Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 8, ELE-FOR

ESC
F. S C
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. Efcum!.
ESCURIAL, a royal refidence of Spain, fituated
about 15 miles north-weft of Madrid. It is the largeft
and moft fuperb ftru&ure in the whole kingdom, and
perhaps one of the fineft in Europe. The w-ord is A-
rabic, meaning “ a place full of rocks.” It is built in
a dry barren fpot, furrounded with rugged mountains,
infomuch that every thing which grows there is
to art. This place w'as chofen, it is laid, for the lake
of the ftone wherewith the fabric was built, which is
got from a mountain juft by, and is very durable ^ and
the defign of ere&ing it was to commemorate a vidtory
which Philip II. obtained over the Trench (but by the
afliftance of the Englilh forces) at St Quintm, on
St Laurence’s day, in the year 1557- Spanilh
defcription of this ftru&ure forms a fizeable quarto
volume, and it is faid that its founder expended upon
it fix millions of ducats. The apartments are deco¬
rated with an aftonilhing variety of paintings, fculp-
ture, tapeftry, ornaments of gold and filver, marble,
jafper, gems, and other curious ftones, furpafling all
imagination. This building, befides its palace, c0'1-
tains a church, large and richly ornamented a maufo-
leum } cloifters j a convent j a college •, and a library,
containing about 30,000 volumes; befides large apart¬
ments for all kinds of artifts and mechanics, noble
walks, with extenfive parks and gardens, beautified with
fountains and coftly ornaments. The fathers that live
in the convent are 200, and they have an annual re¬
venue of 12,000!. It wTas begun by Philip in 1562,
five years after the battle ; and completed in 22 years.
It confifts of feveral courts and quadrangles, which al¬
together are difpofed in the Ihape of a gridiron, the in-
ftrument of the martyrdom of St Laurence; the
apartments where the king refides form the handle.
The building is a long fquare of 640 by an<^
height up to the roof is all round 60 feet, except on
the garden fide, where the ground is more taken away.
At each angle is a fquare tower 200 feet high. ^ T he
number of windows in the weft front is 200 ; in the
eaft front 366. The orders employed are Doric and
Ionic. There are three doors in the principal front.
Over the grand entrance are the arms of Spain, carved
in ftone ; and a little higher in a niche, a ftatue of St
Laurence in a deacon’s habit, with a gilt gridiron in
his right hand, and a book in his left. Direftly over
the door is a baffo-relievo of two enormous gridirons in
ftone. This vaft ftrudlure, however, with its narrow
high towers, fmall windows, and fteep hoping roof, ex¬
hibits a very uncouth ftyle of architecture : at the fame
time that the domes, and the immenfe extent of its
fronts, render it a wonderfully grand objeCt from every
point of view. The church, which is in the centre of
all, is large, awful, and richly but not affeCtedly orna¬
mented. The cupola is bold and light. The high al¬
tar is compofed of rich marbles, agates, and jafpers of
great rarity, the produce of this kingdom. I wro mag¬
nificent catafalques fill up the fide arcades of this fanc-
tuary: on one the empferor Charles V. his wife, daugh¬
ter, and two fitters, are reprefented in bronze, larger
than life, kneeling; oppofite are the effigies of Philip II.
nnd of his three wives, of the fame materials, and in the
fame devout attitude. Underneath is the burial-place
«f the royal family, called the Pantheon. Twenty-five
fteps lead down to this vault, over the door of which
is,an infeription denoting, that
Hie locus, facer mortalitatis exuviis Catholicorum Re.
gutn, &c.
was intended by Charles the emperor; refolved upon
by Philip II. begun by Philip III. and completed by
Philip IV. The maufoleum is circular, 36 feet dia¬
meter, incrufted with fine marbles in an elegant tafte.
The bodies of the kings and queens lie in tombs of
marble, in niches, one above the other. . The plan of
thefe fepulchres is grand, and executed with a princely
magnificence; but, as a modern traveller obferves,
in a ftyle rather too gay, too light, and too deli¬
cately fitted up, for the idea we are apt to form of
a chapel deftined for the reception of the dead. The
collection of pictures difperfed about various parts of
the church, facrifty, and convent, has been confider-
ed as equal, if not fuperior, to any gallery in Europe,
except that of Drefden. hormed out of the fpoils of
Italy, and the wafted cabinet of that unfortunate di¬
lettante Charles I. of England, it contains fome of the
moft capital works of the greateft painters that have
flourilhed fince the revival of the art. In the facrifty
is an altar called La fanta forma : this is a kind of ta¬
bernacle or cufioda of gems, marbles, woods, and other
precious materials, inlaid in gilt bronze ; in which,
rather than in the excellence of the workmanlhip or
tafte of the defign, confifts the merit of this rock of
riches. Before it hangs a curtain, on which Coello
has reprefented Charles II. and all his court in pro-
ceffion, coming to place this Forma. This is efteemed
one of the moft curious colleftions of portraits in
the world; for all the perfons are drawn with the
greateft ftrength of colour and truth of impreffion, and
are faid to be perfect refemblances not only of the mo*
narch and grandees, but even of the monks, fervants,
and guards. The ftatues, butts, and medallions of the
Efcurial, are not in any great number, or very re¬
markable for their excellence : but the library con¬
tains a moft precious collefHon of manuferipts, many
fine drawings, and other curiofities. Notwithftanding
the coldnefs of the expofure, the late king, for the fake
of hunting, ufed to pafs here feveral months in the
year ; and to make the place lefs inconvenient to his
attendants and to the nobility, he built an entire new
town adjoining to it.
ESCUTCHEON, or Scutcheon, in Heraldry, is
derived from the French efeuffon, and that from the
Latin feutum, and fignifies the ffiield whereon coats of
arms are reprefented.
Moft nations of the remoteft antiquity were wont
to have their fhields diftinguiftied by certain marks
painted on them; and to have fuch on their ffiields was
a token of honour, none being permitted to have them
till they had performed fome honourable aftion.
The efcutcheon, as ufed at prefent, is fquare, only
rounded off at the bottom.
ESDRAS, a Jewifh prieft, and do&or.of the law.
Artaxerxes Longimnnus fent him with rich prefents
for the ufe and ornament of the temple at Jerufalem,
rebuilt under Zerubbabel ; the king alfo ordered the
neighbouring governors to provide him with what con¬
duced to the pomp of the Jewifh religion, and to ex¬
empt the priefts from paying taxes. He is fuppofed to
be the colleftor of the Canon of Scriptuie; and that,
by divine infpiration, he added fome things which hap-
Eanrial
II
Efctras.