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 Renaissance architecture. It can be seen both in specific buildings and in many architectural treatises of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The use of musical symbolism in the Renaissance architecture (mainly through the use of musical ratios and proportions) has been widely studied in italian examples since Wittkowers classical Architectural principles in the age of humanism. However, the Spanish Renaissance architecture has not 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 doctoral dissertation 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 the University of Salamanca. This plateresque faade of the first third of the sixteenth century has been widely studied from an iconografical-structural point of view, but its relation 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 two interconnected ideas: the search of the Renaissance architects for a higher status of their art and their conviction that architecture must express the universal harmony. Let us discuss these two ideas. Science, in the Middle Ages, was restricted to the system of the Liberal Arts. This system, stemming from the Classical world, was structured in two branches: the quadrivium and the trivium. The quadrivium contained the four mathematical disciplines: arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy. The trivium was composed by the three linguistic disciplines: grammar, rhetoric and dialectic (or logic). Only the disciplines contained in this system had an intellectual, high status. All other activities, like the visual arts, architecture, or medicine, were considered mechanical, manual; they were 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 moment some Italian painters, sculpturers and architects began to claim a place in the system of the Liberal Arts. In order to do so they began to focus the attention on the intellectual aspect 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 had always been considered an intellectual activity: music. Music had its place in the quadrivium 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

own arts lied in the use of mathematics1. Of all the visual arts, architecture had the better starting point because, actually, architects had always used measures and geometry. On the other hand, in the fifteenth century the Italian Humanistic movement was rediscovering and reinterpreting ancient texts and ideas. Architecture counted with a classical treatise which could serve as Auctoritas, the Ten books on architecture by the Roman writer Vitruvius. In the fifteenth century it was rediscovered, reread and its doctrines reinterpreted. This book was published for the first time in 1486.2 Vitruvius himself had included music as an important discipline for an architect and, following Aristoxenus, he had explained the basic musical system of Antiquity. He had also talked of 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 did not explicitely talk of musical ratios. Another classic idea important for us is the neoplatonic concept of the Harmony of the spheres. 3 It had been known during the Middle Ages through Boethius. His idea of the musica mundana had always been available since Boethius De musica circulated widely in manuscripts and could be found almost in every educational institution and monastery4. In the fifteenth century the idea gets a new impulse through Ugolino of Orvieto, Giorgio Anselmi, Ficinos translation of Platos Timaeus and, above all, Franchino Gaffurio, who was the most important humanist music writer of the late fifteenth century and who vigorously defended Boethius theories. 5 Renaissance Italian architects were, then, convinced that architecture was a mathematical 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 human body did. By doing so they were imitating God, the Supreme architect. God had modelled man and world following that universal harmony that could be heard in musical sound, and the architecture had to follow the same principle: it had to express the harmony of the universe through the use of the musical ratios and proportions that the Pythagorean tradition had handed down to them. The first architect to explicitely recomend the use of musical proportions for the design of architectural spaces was Alberti in his treatise De re aedificatoria6 writen in the middle of the fifteenth century. Alberti was one of the first Renaissance readers of Vitruvius 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 and heights 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 musical mathematics 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 Plato and the hellenistic writers. 4 Claude V. Palisca, Humanism in Italian Renaissance Musical Thought (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1986), 36. 5 Ibid., 161-178. On Gaffurios defense of Boethius theories against Ramos de Pareja, see: Amaya Sara Garca 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), 227236. 6 It was written in the middle of the fifteenth century, but it was first published in 1485.

