The Vault of the Chapel of the Presentation in Burgos Cathedral: “Divine Canon? No, Cordovan Proportion”

Abstract

The “Cordovan proportion” was discovered by chance in 1973, during an attempt to demonstrate the validity of the golden ratio in buildings in the city of Cordova. Far from being a local exception, later research have shown its sphere of application to be universal. However, few authors have researched the influence of the Cordovan triangle on the layout of architectural elements, and particularly on octagonal Gothic vaults. The present paper presents an analysis of the Cordovan proportion in the curved ribbing of Gothic vaults. Specifically, it consists of a geometric study of the octagonal vault of the Chapel of the Presentation in Burgos Cathedral. The results show that when the side of the octagon is taken as a modulus, the Cordovan triangles drawn by the layout of the vault form a geometric succession whose ratio is the Cordovan number.

Tomás Gil-López earned his Ph. D. in Architecture in 2003. He is a Professor at the Madrid School of Architecture in Madrid Polytechnic University, Spain. He is an instructor in courses on Descriptive Geometry, CAD and Technological Innovation in Construction at the bachelor and master level in Madrid Polytechnic University (2004–2011). Since the late 1990s, he has devoted his time to research in descriptive geometry and its applications in architecture and education. His contributions at international congress are focused on the domain of geometric analysis in Gothic vaults. He is the author of Superficies Cuádricas y sus Combinaciones (I). Superficies de Curvatura Simple (Madrid, 2006) and Influencia de la Configuración del Borde Público-Privado. Parámetros de Diseño (Madrid, 2007). He has also completed several works of architecture and urban design.