Graphic Resources in the Manuscript of Fray Francisco de Santa Bárbara

Abstract

The study carried out on the Manuscrito de Cantería entitled “Secretos de Arquitectura, tratado geométrico que comprende lo más usual y corriente de la montea y cortes de cantería”, preserved in the municipal archive of Xàtiva, numbered LB-995, AMX, is briefly presented. This manuscript contains a collection of graphic traces with accompanying texts, and is part of the Hispanic stonemasonry tradition. Although some authors, mainly in the field of art history, have studied the manuscript, there is still no complete critical study of the work. This article therefore presents the fundamental questions that put the manuscript into context: the provenance of the traces, the author’s contributions, and a state of the art on the graphic questions raised. This work brings together a total of 39 drawn cases, in which a whole range of graphic resources are used, mostly oriented towards the practice of montea and stone cutting. This analysis analyses the main graphic procedures used, and also considers the extent to which the manuscript is situated halfway between the constructive practice and the theory of the eighteenth-century enlightened world.