija left Salamanca in 1512 to go to the University of Alcal.18 Antonio de Nebrija, Repetitio Sexta De Mensuris (Salamanca: Joannes de Porras, 1510).

19 Pes: qui metitur omnia commensurabilia in quocunque genere sint posita: non potest aliunde monstrariquantus fit: cum ipsum fit primum: quo reliqua eiusdem generis mensurari debeut: de cuius legitimaquantitate statis multa in superioribus dictum est. Ibid.

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explains that, using a rope, he measured the length between two milestones of the road.Being the distance between milestones a thounsand steps, and being the step five feet,he found the real measure of the Roman foot. Then, he relates to have made thismeasure available to the men working in the building of the new Universitys library sothat they could use it as the unit of measure. As we have already said, the faade was

built after the library, as it closes it in the west part of the building, so, if NebrijasRoman foot was used in the library, it seems probable that it was also used in thefaade. Moreover, from the foot Nebrija makes derive all other measures, such as thecubit (cubitum) which is made out of one and a half feet.20

As we said, the architect Pablo Andrs has studied the measures and structure of thefaade and he has concluded that a probable measure unit used in its planification wasthe cubit in the magnitude derived from Nebrijas foot. Moreover, Andrs proposes thatthe two columns flanking the faade symbolize the two columns flanking the entranceof the Temple of Solomon, as described in the Bible. The ones of the faade are twosemicolumns supported by mensulas and culminated by a pinnacle. They seem to

embrace the ornamentation to prevent it from being dispersed all over the faade. Theyare the most important articulators of the structure of the faade, and the threehorizontal levels are clearly marked on them. As we can see in Figure 9, the facadeseems to fit a pattern of Nebrijas cubits. And, moreover, if we measure on the columnsthe height of each of the three levels and of the pinnacles, we get the followingnumbers: 12 cubits, 9 cubits, 8 cubits and 6 cubits.

As we see, these are the numbers of the musical tetraktys. These are the numbers of theTale of the blacksmith, the weights of the hammers. These are the numbers whichrepresent the octave and its arithmetic and harmonic division in a fifth and a fourth. Inother words, these are the most musical numbers of all numbers. And they are, ofcourse, the numbers of the pythagorean Harmony of the spheres.

Can all this be fortuitous? The numbers and ratios present in the faade are just a matterof chance, or were they intended? We think that they were intended and that the faadewas planned to include these musical numbers. And we will try to present some moreevidences in favor of this theory.

The Chair of Music in the University of Salamanca in 15th and 16th centuries

As we said, it seems likely that behind the planification of the reforms, and of course of

the faade, was a humanist, a man interested in all fields of knowledge; someone withantiquarian interests who wanted to recreate Roman Antiquity through the use ofVitruvius domus romana and of the Roman foot as could be measured in the Va de laPlata; someone who knew about the Renaissance Italian ideas of the time whichconsidered that architecture should reflect the harmony of the world through the use ofmusical ratios; someone who knew about Pythagoras Tale of the blacksmith and whohad probably read Boethius. Let us, then, take a look on the teachings of music in theUniversity in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The Chair of Music in the University of Salamanca was constituted in 1254 by AlfonsoX. From that moment, and until the year 1792, the second art of the quadrivium (as

King Alfonso X described it) was part of the teachings of Salamancas University20 Cubitum constat sequipede hoc est digitis viginti quattuor. Ibid.

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(GARCA FRAILE, 2004, 32). There are quite a few references about what was done inthe music classes during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It seems that there was a

part of theory (devoted to the mathematical aspect of music) and a part of practice(devoted to plain chant, organum and counterpoint).

As we already said, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries theAuctoritas on music, allover Europe, was Boethius. His bookDe musica had always been the reference, butfrom the fifteenth century the humanism revival of the ancient sources lifted, evenmore, Boethius book up. In the University of Salamanca, Boethius was, as in the rest ofEurope, theAuctoritas. The theoretical sessions of the music classes were devoted to thereading and commenting upon Boethius. Ramos de Pareja, for example, who mantainedthe chair of music somewhere around the 60s of the fifteenth century, declares, in hisfamous treatise that he used to read Boethius in his classes when he was professor ofmusic in the University of Salamanca21. Other references confirm the use of Boethiuseven in the examinations that took place whenever the University needed a new

professor: the candidates to the post had to comment a passage of Boethius in order to

show their knowledge on the subject. From these evidences we can mantain thatBoethius was, in Salamanca as in the rest of Europe, the incontrovertibleAuctoritas inthe field of music.

The books on music and architecture available in Salamanca

As we said, it seems that whoever planned the reformations of the University had readVitruvius, Alberti, BoethiusDe musica and, perhaps, Gaffurio. All these sources wereavailable in Salamanca at that time.

There was, of course, a BoethiusDe musica. It is the manuscript copy from thethirteenth century of which we have already talked about and which is now preserved inthe University library. Another interesting music book available in Salamanca at the endof the fifteenth century is an exemplar of GaffuriosPractica musice, published in 1497.As we said, Gafurio was the most important humanist music writer of the late fifteenthcentury. He is a great defender of Boethius. In his bookTheoricamusicae he includesthe Tale of the blacksmith. The book of Salamancas library,Practica musice, is lesstheoretical, but it presents the pythagorean theory of ratios and of course the musicaltetraktys 12-9-8-6 is also included. This incunable is anotated by two hands. One ofthem has compiled a bunch of fragments from different authors. The authors and worksquoted by this second handwriting are: Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, Oratorie

Institutionis; Aulio Gelio,Noctes atticae; Apuleius,De mundo; and Francisco Negro,Arte de gramtica. This last quotation refers to theBreuis grammatica (Venetia, 1480)by the Italian grammarian Francesco Negri (1452-1523).

