THE FIRST CHRONICLER OF THE ESCORIAL

We have it on the authority of Padre Fray José de Sigüenza, the librarian of the Monasterio, and the first historian of Philip II., that the king desired the building at the Escorial to excel the majesty of Solomon’s Temple, and to astonish the whole world. When we consider that the edifice was erected and adorned with very little aid from machinery, we cannot but marvel at the expedition in carrying out the architects’ and designers’ plans. A great army of sawyers, carpenters, quarrymen, stonemasons, and craft-workers found employment upon this great pile. It is recorded that the labourers complained of the cold, searching winds in winter, and that they suffered from the scorching heat in summer.

The rules applying to the workmen were stringent. The labourers appear to have suffered from a scarcity of wine, which they desired in the hot weather. No doubt the rigour of the climate in winter increased the difficulties attending upon the undertaking.

Cranes and levers were employed for lifting the huge blocks of stone quarried from the surrounding mountains. Even the rough work was allotted only to workmen of approved ability and reputed industry, while the{74} task of decoration was given to masters of the arts of painting, illuminating, and carving in wood, metal, and ivory. Upon this bleak highland a busy colony of toilers from many parts of Europe sprang up in a few months. Forges, workshops, and saw-pits were set up or constructed amongst the scoriæ or shale of the mountains, and the desert rang with the beating of hammers on metal, the clicking of the mason’s chisel, and the grating of the saws.

An immense number of carts and horses were employed, besides pannier-mules and asses, to bring the stone from the quarries and the metal from distant furnaces.

Only a part of the work was performed at the Escorial. The bronze was compounded in Zaragoza; the white marble came from the Sierras de Filabres, and the green, black, and variegated marbles were brought from the mountains of A............