Since Albertis treatise, many other Renaissance humanists and architects, like Francesco Giorgio or Palladio, began to use musical ratios in architecture. This interest for musical ratios is not exclusive of Italian architects. We can find them also in Spanish architecture treatises, as for example in Villalpandos reconstruction of the Temple of Solomon, where musical ratios explicitely (and implicitely) appear between different architectural elements7. An example of the explicit musical intervals as given by Villalpando appears in Figure 1. The ratios and proportions used by Renaissance architects were the ones discussed by Plato in his Timaeus, by Boethius in his De musica and by almost every Pythagorean author of the Antiquity. As Boethius had survived in the European musical thought through the Middle Ages, the pythagorean musical ratios and proportions had always been available to music theorists. But with the humanistic movement of the Italian quattrocento the mathematical aspect of music became a field of interest not only for musicians, but also for all sorts of intellectuals. The relation between music and mathematics has an ancient origine, which can be traced back to the discovery of the musical ratios. This discovery was traditionally attributed to Pythagoras. The most famous story about the discovery of musical ratios is the Tale of the blacksmith, which goes back to Nicomachus Enchiridion (I A.D.) and is further inserted in many treatises of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. According to this Tale, Pythagoras passed by a blacksmiths workshop and he heard the sounds emitted by the hammers hitting the iron. In these sounds he recognized the consonances of the octave, the fifth and the fourth. He measured the weights of the hammers and found that the heaviest hammer had 12 units of weight, the second one had 9 units, the third had 8 units and the ligthest had 6 units. So, he found that the octave stands in the ratio 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 of them these ratios worked the same way. This Tale of the blacksmith is obviously fiction since weights do not behave in the way it is related, but in spite of this fact, this was the most widespread story about the discovery of the ratios of the musical consonances. It appeared in many music treatises of the Roman, Medieval and Renaissance times. Boethius, of course, included it, but also Gaffurio, the most important Italian humanist music writer of the late fifteenth century 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 hammers and constitute the most important pythagorean musical tetraktys, since they contain the octave divided arithmetically and harmonically in the two possible musical ways: either a fifth plus a fourth (12-8-6), or a fourth plus a fifth (12-9-6). Figure 3, from a manuscript copy of Boethius De musica of the thirteenth century preserved in the University of Salamanca, show these four numbers of the Tale of the blacksmith and the musical intervals arising from them.
7

Juan Bautista Villlapando, De Postrema Ezechielis prophetae Visione (Typis Illefonsi Ciacconij: excudebat Carolus Vulliettus: Romae) 1604 (1605). A doctoral dissertation about the music in Villalpandos treatise is currently being writen by Sabina Snchez de Enciso Defarge in the Unviersidad Complutense de Madrid.

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 Spanish university. In the 13th and 14th centuries classes were given in different rooms, mainly of the cathedrals cloister. At the beginning of the 15th century a specific building for the University was planned. It seems that at the middle of the 15th century this first building was already built in a gothic style following the european new college typology: a central square open court surrounded by rooms.8 Since the beginning of the sixteenth century a series of reformations were taken which would definitively change the original gothic appearance of the building. These reformations culminated about 1525 with the construction of the famous plateresque faade.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 the library. 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. To regularize again the building in the outside, a crenellated wall was erected at both sides of the faade. Two little open spaces appear between this wall an the old wall, which can be accesed by two doors open in the new entrance. So, after the reformations of the early sixteenth century, the building has a first entrance, a second entrance (which is the old entrance) and then the central open court. The current plan of the building of the University is shown in Figure 4. This figure shows the second floor of the building. The new 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, to build a new, bigger library and a bigger staircase and, of course, to build a new rich faade (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 the new 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 also sougth to adequate the old building to the new antiquarian tendencies of the time. In fact, the plan of the new construction, with the two succesive entrances, can be compared 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 seems an erroneous way11. Figure 5 shows the ilustration of the domus by Giocondo de
8

Felipe Pereda, La arquitectura elocuente: El edificio de la Universidad de Salamanca bajo el reinado de Carlos V, Coleccionarte (Madrid: Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoracin de los Centenarios de Felipe 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 probably initiated 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 we follow: Pereda, La Arquitectura Elocuente, 165-175. (BG 12898)