It is quite curious that none of the authors quoted is a music writer, since, as we said,this handwriting appears as an addenda to a book on music by Gaffurio. Instead, wefind three long quotations from grammar and oratory books (Marcus FabiusQuintillianus, Aulio Gelio, Francesco Negri), and even a work on aristoteliancosmography like ApuleiusDe mundo. From these anotations we can infer that the

21 Bartolom Ramos de Pareja, Musica practica Bartolomei Rami de Pareia Bononiae, impressa opere et

industria ac expensis magistri Baltasaris de Hiriberia MCCCCLXXXII: Nach den Originaldrucken desLiceo musicale mit Genehmigung der Commune von Bologna, Publikationen der InternationalenMusikgesellschaft (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hrtel, 1901).

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person making them speaks Spanish, since part of the text is written in Spanish, heobviously reads and writes Latin, and he also seems able to translate Greek since hetranslates the Greek passage by Apuleius into Latin. It seems then probable that the

person reading the book and making these anotations was not a musician but a humanistwhose personal background was mainly in the linguistical disciplines of the trivium;

someone with a profound knowledge on grammar an rhetoric, but also with at leastsuperficial knowledge on other aspects of the sciences and the arts. In any case, mostprobably he was related to the trivium chairs of the University.

Let us now take a look on the architecture books available in Salamanca at the time. Itseems that the first edited version of Vitruvius of 1486 and also two exemplars ofGiocondos edition of 1511, were available in Salamanca at that time22. There was alsothe first edition of AlbertisDe re aedificatoria of 148523. As we said, Alberti was thefirst architect to explicitely recomend the use of musical proportions in architecture. Allthese exemplars are profusely anotated and a study on these anotations is, of course,necessary.

Conclusions

At the end of the fifteenth century and beginning of the sixteenth century in Salamancaone could read BoethiusDe musica, GaffuriosPractica musice, AlbertisDe reaedificatoria and VitruviusDe architectura in two different versions. These are thefundamental sources to support our musical interpretation of the faade. Moreover,Gaffurios book seems to have been read by a grammarian or rhetorician. The name of

Nebrija comes again to our mind. As we said he was one the most important humanistsof the time. He was a grammarian, he was professor of rhetoric in the University and heused Aulio Gelio, Quintillianus, Apuleius and Negri as sources for his own writings. Hehad antiquarian interests; in fact he describes the Roman rests of Merida in some of hiswritings, making clear that he had read Vitruvius and Alberti. And, above all, hehimself relates how he provided the measure of the Roman foot to the workers buildingthe Library. Nebrija left Salamanca in 1512 or 1513, due to problems with his moreconservative colegues, to go to the University of Alcal, where he died in 1522. Thefaade was not concluded before 1525. Still, it could be possible that he designed it,alone or together with the help of somebody else, and that it was built following hisdesign.

We can not completely assure that Nebrija was the main designer of the reformations in

general and of the faade in particular, but, in any case, it seems clear that someone withhis same profile, was behind it. Anyway, whoever was the designer, he intended torecreate the Roman Antiquity through the use of the Vitruvius model of the domus,through the use of Classic sources for the ornamentation and through the use ofPythagorean musical ratios.

22 BG/I. 269(1), BG 12898 and BG 12868(3).23 Leon Battista Alberti, Leonis Baptiste Alberti De Re Aedificatoria (Florentiae: Nicolaus Laurentii, 29).(BG/I. 352)

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Figures:

Figure 1: Villalpando,De Postrema Ezechielis prophetae Visione. Book V, Disc. I,Chap. XX, 449.

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Figure 2: Franchino Gaffurio, Theorica musice, Ioannes Petrus de Lomatio, Milan,1492, lib. 1, fol. bvir. (http://www.chmtl.indiana.edu/tml/15th/GAFTM1_TEXT.html,accessed 20/jul/2011).

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Figure 3: Boethius,De musica, thirteenth century manuscript copy preserved in theLibrary of the University of Salamanca. Ms. 525.(http://gredos.usal.es/jspui/handle/10366/55562, accessed 20/jul/2011).

Figure 4: Plan of the Unviersity of Salamanca. Pereda,La arquitectura elocuente. 159.

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Figure 5: VitruviusDomus romana according to Fra Giocondo de Verona (1511)

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Figure 6: Stair of the historic building of the University of Salamanca

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Figure 7: Parapet of the second floor of the court. Historic building of the University ofSalamanca.

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Figure 8: Historic faade of the University of Salamanca.

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Figure 9: The historic faade of the University of Salamanca in a pattern of cubits.

Pablo Andrs Bravo, Portae lucis: proporciones y cbalas sobre la fachada del Estudio

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(Salamanca: Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Len, Delegacin de Salamanca, 2007).The numbers of the musical tetraktys.

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Music and architecture.doc