CHAPTER 14

FORM AND MATTER IN MATHIAS

AYRES’PROBLEMA DE ARQUITECTURA CIVIL
DANILO MATOSO MACEDO AND SYLVIA
FICHER1

This article aims to present the Problema de Architectura Civil – Problem

of Civil Architecture – a book by Brazilian author Mathias Ayres Ramos
da Sylva de Eça (1705-1763), issued posthumously in 1770, in order to
discuss the recurrent opposition the author presents between form and
matter in architecture.
Mathias Ayres was neither an architect nor a craftsman, but an intellectual.
Educated in Coimbra and in Paris, he lived in Lisbon from 1733 onwards,
occupying a high ranking position in the Casa da Moeda, the Portuguese
Mint. In his own words, The problem of Civil Architecture, that we must
solve, and demonstrate, is the following. Why ancient buildings had, and
have more duration than modern ones? and for which reason these latter
ones are less resistant to movement when the earth trembles?
Of course this was a momentous issue in Lisbon after the devastation
caused by the earthquake of 1755. The author states that: The reason, why
ancient buildings lasted more, is because they have been make of good
materials: and the reason, why modern ones do not last as much, is
because they are usually made of inappropriate materials. This is the
resolution of the problem: and to demonstrate that, it is necessary to
examine which are the materials the walls are made of; which are the
qualities of the ones that are employed today, and which are the qualities
they should have, for the work to be permanent, and to resist further to
movement when the earth trembles.
Therefore, his volume deals with the chemical properties of building
materials, chiefly of the minerals present in masonry, through empirical
1
Danilo Matoso is Architect at the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies and a PhD
candidate at the University of Brasilia and Sylvia Ficher is Associated Professor at
the University of Brasilia.
2 Chapter 14

experiments conducted by himself. Most commentators agree that it is not

a book on architecture, and that the issues relating to building were a
simple pretext that Mathias Ayres took advantage of to disclose to a
Portuguese speaking public all that came to his knowledge and the
findings of his studies and of his experiments on natural phenomena."
Quite the reverse, our point here is that his is also a book on architecture,
where compelling architectural opinions are asserted, both in its explicit
content, about building materials, and implicit meanings. The later ones
are found in many seemingly secondary ethical and aesthetical remarks
along the text, where the author privileges matter over form.
In fact, today the understanding of architecture mostly as a formal
endeavour may also be the basis for many historians’ inclination to leave
this book – which has no illustrations – outside the architectural canon.
However, if we accept the quite contemporary definition of architecture,
as proposed by Rafael Bluteau (1638-1734) in 1712, as the art and science
of all genres of buildings, it is equally justifiable to reinstate Mathias
Ayres' work as being of architectural import. In order to expound this
stance, our article offers a commented selection of the author's thoughts on
the relationship between matter and form – the core of a conceptual and
professional shift being carried out at that time.

Seldom mentioned by historians of architecture, engineering or

craftsmanship, the book Problema de Architectura Civil (Problem of Civil
Architecture), by Mathias Ayres, written in the second half of the
eighteenth century, is generally reputed to be a work in chemistry — in
turn, overlooked by historians of science. However, in our appreciation,
the ideas exposed in this work accredit its author as an architectural
theorist. Such a reading may well be carried out in two levels. The first
one, centred in its explicit content: an explanation about building
materials, as conventionally presented in traditional architectural treatises.
And the second level, of implied nature, which considers the
epistemological and aesthetic judgments made by the author in his more
than sixty digressions. Of actual relevance to the architectural debate, in
them he proposes an ethical scale of values, between form and matter, and
questions the practices and methods of contemporary architects.
In an event dedicated to Eugenio dos Santos (1711-1760) and the
reconstruction of Lisbon, it seems befitting to present the reflections of a
Brazilian scholar about buildings and earthquakes.
Mathias Ayres Ramos da Sylva Eça was born in 1705 in São Paulo, Brazil,
the first son of Jozeph Ramos da Sylva (1683-1743), a successful
Portuguese trader. Ramos da Sylva senior made his fortune in the then
3 Form and Matter in Mathias Ayres’ Problema de Arquitectura Civil

newly discovered mines of gold and diamonds in the country's hinterland,

and became involved with politics and the sponsorship of public and
religious activities. He fought as a volunteer in charge of troops against the
attack perpetrated by French privateer Jean-François Duclerc (?-1711) to
Rio de Janeiro in 1710, and was considered in São Paulo, among men of
business, the most accomplished and of large riches, and always reputed
as a man of great truth and good conduct. 2
Ramos da Sylva returns to Portugal in 1716, whereupon his firstborn was
enrolled in the Jesuit College of St. Anthony, where he would remain until
1722. In sequence, the young Mathias was admitted to the University of
Coimbra law school, where he graduated as Mestre em Artes. Dropping
out in 1728, he travels to Madrid, where he attends the court and becomes
close to the Infante Dom Manuel, brother of King John V of Portugal.
Afterward, he settles in Paris until 1733, studying Civil and Canonic Law,
and attending the Royal Academy of Sciences. Back in Lisbon, in 1742 he
inherits his father's office of Provider of the Mint (Provedor da Casa da
Moeda), a position that he would occupy until being fired in 1761. He
passed away two years later, victimized by a seizure.
In contrast to the intense social activity of his sister, Teresa Margarida
Silva e Horta (1711-1793) — author of Aventuras de Diofanes
(Adventures of Diofanes), published in 1752 — Mathias Ayres would have
leaded a secluded life. Between 1744 and 1755 he resided in the
sumptuous Palace of the Counts of Alvor, today the National Museum of
Ancient Art. Reportedly for misanthropy, he never married, even though
he acknowledged the paternity of two children, and spent much of his time
in his farm in Agualva, near Lisbon. In both of these places, he has always
maintained habits of reading and writing, and has conducted chemical
experiments.
In 1752, he issued Reflexões sobre a vaidade dos homens, ou discursos
Moraes sobre os efeitos da vaidade (Reflections on the vanity of men, or
moral discourses on the effects of vanity), the only book that he published
in his lifetime (Figure 1).

