John Baptist Villalpando

Juan Bautista Villalpando also Villalpandus, or Villalpanda (1552 – 22 May 1608) was a Spanish priest, a member of the Jesuits, a scholar, mathematician, and architect.

Villalpando was born in Córdoba, Spain, in 1552. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1575 and for the Society he designed several buildings including the Cathedral in Baeza and San Hermenegildo Church in Seville. He studied geometry and architecture with Juan de Herrera, the architect of Philip II of Spain. After ordination, he specialised in the exegesis of the Old Testament.

He published his Ezechielem Explanationes, or Commentary on Ezekiel, with Jerónimo del Prado in 1596. He was accused of heresy, but a review of his beliefs and writings by the Spanish Inquisition found him innocent. That same year he travelled to Rome where he published additional volumes in 1604. He died there on 22 May 1608.

Villalpando's major work as a scholar was a commentary on the prophet Ezekiel, published with the support of King Philip II. This text included imaginative reconstructions of Solomon's Temple and depictions of Jerusalem, which were renowned and influential. He based them on the vision of the prophet Ezekiel and published them in his Ezechielem Explanationes. They inspired many European illustrators and were circulated among the master builders of the 17th century.

His drawings were based on the assumption that the buildings of Jerusalem were designed using the laws of geometry, and they were drawn in parallel or orthographic projection, which is a form of image Villalpando likened to God's vision. Contradicting the theory developed by Vitruvius in De architectura, which sought to establish that the origins of the orders lay in the Architecture of ancient Greece, Villalpando argued that there was an original link between the classical orders and Solomon's Temple and that the classical orders had their origin in specifications detailed by God.

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