Verona. As we can see, there is a vestibulum (the entrance), then an atrium which functions as a second entrance, and finally the square court here called cavaedium which constitutes the center part of the house. At both sides of the vestibulum two open gardens (pomaria sive ortus) appear in Giocondos illustration, which can be accesed by two doors in the vestibulum. These two gardens are not present in Vitruvius original description of the domus. The error of Giocondo lies in the fact that Vitruvius used two words to refer to the same part of the house. Atrium and cavaedium are, in the original vitruvian description, two different names for the same square court. Giocondo interprets these two words as different parts of the house, and then he reconstructs the domus as having first a vestibulum, then an atrium and then, next to it, a cavaedium. This forces him to introduce the two gardens to keep the regular structure of the outside. This erroneuos interpretation of Vitruvius can also be found, some years before, in Antonio de Nebrijas Diccionario latino-espaol, which was published in Salamanca in 1492. Let us talk for a minute about Nebrija, who is a fundamental figure in our presentation. Nebrija was the most important humanist figure in the circle of the University of Salamanca at the end of the fifteenth and begining of the sixteenth centuries. In fact, he was professor of rhetoric from 1505 to 1512 in the University. He had studied in the Universities of Salamanca and Bolonia, were he got in contact with the new humanist and anticuarian tendencies of the time. He is mainly known for his works on grammar (he is the author of the first Spanish grammar and of the first diccionary Latin-Spanish), but he has also minor works on cosmography, on numbers and measures, on pedagogy, on Roman rests, etc. In other words, starting from a linguistical point of departure, he was also interested in all other fields of knowledge. In his Diccionario latino-espaol he translates atrium by el portal de la casa (the entrance of the house), while he translates vestibulum by el portal fuera de la casa (the entrance outside the house)12. So, Nebrija had read Vitruvius by the end of the fifteenth century, and, according to Pereda, it seems that he had also read Alberti. In fact, Nebrija was very much interested in ancient Roman architecture. In some of his works he describes the Roman rests of Merida, using terminology and concepts that clearly come from Albertis treatise.13 As we can see, the structure of the Universitys building after the reformation resembles very much this interpretation of Vitruvius, both in Giocondos ilustration and in Nebrijas description. So, the reformations taken in the building of the University at the begining of the sixteenth century were also intended to adequate it to the structure of the domus, as it was interpreted at the time by Giocondo and by Nebrija. The interest in Roman antiquity and in its reconstruction seems to be the central idea behind all these reformations. According to Pereda, the antiquarian bias of these reforms can be seen not only 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). Pereda concludes that behind all the reformations of the University there must have been a
12

This erroneous interpretation of the Domus structure 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.

humanist, someone with an antiquarian interest, concerned with the reconstruction of the classic, Roman spirit. The fachada rica This faade, with its horror vacui treatment of ornamentation, became a paradigm of the early Spanish Renaissance style, which has been called plateresque style. It is a so called fachada-tapiz (tapestry faade), for it covers with ornamentation the real structure of the building. The faade presents an architectural structure in three horizontal levels and 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 scholars have been interested in the iconographical aspects of the faade and many different interpretations have been made, but we will not focus on them.15 Pereda himself analizes the 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 grutesque ornamentation and in the characters represented. However, the structural aspects of the faade have deserved less attention from modern scholars. The only study of the structure is by the architect Pablo Andrs.16 He analizes the possible use of different units of measure in its design, and he proposes the humanist Antonio de Nebrija as the probable designer of the structure17. The first evidence about Nebrijas implication in the sixteenth century reformations of the University comes from his own testimony. In june 1510 Nebrija makes a speech in the University about units of measure, Repetitio sexta de mensuris, which was shortly after published18. In this text he argues for the need to use common and stable units of measure. He then proposes the roman pes (i. e. the roman foot) as the unit for length.19 And to establish the actual measure of the foot he uses the Va de la Plata. This is a Roman 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 the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Venetia, 1499), an alegoric novel probably written by Francesco Colonna which presents an oniric description of Ancient Roman architecture. See: Mara del Pilar Pedraza y Martnez, 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 universidad renacentista como palacio de la virtud y del vicio: discurso ledo en la solemne apertura del curso 19911992 (Valncia: Universitat de Valncia, Servei de Publicacions, 1991); Paulette Gabaudan , El mito imperial: Programa iconogrfico de la Universidad de Salamanca, Estudios de arte 12 (Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y Len, Consejera de Educacin y Cultura, 1998); Cirilo Flrez Miguel, La fachada de la Universidad de Salamanca: Interpretacin, 1st ed., Acta Salmanticensia 59 (Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad 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 monstrari quantus fit: cum ipsum fit primum: quo reliqua eiusdem generis mensurari debeut: de cuius legitima quantitate statis multa in superioribus dictum est. Ibid.

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 this measure available to the men working in the building of the new Universitys library so that 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 Nebrijas Roman foot was used in the library, it seems probable that it was also used in the faade. Moreover, from the foot Nebrija makes derive all other measures, such as the cubit (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 the faade and he has concluded that a probable measure unit used in its planification was the cubit in the magnitude derived from Nebrijas foot. Moreover, Andrs proposes that the two columns flanking the faade symbolize the two columns flanking the entrance of the Temple of Solomon, as described in the Bible. The ones of the faade are two semicolumns supported by mensulas and culminated by a pinnacle. They seem to embrace the ornamentation to prevent it from being dispersed all over the faade. They are the most important articulators of the structure of the faade, and the three horizontal levels are clearly marked on them. As we can see in Figure 9, the facade seems to fit a pattern of Nebrijas cubits. And, moreover, if we measure on the columns the height of each of the three levels and of the pinnacles, we get the following numbers: 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 the Tale of the blacksmith, the weights of the hammers. These are the numbers which represent the octave and its arithmetic and harmonic division in a fifth and a fourth. In other words, these are the most musical numbers of all numbers. And they are, of course, 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 matter of chance, or were they intended? We think that they were intended and that the faade was planned to include these musical numbers. And we will try to present some more evidences 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 with antiquarian interests who wanted to recreate Roman Antiquity through the use of Vitruvius domus romana and of the Roman foot as could be measured in the Va de la Plata; someone who knew about the Renaissance Italian ideas of the time which considered that architecture should reflect the harmony of the world through the use of musical ratios; someone who knew about Pythagoras Tale of the blacksmith and who had probably read Boethius. Let us, then, take a look on the teachings of music in the University in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Chair of Music in the University of Salamanca was constituted in 1254 by Alfonso X. 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 University
20