2
In Ennes, 1944, p. 23: “...dos homens de negocio o mais avultado e de cabedal, e
sempre reputado por homem de muita verdade e bom procedimento...” Transcribed
from a process of the Holy Office about Jozeph Ramos da Sylva (National
Archives of Portugal, Torre do Tombo, letter J, pack 23, document 384).
4 Chapter 14

Figure 1. Reflexões sobre a vaidade dos homens, title page of the first edition,
1752 (Photo by Danilo Matoso Macedo)
5 Form and Matter in Mathias Ayres’ Problema de Arquitectura Civil

According to cultural historian Wilson Martins:

A unique and massive dissertation on vanity in all its manifestations, it

obeys a sensitive and sensible plan, from the vanity that leads men to
disavow the world in favour of convent life up to the vanity that, on the
contrary, under the name of Nobility, leads some people to imagine
themselves superior to others.3

Although considered a minor work, the book was reissued four times in
the eighteenth century, having been included in the Catálogo dos livros
que se hão de ler para a continuação do Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa
(Catalog of books that will be read for the continuation of the Dictionary
of the Portuguese Language), published in 1799 by the Royal Academy of
Sciences of Lisbon and attributed to Agostinho José da Costa de Macedo
(1745-1822). Since in relative obscurity, it was rediscovered only in 1914
by Solidônio Leite (1867-1930, in Clássicos esquecidos (Forgotten
classics), after which it got numerous editions, mainly in Brazil, being in
print today.
In the fourth volume of his Bibliotheca Lusitana (1759, t. IV, p. 254),
Diogo Barbosa Machado (1682-1772) refers to the manuscripts
Philosophia rationalis, et via ad campum Sophiae, Physicae subterraneae,
Letres bohemienes (that would had been printed in Amsterdam), Discours
Panegyrique sur la vie, et actions de Joseph Ramos da Silva (a biography
of his father), all unpublished. In the prologue of Reflections on the vanity
of men, Mathias Ayres mentions translations that have not yet been
located:

But if, anyway, I did poorly in forming a book from my Reflections, I can
no longer amend myself by this time; I can only promise that I will not
make another one, and this promise I will fulfill now, because by virtue of
it I am already suppressing the translations of Quintus Curtius, and of
Lucan. The actions of Alexander, and Caesar, which were to see the light
soon in the Portuguese idiom, are reserved to be posthumous works, and
maybe then they will be well accepted; for errors are easily excused from
the dead.4

3
Martins, 1992, p. 372: “Uma dissertação única e maciça sobre a vaidade em todas
as suas manifestações, obedece a um plano sensível e sensato, partindo da vaidade
que leva os homens a repudiarem o mundo em favor da vida conventual e
terminando com a vaidade que, ao contrário, sob o nome de Nobreza, leva alguns
outros a imaginarem-se superiores aos demais.”
6 Chapter 14

He also atones for the vanity of being an author, stating that he did not
intend to edit any other work in life. Maybe the promise was only partially
fulfilled, as the book Discurso congratulatorio pela felicissima
convalescensa, e real vida de ElRey D. Jozé I (Congratulatory discourse
for the joyful convalescence and royal life of King D. Joseph I), published
in 1759, is credited to him, although a definitive attribution of authorship
has not been reached.5
The Problema de Architectura Civil was issued in 1770 by Mathias' son,
Manoel Ignacio Ramos da Sylva de Eça (1748-?). The book presents
problems in its structure, with repeated sections and inconsistent chapter
divisions, as well as mistakes that stem perhaps from being posthumously
published. Nevertheless, it is written in a cultivated language, fact
recognized by its inclusion in the already cited catalogue of the Royal
Academy of Sciences of Portugal (Macedo, 1799, p. 130). In the judgment
of Inocêncio Francisco da Silva (1810-1876), the work shows remarkable
erudition and still could serve as a subject for study, at any rate
philological (1862, t. VI, p. 159). According to this scholar, the two
subsequent editions, issued in 1777 and 1778, would all be one and the
same, with differences only in the title pages.
Here, we consulted the 1777 edition (according to Inocêncio Francisco da
Silva, it is a reprint of the first edition of 1770), an in-octavo composed of
two parts, the first with 14 chapters in 250 pages, and the second, with 17
chapters in 256 pages, plus an Index — actually, a glossary — with 135
pages and 42 terms (Figure 2). Entirely devoid of illustrations and even of
any typographical embellishments, as drop caps, vignettes or cul-de-
lampes, such austere composition is coherent with its contents.
4
Eça, 1752: “Mas se ainda assim fiz mal em formar das minhas Reflexões hum
livro, já me naõ posso emendar por esta vez, senaõ com prometter, que naõ hey de
fazer outro; e esta promessa entro a cumprir já, porque em virtude della ficaõ desde
logo supprimidas as traduções de Quinto Curcio, e de Lucano. As acções de
Alexandre, e Cesar, que estavaõ brevemente para sahir à luz no idioma Portuguez,
ficaõ reservadas para serem obras posthumas, e tal vez que entaõ sejaõ bem
aceitas; porque os erros facilmente se desculpaõ em favor de hum morto.”
5
As presented in the title page reproduced in Ennes (1944, pp. 132-33): Discurso
congratulatorio pela felicissima convalescensa, e real vida de ElRey D. Jozé I,
Nosso Senhor; consagrado com hum dia festivo de Acção de Graças a DEOS no
Mosteiro de Saõ Bento da Saude desta Cidade aos 19 de Janeiro de 1759
(Congratulatory discourse for the joyful convalescence and royal life of El Rey D.
Joseph I, Our Lord; consecrated with a festive day of Thanksgiving in the
Monastery of Saint Benedict of Health in this Town in January 19 th, 1759).
Attribution due to Brito Aranha, according to the Dicionário Bibliográfico
Português (Silva, 1858, t. XVII, p. 14).
7 Form and Matter in Mathias Ayres’ Problema de Arquitectura Civil

