FUNDACIÓN COLEGIO Nª Sª DE LA ANTIGUA.

UNIT OF MEASURE USED in the construction of the school (data taken from the Manuel Ángel Feal Antelo study). Freire Tellado has previously investigated the unit of measurement in the school. Comparing the measurements described in the historical documents with those taken in the building, 3 possible values ​​for the foot are obtained:

a) 281.27 mm
b) 296.06 mm and
c) 282.222 mm.

In the end, based on other verifications, the next foot value used in the construction of the Cardinal’s school was chosen.                                   

Unit Multiple Submultiple
Units School pie vara 1/2 * -1/3 -1/4 -1/8 – 1/16
Centimeters 28.22 cm 84.66 cm 14.11 -9.41 -7.06 -3.52 -1.76

This study should be taken with caution, since different stonemasons who were successful at work may have used different measures. Even so, the unit has proven to be consistent in later studies. There are some coincidences with the rules given by Palladio, Simón García and Fontana. In the book by Andrea Palladio I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura (1570) includes the descriptions and drawings of several ancient domes. It follows that Fontana from the drawings of Palladio established a rule of 1/9 for the thickness in the starts.

The dome of the College coincides with two of the rules of Palladio. The first coincidence is the thickness of the starts. In the School, the maximum light is 36m and the outer radius is 44m. The difference between the corresponding radios is 4 feet, which means 1/9 of the section.

The foot of today: If we move by the information that is given today about the size of the foot unit, we find this definition “The foot is a unit of length of artificial origin, based on the human foot, already used by civilizations ancient.” To measure the length, in almost all the world the meter is used, except in Anglo-Saxon countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, which is usually used the foot. The exception is in aeronautics, in which the height is still measured in thousands of feet in almost all countries. The equivalence to meters is the following:

1 current foot = 30.48 centimeters = 0.3048 meters
1 meter = 3.2808 feet

The Roman foot, or pes, was equivalent, on average, to 29.57 cm; the Carolingian foot, formerly called the Drusian or Drusian foot -pes drusianus-, was equivalent to nine eighths of the Roman, that is, approximately 33.26 cm; and the Castilian foot was equivalent to 27.8635 cm.

The first entry of the month of May we want it to be dedicated to the Virgin, because this is her month according to our tradition. The Virgin of Antigua is an invocation of the Virgin Mary. The Virgin is usually depicted standing with the baby Jesus in her arms offering a white rose. This image is in the Cathedral of Seville. Probably it is a Castilian-Leonese invocation of the Middle Ages.
This dedication, holder of our School, is doubly present in the church of the school of Our Lady of the Ancient of Monforte de Lemos. This is due to the fact that Cardinal Rodrigo de Castro Osorio, archbishop of Seville, was a devotee of this Virgin, founded this school which he placed under this invocation and ordered to bring to him a copy of the Virgin of Antigua of Seville, which He had in his oratory for his particular devotion. The painting is from the 16th century. Francisco de Moure made a sculpture of this Virgin that is in the center of the main altarpiece.
The virgin is usually represented with a white robe, as well as a cloak that covers her head and shoulders. The fabric of the tunic and mantle are white and decorated with golden vegetable motifs. On the underside of the mantle is dark and golden stripes. The neck of the Virgin’s tunic is curvilinear. With one hand he holds a white rose and with the other he holds the Baby Jesus. The boy has a dark tunic with golden vegetable details. The Virgin holds the child above the hip, next to his chest. The Child’s tunic has a neck with a slightly pointed toe. Both the Virgin and the Child appear with aura. In the upper part there are two angels holding a crown on the head of the Virgin. The baby Jesus has no crown.
Let us ask Our Lady of Antigua, in this month of May, to protect our school and bless the students, their families as well as the teachers and employees of their school.

He was born around 1884 in Monforte de Lemos. He was a student at the PP school. Escolapios de Monforte de Lemos. During his youth he also cultivated the drawing.
He graduated in Law from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1897, and was part of the Military Legal Corps, with fates in Mahón, Palma de Mallorca and Seville (1913). In this Andalusian city he attended the workshop of the painter Manuel Alarcón, where he learned painting and restoration, which led him to authenticate works of art, and to make the catalog of some collections of individuals, both Spanish and foreign. He was a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, being proposed in 1934 to fill the vacancy produced in the Painting Section by the death of José Ramón Mélida Alinari, as an art critic. He entered on September 21, 1939.
He was a contributor to periodicals such as ABC and Blanco y Negro. Méndez Casal, who was an academic at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, 2 died in Madrid on January 14, 1940.1 He has a dedicated street in his hometown.

On the occasion of the celebration of the 20 years of the “Association Camiños a Santiago pola Ribeira Sacra” and organized by this association took place on Saturday April 27 a magnificent concert by singer-songwriter Amancio Prada. The interesting repertoire included ancient themes and some more current, full of feeling, depth and strength.
Amancio Prada was born in Dehesa del Bierzo, León. It has endowed the song of author in Spain of a great elegance. His music, largely popular roots, is composed of his own compositions and songs based on texts by the most diverse ancient and modern poets, such as Rosalía de Castro, Federico García Lorca, Agustín García Calvo and Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio.