Cubitum constat sequipede hoc est digitis viginti quattuor. Ibid.

(GARCA FRAILE, 2004, 32). There are quite a few references about what was done in the 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 the Auctoritas on music, all over Europe, was Boethius. His book De musica had always been the reference, but from the fifteenth century the humanism revival of the ancient sources lifted, even more, Boethius book up. In the University of Salamanca, Boethius was, as in the rest of Europe, the Auctoritas. The theoretical sessions of the music classes were devoted to the reading and commenting upon Boethius. Ramos de Pareja, for example, who mantained the chair of music somewhere around the 60s of the fifteenth century, declares, in his famous treatise that he used to read Boethius in his classes when he was professor of music in the University of Salamanca21. Other references confirm the use of Boethius even 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 that Boethius was, in Salamanca as in the rest of Europe, the incontrovertible Auctoritas in the 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 read Vitruvius, Alberti, Boethius De musica and, perhaps, Gaffurio. All these sources were available in Salamanca at that time. There was, of course, a Boethius De musica. It is the manuscript copy from the thirteenth century of which we have already talked about and which is now preserved in the University library. Another interesting music book available in Salamanca at the end of the fifteenth century is an exemplar of Gaffurios Practica musice, published in 1497. As we said, Gafurio was the most important humanist music writer of the late fifteenth century. He is a great defender of Boethius. In his book Theorica musicae he includes the Tale of the blacksmith. The book of Salamancas library, Practica musice, is less theoretical, but it presents the pythagorean theory of ratios and of course the musical tetraktys 12-9-8-6 is also included. This incunable is anotated by two hands. One of them has compiled a bunch of fragments from different authors. The authors and works quoted 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 the Breuis 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, we find three long quotations from grammar and oratory books (Marcus Fabius Quintillianus, Aulio Gelio, Francesco Negri), and even a work on aristotelian cosmography like Apuleius De 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 des Liceo musicale mit Genehmigung der Commune von Bologna, Publikationen der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hrtel, 1901).

person making them speaks Spanish, since part of the text is written in Spanish, he obviously reads and writes Latin, and he also seems able to translate Greek since he translates 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 humanist whose personal background was mainly in the linguistical disciplines of the trivium; someone with a profound knowledge on grammar an rhetoric, but also with at least superficial knowledge on other aspects of the sciences and the arts. In any case, most probably 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. It seems that the first edited version of Vitruvius of 1486 and also two exemplars of Giocondos edition of 1511, were available in Salamanca at that time22. There was also the first edition of Albertis De re aedificatoria of 148523. As we said, Alberti was the first architect to explicitely recomend the use of musical proportions in architecture. All these 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 Salamanca one could read Boethius De musica, Gaffurios Practica musice, Albertis De re aedificatoria and Vitruvius De architectura in two different versions. These are the fundamental 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 humanists of the time. He was a grammarian, he was professor of rhetoric in the University and he used Aulio Gelio, Quintillianus, Apuleius and Negri as sources for his own writings. He had antiquarian interests; in fact he describes the Roman rests of Merida in some of his writings, making clear that he had read Vitruvius and Alberti. And, above all, he himself relates how he provided the measure of the Roman foot to the workers building the Library. Nebrija left Salamanca in 1512 or 1513, due to problems with his more conservative colegues, to go to the University of Alcal, where he died in 1522. The faade 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 his design. 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 with his same profile, was behind it. Anyway, whoever was the designer, he intended to recreate 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 of Pythagorean musical ratios.

22 23

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

Figures:

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

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).

Figure 3: Boethius, De musica, thirteenth century manuscript copy preserved in the Library 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.

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

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

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

Figure 8: Historic faade of the University of Salamanca.

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

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