Figure 2. Problema de Architectura Civil, title page of the second edition, 1777
(Photo by Danilo Matoso Macedo)
Mathias Ayres explains:

The problem of Civil Architecture, that we must solve, and demonstrate, is

the following. Why ancient buildings had, and have more duration than
8 Chapter 14

modern ones? and for which reason these latter ones are less resistant to
movement when the earth trembles? …The reason, why ancient buildings
lasted more, is because they have been make of good materials: and the
reason, why modern ones do not last as much, is because they are usually
made of inappropriate materials. This is the resolution of the problem: and
to demonstrate that, it is necessary to examine which are the materials the
walls are made of; which are the qualities of the ones that are employed
today, and which qualities they should have, for the work to be permanent,
and to resist further to movement when the earth trembles.6

In his explanations, he would treat in depth a few materials, focusing on

their physical and chemical characteristics, and general definitions and
experiences about the nature of matter. In fact, the book has not been
mentioned by theorists or craftsmen in the field of construction, who
appears to have found little use in the erudite digressions of the Luso-
Brazilian amateur chemist. The words of Luis Camilo de Oliveira Neto in
1944 seem to translate a widespread understanding that

the issues relating to building were a simple pretext that Mathias Ayres
took advantage of to disclose to a Portuguese speaking public all that came
to his knowledge and the findings of his studies and of his experiments on
natural phenomena.7

This is an understanding partially warranted by Mathias Ayres himself, as

he admits that
what I say is nothing new: I recollect that which everyone knows. What
further I did, it was to verify that known truth, with physical experiments
likewise known. For architects it was not necessary to say anything more,
because they know better than I all the precepts of a profession that is not
mine.8

6
Eça, 1777, pt. I, pp. 1 and 8: “O problema de Architectura Civil, que devemos
resolver, e demonstrar, he o seguinte. Porque razaõ os edificios antigos tinhaõ, e
tem mais duraçaõ do que os modernos? e estes porque razaõ resistem menos ao
movimento da terra quando treme? ... a razaõ, porque os modernos naõ tem a
mesma duraçaõ, he porque saõ cõmummente fabricados com materiaes improprios.
Esta he a resoluçaõ do problema: e para a demonstrarmos he preciso examinar
quaes saõ os materiaes, de que os muros se compoem; quaes saõ as qualidades que
tem os com que hoje se fabríca, e as que devem ter, para que a obra fique
permanente, e para que resista mais ao movimento da terra quando treme.”
7
In Ennes, 1944, p. xiii: “As questões relativas à construção dos edifícios foram
simples pretexto de que se aproveitou Mathias Ayres para divulgar ao público da
língua portuguesa tudo que chegara ao seu conhecimento e as conclusões dos seus
estudos e das suas experiências sobre os fenômenos naturais.”
9 Form and Matter in Mathias Ayres’ Problema de Arquitectura Civil

This line of reasoning suggests that the author wanted to give a social and
political relevance to his theoretical and experimental studies in natural
sciences, to be placed to practical use in the reconstruction of Lisbon —
certainly the most important pursuit in the field of construction being
carried on in the decade following the earthquake. Indeed, at the cost of
647 pages and numerous digressions, Mathias Ayres deals in great detail
with four materials, in his estimation essential to the erection of walls —
stone, lime, sand and water — in order to demonstrate that to build good
walls, it is necessary to have good materials and

to know how to mix them with art; because the whole compound requires
certain proportion between the parts from which it is composed: without
which the end result never matches the just intent of the artisan.9

Good materials, in turn, have their quality associated with their degree of
purity. Lime must be sprayed with pure water; sand must be fine and free
from soil or organic material, and any water should be free of salt.
For him, water is the main agent in the degradation of materials, and its
infiltration in walls should be prevented. Consequently, one should also
avoid the presence of any salts in any of wall components, since this
would attract moisture from the air, which carries invisible impurities:

