Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/560

Rh 540 ESCORIAL and received the title of El real Monasterio de San Lorenzo del EacoriaL The last distinctive epithet was derived from the little hamlet in the vicinity which furnished shelter, not only to the workmen, but to the monks of St Jerome who were afterwards to be in posses sion of the monastery; and the hamlet itself is generally but perhaps erroneously supposed to be indebted for its name to the scorice or dross of certain old iron mines. The preparation of the plans and the superintendence of the work were entrusted by the king to Juan Bautista de Toledo, a Spanish architect who had received most of his professional education in Italy. The first stone was laid in April 1563; and under the king s personal inspection the work rapidly advanced. Abundant supplies of Views and Plan of the Escorial. 1 CHURCH. Principal entrance and portico. Court of the kings (Patio de lot reyes). Vestibule of the church. Choir of the seminarists. Centre of the church and projec tion of the dome. Greater chapel. High altar. Chapel of St John. Chapel of St Michael. 10. Chapel of St Maurice. 11 Chapel of the Hosary. 12. Tomb of Louisa Carlota. 13 Chapel of the Patrocinio 14. Chapel of the Cristo de la buena mutrte 15. Chapel of the Eleven Thousand Virgins. Ifi. Former Chapel of the Patrocinio. 17. Sacristy. PALACE. 18. Principal court of the palace. berroquena, a granite-like stone, were obtained in the neighbourhood, and for rarer materials the resources of both the Old and the New World were put under con tribution. The death of Toledo in 1567 threatened a fatal blow at the satisfactory completion of the enterprise, but a worthy successor was found in Juan Herrera, Toledo s favourite pupil, who adhered in the main to his master s 1 Reduced from a large plan of the Escorial in the British Museum, 10. Ladies tower. 20 Court of the masks. 21. Apartments of the royal children. 22. Royal oratory. 23. Oratory where Philip II. died. SEMIS-ARY 24. Entrance to seminary. 1~&amp;gt; Classrooms. 26. Old philosophical hall. 27. Old theological hall. 28. Chamber of secrets. 29. Old refectory. 30. Entrance to the college. 31. College yard. CONVENT 32 Clock tower. 33. Principal cloister. 34. Court of the evangelists. 35. Prior s cell. 36. Archives. 37. Old church. 38. Visitors hall. 39. Manuscript library. 40. Convent refectory. designs. On September 13, 1584, the lastT stone of tho masonry was laid, and the works were brought to a ter mination in 1593. Each successive occupant of the Spanish throne has done something, however slight, to the restora tion or adornment of Philip s convent-palace, and Ferdinand did so much in this way that he has been called a second founder. In all its principal features, however, the Escorial remains what it was made by the genius of Toledo and Herrera working out the grand, if abnormal desires of their dark-souled master.
 * Monasterio del Escorial,&quot; published at Madrid in 1876.