He debuted in Paris in 1973 and a year later he published his first album “Vida e morte”, composed of six songs in Spanish and another in Galician. His artistic presentation in Spain took place in 1975, in the Little Theater of Madrid. From then on, his performances took place on stages in Spain and abroad

In the photo Amancio Prada with Fr. Javier Agudo, Manager of the Foundation Nª Sª de la Antigua School, before beginning the magnificent concert he offered us.

Awards
Gold Medal of the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid (2001)
Medal of Castilla y León Award for the Arts (2005)
Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts (2010)

Outstanding works
• Life and death
• Lelia Doura
• Spiritual canticle
• Dark love sonnets
• Roses to Rosalia
• From sea to terra
• Songs of the soul
• Until another day, Chicho
• Artist’s life Songs of Léo Ferré
• Living love concert

Carlos Salgado, a physicist from the University of Santiago de Compostela and former student of our College of Nª Sª de la Antigua Piarist Fathers , was born in Monforte de Lemos in 1971. He left school in 1985. He is director of the Galician Institute of High Energy Physics. He is a professor of Theoretical Physics. He is currently investigating about states of matter immediate to the Big Bang. He has just received a grant called “Advanced Grant” for his research of 2.5 million euros.

The objective objective of the project led by the director of the Galician Institute of High Energy Physics, is supported by the funding of the “European Research Council (ERC)” that has just granted “Advanced Grant” aid, for a period of five years. The project is entitled “Yoctosecond imaging of QCD collectivity using observable jet” (YoctoLHC).

The “Advanced Grant” grants are designed to support scientists “exceptional leaders in terms of originality and meaning of their research lines”. OR ERC provides financing for the development of frontier science with excellence as the main selection requirement.

He was born in 1862 and died in Monforte de Lemos on August 19, 1955. He studied at the College of the Piarists or the Cardinal. He was the municipal prosecutor of Monforte (1908), president of the Monforte Agrarian Catholic Federation (1921-1922). During the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, he was appointed mayor of Monforte de Lemos on January 13, 1924. He replaces Manuel Dapena Rodríguez. He was Mayor until March 13 of that same year, 1924 when he left the mayor’s office.
He was a provincial deputy. Member of the Seminary of Galician Studies. He was Professor of Law at the University of Valladolid. He collaborated in Archives of the Seminary of Galician Studies (1927) and in the Wool Bulletin Provincial Commission of Historical and Artistic Monuments of Lugo.

This afternoon, after the celebration of the Passion and Death of the Lord that will begin at 7:00 p.m., in our church of the College of the Cardinal, will take place if the time allows it, as it is programmed, the procession of the Dolorosa Virgin , that will cross the streets of Monforte.

Miguel Angel Feal, scholar of the original traces of our building, dealing with the dome, affirms: “Like El Escorial and many other Spanish churches of its time, they are already of Latin cross, rectangular, or long basilical nave covered with a dome in its transept or corresponding part, the church of the Monforte Company, does not offer to those who approach its facade a complete view of this important element of its architecture. Its consequence is inherent to the depth of its single ship. The origin of the monfortino type is the Italian of the Counter-Reformation that tried to reconcile the church of a deep and living hall with the dome used in the manner of a dome in the medieval Spanish and Languedocian churches. The splendid Monforte dome is characteristic of these models.

Inside the temple fulfills its function perfectly.

In its exterior it can not be contemplated in all its splendor, unless it is from very far away, a point from which it receives its complete proportions “.

From Jewish origins, he therefore had to study in many universities and live in different cities and was never able to qualify for the positions that corresponded to his capacity, for which he demanded a statute of cleanliness of blood. He studied at La Bañeza and at the Colegio de Jesús de Monforte de Lemos; studied philosophy with the Dominican friars of the monastery of Trianos de Villamol and theology in Valladolid and Salamanca. In 1676 he was parish priest of Talavera de la Reina, in 1681 of Albares and in 1685 of Camarma de Esteruelas; destined to the capital, in 1697 it took charge of the church of San Pedro and in 1701 of the one of San Andres. He was confessor of Cardinal Portocarrero, synodal examiner of the archbishopric of Madrid and qualifier of the council of the Inquisition; Bishop Elect of Monopoli and Zamora, he resigned from both dioceses, probably because of his Jewish roots.

In 1713 he was one of the founders of the Royal Spanish Academy and in 1715 he was appointed senior librarian of the newly opened Royal Library, replacing the late Gabriel Álvarez de Toledo, a job he held until his death; He assembled to form the fund of what would be the future National Library, a great number of incunabula, rare and forbidden, many of them obtained abroad by mocking the census hand of the Inquisition, of which he himself was a part.

He left written a work in 16 volumes, Synopsis historical chronologica of Spain (1700-1727), in which he tells the history of Spain until the end of the sixteenth century; was translated into full French enriched with historical and critical notes under the title of Histoire Générale d’Espagne …
Blas Nasarre published an historical Elogio de Don Juan de Ferreras (Madrid: Printing of the Royal Spanish Academy, 1735).