Duration comes from the very substance of the building, not from the
remedy that is sought to make it strong: we must assume the purity of the
substance, i.e. of the materials.10
Likewise, opposing the time-honoured practice of mud walls, he advocates
that:

A compound of clay, or of any common earth, will never allow for

firmness. Even though the best stone is amassed to this compound, never

8
Eça, 1777, pt. II, p. 254: “Nisto naõ digo eu nada de novo; lembro aquillo mesmo
que todos sabem. O mais, que fiz, foi verificar aquella verdade conhecida, com
experimentos physicos igualmente conhecidos. Para os architectos naõ era preciso
dizer nada; porque sabem melhor do que eu todos os preceitos de huma profissaõ,
que naõ he minha.”
9
Ibid., pt. II, p. 184: “... saber misturallos com arte; porque todo o composto exige
certa proporçaõ entre as partes que o compem: sem a qual nunca corresponde o
effeito á justa intençaõ do artifice.”
10
Ibid., pt. I, p. 3: “A duraçaõ aprovém da propria substancia do edificio, naõ do
remedio que se busca para o fazer forte: devemos presuppôr a pureza da
substancia, isto he dos materiaes.”
10 Chapter 14

with such a composition it will be formed a solid body; because clay

always retains a propensity to break down, or crumble in water.11

In these points, Mathias Ayres does not deviate from the usual
prescriptions found in the most renowned treatises of architecture and
construction. As Cybèle Celestino Santiago (2007, pp. 17-64) has pointed
out in her studies on lime mortars, the presence of oils with hydrophobic
properties and of brick dust or gravel to increase the workability of a mass
is recommend in the relevant literature since Vitruvius and Pliny, through
out Leon Battista Alberti, Pietro Cataneo, Francisco di Giorgio Martini,
and many other authors that wrote about the practice of construction.
However, Mathias Ayres does not mention any of these works: he prefers
the company of classical writers and naturalists. The Roman poet Virgil is
the most cited — six times — followed by Johann Joachim Becher (1635-
1682) and Georg Ernst Stahl (1659-1734), German chemists that
formulated the phlogiston theory, to which our author adhered:

Through many, and several experiments it is verified the existence of

entangled combustible particles, held in those bodies that have a propensity
for receiving them, and retaining them a while.12

In fact, this theory was valid and accepted by most chemists of the
eighteenth century (Maar, 2008, p. 495), and would be overcome only
thirty years later, with the work of Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794).
Of his teachers in Paris, Mathias Ayres (1777, pt. I, p. 109; pt. II, p. 200)
cites Johann Grosse († 1744), engineer, naturalist and assistant of Henri-
-Louis Duhamel du Monceau (1700-1782) that had articles published in
the Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences. But he does not mention
Louis Godin (1704-1760), astronomer sent in 1735 to Latin America by
the French government to carry on researches on the figure of the earth.
There, Godin resided in Lima, Peru, from 1738 to 1751; as this city
underwent an earthquake in 1746, he studied the occurrence – even
including directives for the construction of sounder buildings – in his
book El temblor de tierra de Lima, sus causas, efectos y consecuencias
11
Ibid., pt. I, p. 8: “Hum composto de barro, ou de qualquer terra commua (sic),
em nenhum tempo póde admittir firmeza. Ainda que a hum composto tal se lhe
ajunte a melhor pedra, nunca de huma tal composiçaõ se ha de formar hum corpo
solido; porque o barro conserva sempre propensaõ para desunir-se, ou desfazer-se
na agua”.
12
Ibid., pt. I, p. 163: “Por muitos, e varios experimentos se verifica a existencia
das particulas igneas embaraçadas, e detidas naquelles corpos que tem disposiçaõ
para as receberem, e a reterem algum tempo.”
11 Form and Matter in Mathias Ayres’ Problema de Arquitectura Civil

(The earthquake of Lima, its causes, effects and consequences), published

there in 1748. In 1753 he moved to Cadiz, Spain, where he published Des
tremblements de terre en général, de ceux de Lima et Lisbonne en
particulier (Earthquakes in general, the ones of Lima and Lisbon in
particular).13
On construction proper, Mathias Ayres' stance is somewhat radical and
scarcely practical, as his book do not consider earths, woods, ceramics and
metals by themselves, exclusively discussing walls from a statics point of
view – and that without going into the merits of different kinds of
stonemasonry. All other construction elements are discarded, since:

The discussion has only the walls as topic: they support the weight of the
building; and from their strength depends the duration; all the other parts
are of less consequence, and may be less subjected to attention without
irreparable damage.14

In contrast, the architects engaged in the reconstruction of Lisbon's central

area, the so called Baixa Pombalina, went deeper in their research and
developed a structural timber frame – the successful gaiola pombalina – to
reinforce the new buildings against further tremors.15
Even so, Mathias Ayres focus in walls — for him, the essence, so to speak
of a building — was in consonance with the spirit of economy and speed
of execution distinctive of Pombal's architectural style. According to José-
Augusto França:

No variation, no fancy in these facades: a directive dated June 16, 1759,

formally prohibits all decorative or utilitarian element jutting out of the
walls: stairs, brackets, corbels for flower pots in the windows, and even

