De El Escorial Research Articles

A Meiotic Tapas Menu

Like Muhammad Ali's 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle,” this past fall (September 13–18), the 7th European Meiosis Meeting held in San Lorenzo de El Escorial brought us “Meiosis in Madrid.” This is a sister conference to the Gordon Meiosis series held every other year in the United States, and is an international small-format forum for sharing hot, new results, with an emphasis on unpublished work. At the conference, 21 countries were represented by 167 participants, with a nearly equal split between male and female scientists. The aim of the meeting was to present and promote in-depth discussions about all aspects of meiotic chromosome dynamics, recombination, and segregation. Rather than providing a comprehensive description of the meeting abstracts, this report will briefly describe meeting highlights, guided in large part by feedback from session chairs.

Un manuscrito karšūnī de la “Real Biblioteca de El Escorial”

This is a complete catalographic description of the karšuni MS included in the Codex 1628 of the “Real Biblioteca de El Escorial” where the author is identified and a formal analysis of the elements in the text is done.

A Recently Discovered Sixteenth-Century Spanish Astrolabe

Astrolabes serving all latitudes are very rare. This recently rediscovered sixteenth-century Spanish example raises a host of questions which can only be addressed by considering all other such instruments and the few available textual sources. The instruments can all be traced back, not always directly, to an invention of the eleventh-century Andalusian astronomer Ali ibn Khalaf, preserved in the Old Castillian Libros del Saber de Astronomía of King Alfonso X. The design of this particular astrolabe and the engraving on it are investigated in detail, and the as yet unidentified maker is associated with the circle around Juan de Herrera, architect of the palace-monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

Herbaria of E. Carreño (1818–1841) and M. P. Graells (1809–1898) discovered in the Real Colegio Alfonso XII of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid, Spain

SummaryCarrasco, M. A., Martín‐Blanco, C. J. & Perea, D.: Herbaria of E. Carreño (1818–1841) and M. P. Graells (1809–1898) discovered in the Real Colegio Alfonso XX of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid, Spain. – Taxon 50: 587–591. – 2001. – ISSN 0040‐0262.The discovery of the herbarium of Eduardo Carreño (1818–1841) in San Lorenzo de El Escorial is reported. The Carreño herbarium was included in the 12,169 collections donated by Mariano de la Paz Graells to the Gabinete of natural scieces of the Real Colegio Alfonso XII at the end of the 19th century. The principal contents of the Graells and Carreño herbaria, arranged by collectors (or donors), are summarized. These herbaria contain some of the oldest and best preserved collections of the Iberian flora.

The rediscovery of part of the Ceres Hispanica collection of M. Lagasca and S. R. Clemente

Thirty sheets of Gramineae, recently found in the Real Colegio Alfonso XII of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, belong to Lagasca & Clemente's Ceres Hispanica herbarium. The main corpus of the Ceres Hispanica collection is kept in the Real Jardin Botanico de Madrid, and the missing sheets were reported as having disappeared in 1823. The importance of the rediscovered material is evaluated from the point of view of its historical relevance.

The rediscovery of part of the Ceres Hispanica collection of M. Lagasca and S. R. Clemente

Thirty sheets of Gramineae, recently found in the Real Colegio Alfonso XII of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, belong to Lagasca & Clemente's Ceres Hispanica herbarium. The main corpus of the Ceres Hispanica collection is kept in the Real Jardı́n Botánico de Madrid, and the missing sheets were reported as having disappeared in 1823. The importance of the rediscovered material is evaluated from the point of view of its historical relevance.

Vides de Simón de Rojas Clemente (1777-1827) en el herbario del Real Colegio Alfonso XII de San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Madrid, España)

In the present paper, the discovery of grape-vine mounted sheets from the Simon de Rojas Clemente herbarium, which were found in the Herbarium of the Real Colegio Alfonso XH in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, is reported. This material completes the collection of Clemente's vines which makes up one of the historical collections deposited in the MA herbarium.

Estudio de algunos materiales pictóricos utilizados por Zuccaro en las obras de San Lorenzo de El Escorial

Three envelopes containing blue powdered pigments for painting were found in the general archives of Simancas, Spain. An investigation revealed that these materials could be related to two letters sent by Federico Zuccaro to Venice in which he ordered colours and brushes he would need for his work at the monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. It was concluded that these pigments were showpieces used to define the desired quality of the colours. In this work, the content of the letters is commented and the pigments analysed, yielding ultramarine blue and smalt. This is followed by a review of the Spanish and Italian technical literature of that period in order to understand why Zuccaro needed to import some products from Venice. Finally, the transcription of the letters studied in this work is presented in appendix.

Herbarium of M. P. Graells (1809‐1898) discovered in the Real Colegio Alfonso XII of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid, Spain

SummaryCarrasco, M. A., García, A., Perea, D. & Martín‐Blanco, C. J.: Herbarium of M. P. Graells (1809‐1898) discovered in the Real Colegio Alfonso XII of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid, Spain. – Taxon 46: 367‐370. 1997. – ISSN 0040‐0262.The discovery of the herbarium of Mariano de la Paz Graells in San Lorenzo de El Escorial is reported. This herbarium, of C. 17,000 specimens, was donated to the Gabinete of natural sciences of the Real Colegio Alfonso XII by Graells at the end of the 19th century. Its principal contents, by collectors [or donors] of the plants, are summarized.

Evaluation in Situ of the State of Deterioration of Monumental Stones by Non-Destructive Ultrasonic Techniques.

AbstractA non-destructive ultrasonic procedure has been developed for evaluating in-situ the relative deterioration of monumental stones. Ultrasonic waves are injected into the rock and they are registered, processed and petrophysically interpreted after travelling through it. The procedure applied to a Spanish Monastery (San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid) built with a granitic rock is described.The following methodology was applied: in-situ categorization of the observable deterioration forms, sampling in the original quarries, laboratory ageing tests and continuous ultrasonic monitoring, in-situ data acquisition, evaluation of the ultrasonic parameters by signal processing and stepwise discriminant analysis. All that information is petrophysically interpreted for an appropriate assignation of the in-situ studied masonry blocks to the categorized deterioration degrees.Final in-situ results from the Monastery of El Escorial are here presented. Among the studied ultrasonic parameters energy is the most useful of all of them and velocity the least.

Juan de Mena's Ovidian material: an Alfonsine influence?

Juan de Mena's Ovidian material: an Alfonsine influence?