- Title
- Villalpando’s sacred architecture in the light of Isaac Newton’s commentary
- Creator
- Morrison, Tessa
- Relation
- Architecture and Mathematics from Antiquity to the Future, Volume 2: The 1500s to the Future p. 183-196
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00143-2_12
- Publisher
- Springer
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- The three-volume commentary on the Book of Ezekiel was to be a collaborative project by two Spanish Jesuits priests, Hieronymus Prado and Juan Bautisa Villalpando. Originally the project was led by Prado, and although it was to be collaboration, Villalpando’s main contribution was to have been on chapters 40–42, which consist of Ezekiel’s vision of the Temple of Jerusalem. The first of the three volumes was published in 1596 as Ezechielem Explanationes et Apparatus Vrbis Templi Hierosolymitani, and deals with the first 26 chapters of Ezekiel and was mainly written by Prado. However, Prado died before the publication of this volume and Villalpando was left to complete the project alone. Volumes II and III were subsequently published in 1604. Volume II, De Postrema Ezechielis Prophetae Visione, contains Villalpando’s famous reconstruction of the Temple along with his justification for it. Volume III, Apparatus Vrbis ac Templi Hiersolymitani, consists of explanatory notes for the first two volumes. The overall project is a massive body of extraordinary and detailed scholarship. Villalpando was a highly skilled architect and draftsman and his reconstruction of the Temple is illustrated by a portfolio of exceptionally detailed architectural drawings. The project was an expensive one and it was only made possible through the financial support of Philip II of Spain. Villalpando studied mathematics under the royal architect, Juan de Herrera, who at that time was involved with the construction of the Escorial. Herrera had an extensive library of books on the occult; these books indicated a strong interest in Hermetism, which is also supported by Herrera’s treatise Sobre la figura cúbica (1935) on the Hermetic philosopher Ramón Lull. Fundamentally, Renaissance Hermetism promulgated a belief in an astrologically ordered cosmology where a geo-centric universe was divided into three worlds: the world of man, the celestial world of the planets and the fixed stars, and the super-celestial world of God (Taylor 1972: 63–64). The Christian Hermetism that was practiced in the Renaissance was a combination of Christianity and prisca theologia (ancient Knowledge). Ancient mystical mathematics of music, geometry and arithmetic became prominent in Renaissance Hermetism. This atmosphere of Hermetic learning pervaded the Spanish Court, affecting even Philip II himself, and Villalpando’s In Ezechielem Explanationes was a product of this atmosphere.
- Subject
- architecture; mathematics; architectural design; geometry; Juan Battista Villalpando
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1354009
- Identifier
- uon:31175
- Identifier
- ISBN:9783319001425
- Language
- eng
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