13
Bio-bibliographic excerpt in Appletons Encyclopedia (2001). Unfortunately, we
have not accessed yet texts by Godin, certainly influential in the work of his
former Brazilian student. Mention to Godin is made in Barbosa Machado (1759, t.
IV, p. 254), and expanded in Ennes (1944, pp. 90-91).
14
Eça, 1777, pt. I, p. 141: “a presente discussaõ só tem as paredes por assumpto:
ellas sustentaõ o pezo do edificio; e da fortaleza dellas depende a duraçaõ; todas as
mais partes saõ de menos consequencia, e podem ser menos escrupulizadas sem
prejuizo irreparavel.”
15
The gaiola pombalina, or Pombal's cage, is an anti-seismic building system
comprising a three-dimensional wooden structure embedded in masonry walls,
inspired by naval construction methods. This solution combines the flexibility of
wood with the resistance to fire of masonry. Its name derives from the Marquis of
Pombal (1699-1782), then prime-minister of Portugal and foremost responsible for
the effective progress of the reconstruction works.
12 Chapter 14

lattices and rings to hold horses, and already a rule of October 14, 1758,
prohibited steps in doors.16

A man of letters, Mathias Ayres discusses architecture — a profession that

he does not profess — in order to demonstrate the universal worth of
scientific knowledge and to assert theory's autonomy: a professor of art is
not only that who practices it, but also all that who somehow knows it.17
This is, of course, the expected stance of the learned Provider of the Mint,
in charge of craftsmen and dealing with chemical and artistic operations in
his workplace, but it is also the long-term vision of a humanist who gives
value to what he reads and writes. In fact, for him:

Any book, albeit small, is like a public treasury, where everything can be
gathered, or deposited, as it can be publicly useful... All arts and sciences
have a recognized affinity between them, and in such a manner, that a
science or an art can hardly establish itself alone, without concurrence, and
assistance from others; all are equally dependent.18

Besides his insightful references to architectural practice in Portugal at the

time, his major contributions to solve actual problems are found in his
ethical digressions — which could be considered as metaphorical aesthetic
precepts —, where he keenly advocates the adoption of rigorous scientific
methods for technological control of construction.
Despite this faith in learning, he does not waive the empirical verification
of any theoretical formulation, stating repeatedly that he writes based on
his own experiments. It is a vision to some extent divergent from that of
16
França, 1987, pp. 177-78: “Nenhuma irregularidade, nenhuma fantasia nestas
fachadas: um alvará datado de 16 de Junho de 1759 proíbe de maneira formal todo
o elemento decorativo ou utilitário saído das paredes: degraus, consolas, mísulas
para vasos de flores nas janelas, e até gelosias e argolas para prender os cavalos, e
já um assento de 14 de Outubro de 1758 proibia degraus nas portas.”
17
Eça, 1777, pt. II, p. 145: “professor da arte naõ he só quem a exercita, mas
tambem todo aquelle que de algum modo a sabe.”
18
Ibid., pt. II, p. 193: “Qualquer livro, ainda que pequeno, he como hum erario
publico, em que póde recolher-se, ou depositar-se tudo, quanto póde ser
publicamente util. A noticia dos phenómenos mais raros em toda a parte tem lugar;
e aquelle mesmo, de que alguns homens naõ tem curiosidade, outros se interessaõ
muito, e querem ver tratada huma materia, ainda que seja alheia da materia, de que
se trata. Quanto mais, que no mundo ha poucas cousas, que deixem de conter
alguma connexaõ humas com as outras; e esta talvez he a catena aurea de que faz
mençaõ Homero. As artes, e sciencias todas tem entre si affinidade conhecida, e de
tal sorte, que huma sciencia ou arte, mal póde estabelecer-se só, sem a
concurrencia, e assistencia de outras; todas saõ igualmente dependentes.”
13 Form and Matter in Mathias Ayres’ Problema de Arquitectura Civil

the leading Portuguese architectural theorist at the time, Manuel de

Azevedo Fortes (1660-1749), chief-engineer of D. John V and author of
Engenheiro portuguez (Portuguese engineer), a book published in 1729
and largely devoted to geometry, topography and design. According to
Luís Manuel Bernardo (2005),19 Azevedo Fortes was a Cartesian
rationalist that emphasized, throughout his writings, almost exclusively the
abstract operations involved in geometric drawing as a logical translation
of reality.
In contrast, Mathias Ayres calls into question common sense and any a
priori formulation, asserting that in practical matters the number of votes
does not bring about a close.20 For him:

What an admirable art, which has for purpose most rightfully the
knowledge of the effects by their causes, and the causes by their effects,
and in which experiment alone has a decisive vote, and in which rules, and
precepts do not come from human, or positive institution, but from a
permanent and unfailing order. In it, systems do not have any authority,
and syllogisms are not conclusive when the proof is not a fact visible, and
constant. Such is the learned Chemistry, or Physics, is in the highest
degree.21

In his empiricism, he does not consider as imperative even the

establishment of a causal nexus on natural substantiation, because:

It seems that it is better to suspend a conclusion, that is, not to determine

the cause from which arises a phenomenon. We must content ourselves
with the thing, without going to decide the reason of it; it is enough to
know what the thing is, even though we do not know the how or the why.
The information about the effects is more useful for us than the causes.22

