Juan de Herrera, after studying architecture at…
1584 CE
Juan de Herrera, after studying architecture at the University of Valladolid, had from 1547 to 1551 accompanied King Philip II of Spain to Italy and Brussels as a courtier, and from 1551 to 1559 he had been with the king in Italy and at Yuste, Spain.
Appointed assistant to Juan Bautista de Toledo at El Escorial in 1563, in 1572 he had been appointed head architect.
Herrera has reorganized the workshops, completed the roofs, added a section to the west facade, designed the church (1574–82), and built the infirmary.
His addition to the west facade of El Escorial relieves the monotony of Toledo's original plan, and his church there is a marked improvement on the latter's earlier design.
The Escorial library in Madrid, erected in 1584, is the first to do away with the medieval book bays, which had been set at right angles to the light source, and to arrange its collection in cases lining the walls.