19
Luís Manuel Bernardo also specifically comments the shift of epistemological
values presented in Mathias Ayres’ Problema de Architectura Civil in two other
essays (2007, 2008).
20
Ibid., pt. II, p. 21: “nas materias praticas o numero de votos naõ conclue.”
21
Ibid., pt. I, p. 178: “Que admiravel arte, que com mais justo titulo tem por
instituto o conhecer os effeitos pelas suas causas, e as causas pelos seus effeitos, e
em que só a experiencia tem voto decisivo, e em que as regras, e preceitos naõ vem
de humana, ou positiva instituiçaõ, mas de huma ordem permanente, e
indefectivel! nella naõ tem os systemas authoridade alguma, e os sillogismos naõ
concluem quando a prova naõ consiste em facto visivel, e constante. Esta he a
Chimica instruida, ou Physica por excellencia.”
22
Ibid., pt. II, p. 176: “parece que he melhor suspender a conclusaõ, isto he, naõ
determinar a causa, de que hum phenómeno provém. Devemos contentar-nos com
14 Chapter 14

In the same vein, he also recognizes the instrumental and independent

character of technology, stating:

He who first discovered how to give to inert iron the shape of a sharp
instrument, he was also the first who taught how to take life with that hard
metal: he is innocent of the substance, and also of the shape itself for evil:
the blame can only be in the hand directing the blow, not in the instrument
that performs it.23

But he does not hesitate to assign an ethical dimension to scientific labour,

placing it, and the architect's task, in the service of saving lives:

In the case of earthquakes, many lose their lives due to lack of a minute;
how many die because they had not a moment's more! Time being
precious, how much precious it will be that time on which relies the death
or life of many! ...Neither fortune, nor adversity decide our fate; we
ourselves shall move the machine on which relies our good, or our evil:
and given that nothing moves without time, what care should we not take
to have some brief period of time as we will come to an end temporally?
This period of time is promised to us by a well founded building, but more
than anything, by wise and compassionate providence.24

Returning to the universality and permanence of knowledge, he assigns

social responsibility to civil construction, considering public buildings to
be at the service of all, and literally any building at the service of posterity.
Hence the need to build without saving as regards to sturdiness.
a cousa, sem entrar a decidir a razaõ della; basta que saibamos que cousa he, ainda
que naõ saibamos o como, nem o porque he. A intelligencia dos effeitos he-nos
mais util, que a das causas.”
23
Ibid., pt. I, p. 122: “Aquelle, que primeiro descobrio o modo para dar ao ferro
inerto a figura de hum instrumento agudo, foi tambem o primeiro que ensinou a
tirar a vida com aquelle durissimo metal: este na susbstancia he innocente, e ainda
na figura propria para o mal: a culpa só póde estar na maõ que dirige o golpe, naõ
no instrumenro (sic) que executa.”
24
Ibid., pt. II, pp. 5-6: “No caso dos terremotos, quantos perdem a vida por hum
minuto de menos; quantos morrem porque naõ tiveraõ hum instante de mais!
Sendo o tempo precioso, quanto naõ será aquelle, de que depende a morte de
muitos ou a vida! ... Nem a fortuna, nem a desgraça decidem a nossa sorte; nós
mesmos havemos de mover a machina de que depende o nosso bem, ou o nosso
mal: e com sem tempo nada se move, que cuidado naõ devemos pôr para termos
algum breve espaço quando houvermos de acabar temporalmente? esse espaço nos
promette o edificio bem fundado; porém mais, que tudo, a sabia, e misericordiosa
providencia.”
15 Form and Matter in Mathias Ayres’ Problema de Arquitectura Civil

We shall last the duration of the work, as in ourselves it is so little what we

last. Let's imagine that the building is a part of us; and that in this exterior
part, distant and insensitive, we may remain without frights, without
hassles, without pains. Lastly, let's suppose that our descent also persists in
it, and that even though this prolongation is motionless, and without action,
yet it is, and it will always be innocent, owing to its very inaction, and
immobility, unable of merit, and of virtue, but also unable of vice, and
guilt.25

This ethical awareness leads Mathias Ayres to establish, at all times, a

clear relationship between form and substance, shape and matter. Form is
not his treatise's subject, given that it should necessarily stem from pure
substance. Such an extreme approach might find a parallel in the thought
of his Venetian contemporary, Carlo Lodoli (1690-1761). According to
Pietro Bargellini:

Friar Carlo Lodoli linked tightly architectural style to building materials.

For him, the architect's reasons should be determined by the reasons of the
employed material. In this, he was perhaps too inflexible.26

Paulo Assunção (2011, p. 10) suggests that, when recalling classical

amphitheatres, Mathias Ayres was probably referring to Roman ruins
revealed by the earthquake:

Why endure today those eminent monuments, that wise antiquity left us as
models? That would be because they were made without rule, without
proportion, without art? No, indeed it is otherwise. At that time, excellent
architects flourished: and Architecture does not consist only in a building
pretentious figure, neither in the regularity visible in each of its parts; but
also in the correct selection of its materials, and in the reciprocal

25
Ibid., pt. II, p. 227: “Duremos na duraçaõ da obra, já que em nós mesmos he taõ
pouco o que duramos. Façamos de conta que o edificio he huma parte nossa; e que
nesta parte exterior, afastada, e insensivel, podemos permanecer sem sustos, sem
tribulaçoens, sem dores. Em fim supponhamos que tambem alli se continua a nossa
descendencia, e que esta ainda que seja immobil, e sem acçaõ, com tudo he, e ha
de ser sempre innocente, por força da sua mesma inacçaõ, e immobilidade, incapaz
de merecimento, e de virtude, mas tambem incapaz de vicio, e culpa.”
26
Bargellini, 1947, p. 11: “Fra Carlo Lodoli legava dunque strettissimamente lo
stile architettonico al materiale da construzione. Faceva dipendere le ragioni
dell’architetto dalle ragioni del materiale usato. In ciò era forse anche troppo
rigido”.
16 Chapter 14

proportion that should exist between them. From this comes the strength of
all, and any work, and this is the sure pledge that warrants its duration.27

Purity of matter, in good architecture, should be reflected in formal purity

and integrity, as observed in nature, where

willing to avoid confusion, the divine Architect of the universe disposed

that all bodies be distinguished from one another, not only by interior and
substantial qualities, or properties, but also by an external and visibly
known form; and not only by the essential and invisible part; but by a
simply configured, material, and noticeable one.28

When discussing a building’s permanence, Mathias Ayres establishes a

temporal correspondence for his ethical and substantial system, in which
he correlates the geological time taken in the formation of natural matter to
the life-time of a building. For instance, granite, resulting in a lengthy
process, would be a durable and resistant to stone. In his words:

Everything that is made suddenly, also suddenly comes to an end. Things

that are made slowly, and with premeditation, are those that will last more.
Likewise with buildings29.

In this equation, analogous to natural processes, correct proportion and the

manner in which parts are mixed would be at the core of converting pure
substance to pure form. Proportion, in fact, is a term employed by him in
two different senses, referring both to form and to matter:

27
Eça, 1777, pt. II, p. 226: “...porque subsistem hoje aquelles insignes
monumentos, que a douta antiguidade nos deixou para modelos? Será, porque
foraõ fabricados sem regra, sem proporçaõ, sem arte? Naõ, antes he certissimo o
contrario. Entaõ floreceraõ architectos excellentes; e a Architectura naõ consiste só
na apparatoza figura do edificio, nem na regularidade visivel de cada huma das
suas partes; mas tambem na justa eleiçaõ dos seus materiaes, e na proporçaõ
reciproca que entre elles deve haver. Daqui vem a fortaleza de toda, e qualquer
obra, e este he o penhor seguro que certifica a sua duraçaõ.”
28
Ibid., pt. II, p. 281: “...para evitar a confusaõ dispoz o divino Architecto do
universo que todos os corpos se distinguissem entre si, naõ só pelas qualidades, ou
propriedades interiores, e substanciaes, mas tambem por huma fórma exterior, e
visivelmente conhecida; e naõ só pela parte essencial, e invisivel; mas por huma
simplesmente configurada, material, e perceptivel.”
29
Ibid., pt. II, p. 241: “Tudo, o que se faz de repente, tambem de repente acaba. As
cousas que se fazem de vagar, e com premeditaçaõ, saõ as que duraõ mais. Assim
saõ os edificios.”
17 Form and Matter in Mathias Ayres’ Problema de Arquitectura Civil

Thus are formed, and transformed some bodies. In knowing their

component parts organization, and the way nature behaves, easily we
imitate the same nature, and sometimes in less time; because art is more
precipitous, and absolves its periods in a more brief gap. Everything
resides in the application of certain materials, and of certain, or
determinate proportions; without these, neither art, nor nature can make
anything; and what they make, it is akin to blindly made, and without
instinct; and thus they make wrongly, and imperfectly.30

For Mathias Ayres, public utility in intentions, purity of substance, right

timing and proper proportions are the basis for good architecture, a system
in which formal integrity arises as a consequence, and it is not the main
concern. When discussing the crystallization of potassium nitrate, or nitro,
his remarks help to elucidate why he gives such importance to this causal
relationship:

The appearance of vegetating that nitro has; showy appearance, in fact,

similar to the painter's art, that mimics everything without giving reality to
anything; that shapes the figure, not the thing; that draws a body without
giving it any substance; everything is for the view, and nothing for the
being.31

Even though ornamental Baroque flourished in Portugal during the reign

of D. John V, from 1707-1750, the demand for simpler forms lead to the
economical trimness of the Pombal style, reminiscent of sixteenth century
plain style,32 but also contemporary of French Neoclassicism. Our author
sides with this tendency, deploring Baroque scenographic excesses, maybe

30
Ibid., pt.II, p. 220: “Assim se fórmaõ, e transfórmaõ alguns corpos. Em se
sabendo a organizaçaõ das partes que os compoem, e a fórma com que a natureza
se comporta, facilmente imitamos a mesma natureza, e ás vezes em menos tempo;
porque a arte he mais precipitada, e absolve os seus periodos em mais breve
espaço. Tudo está na applicaçaõ de certos materiaes, e de certas, ou determinadas
proporçoens; sem estas, nem a arte, nem a natureza podem fazer nada; e o que
fazem he como cegamente, e sem instintcto; e por isso fazem erradamente, e
imperfeitamente.”
31
Ibid., pt. I, p. 103: “a apparencia de vegetar que o nitro faz; apparencia vistosa
com effeito, semelhante á arte do pintor, que imita tudo, sem dar realidade a nada;
fórma a figura, naõ a cousa; debuxa hum corpo sem lhe dar substancia alguma;
tudo fica para a vista, e nada para o ser.”
32
Expression established by Portuguese historian Julio de Castilho (1840-1919)
and adopted by the American historian George Kubler (1912-1996; 1972), it refers
to sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Portuguese architecture.
18 Chapter 14

influenced by a new labour organization in architecture, in which design

was becoming, at least in Portugal, an activity apart from construction.
He attributes the fragility of buildings to the inconsequential immediacy of
contemporary craftsmen who

little tuned to the durability of buildings, and with unfair economy, are
more engaged in the work's completion, than in its permanence; and being
scrupulous in the control of perspective, and of other less important parts,
they carelessly select the materials with which they build.33

This mention of perspective does not come by chance. Mathias Ayres

assigns to the urgency of design in the process of conception – perhaps
resulting from the influence of architectural treatises then current – the
responsibility for this deplorable inversion of values:

It must be pointed out that, even tough a building's strength is the first goal
that we should meet, we seldom occupy ourselves with controlling the just
portions that will make up the mass that serves to join the stones with each
other. We are more concerned with the work's fine outline in paper, and
with the correct presentation in this outline of an ordered perspective,
together with the correspondence of entrances, the distribution of services,
the division of the parts and the introduction of light in them, and finally,
with the symmetry of the entire body of the building. The safety of the
walls comes as a thing of less import.34

As a consequence of the architect's distancing from the construction site:

The quality of materials, and the proportions in which they must be

combined, is also an assumed issue, little taken into account; and as such, it
is usually left to the first workers that were hired at the work's beginning. It

33
Eça, 1777, pt. I, p. 3: “...pouco attentos á duração dos edificios, e com economia
menos justa, tem mais por objecto a conclusaõ da obra, do que a duraçaõ della; e
sendo escrupulosos na ordem da perspectiva, e em outras partes menos
importantes, saõ faceis na eleiçaõ dos materiaes com que fabricaõ.”
34
Ibid., pt. II, pp. 232-33: “He muito de reparar, que sendo a fortaleza do edificio
o primeiro objecto a que devemos attender, raras vezes nos occupamos em ordenar
as porçoens justas de que ha de compôr-se a massa que serve de ligar as pedras
humas com as outras. No que consideramos mais, he, que a obra esteja bem
delineada no papel, e que neste esteja bem disposta a ordem da prospectiva, a
correspondencia das entradas, a distribuiçaõ das serventias, a divisaõ das suas
partes, a introducção da luz em cada huma dellas, e finalmente a symmetria em
todo o corpo do edificio. A segurança das paredes entra como cousa menos
importante.”
19 Form and Matter in Mathias Ayres’ Problema de Arquitectura Civil

is not inquired what are the best materials, and the most adequate ones, but
which ones are closer, and where they will be less expensive.35

Against this pressing economy, Mathias Ayres argues that, although it is

with some more spending, the work's strength pays all extensively. A
higher expenditure does not trouble he who wants to build safely.36
A second consequence of this severance between design and construction
site would be the primacy of ornamental elements over the building's
structure. In a kind of Purism avant la lettre, Mathias Ayres argues that the
latter may well waive the former:

It takes a certain ratio between every kind of material from which the walls
are constituted. The skilled architect never ignores this rule, on the
contrary he puts his first and chief care in it. With strengthening he begins,
and with adorning he ends. The ornament can be placed at any time, the
fortification has to be soon; because that first one is made up for the delight
of sight, and this last one for the thing's subsistence. A building can subsist
without any ornamentation, but not without the whole fortification; it may
well be rough in surface appearance, but not in its inner substance.37

Given the severity of his assertions, Mathias Ayres takes steps to protect
himself from the corporation of architects and engineers, ascribing — not
without some reason — part of the blame for less secure buildings to their
owners. Speaking of the need to use clean sand, for example, he states
that:

35
Ibid., pt.II, p. 233: “A qualidade dos materiaes, e as proporçoens, em que devem
concorrer, tambem he como materia supposta, para que se olha pouco; e como tal,
commumente se entrega aos primeiros serventes que a noticia da obra convocou.
Naõ se inquire quaes saõ os materiaes melhores, e mais proprios, mas sim quaes
saõ os que estaõ mais perto, e donde se haõ de haver com menos despeza.”
36
Ibid., pt. I, p. 143: “Seja embora com mais algum dispendio; a fortaleza da obra
paga tudo largamente. Huma despeza maior naõ assombra a quem quer edificar
com segurança.”
37
Ibid., pt. II, p. 231: “He preciso pois huma certa proporçaõ entre cada hum dos
materiaes de que os muros se compoem. O architecto experiente nunca ignora
aquella regra, antes nella poem o seu primeiro, e principal cuidado. Fortificando
principia, e ornando acaba. O ornato póde vir em qualquer tempo, a fortificaçaõ ha
de ser logo; porque aquelle faz-se para o agrado da vista, e esta para subsistencia
da cousa. O edificio póde substistir sem ornato algum, mas naõ sem toda a
fortificaçaõ; póde ser tosco na apparencia superficial, mas naõ na sua susbstancia
interior.”
20 Chapter 14

All architects know well this practical truth; but not all of them can use it;
because they build according to the owner's will, and not to their own: they
understand perfectly what is better; but their understanding sometimes is
deemed as little necessary and an impertinent scruple: the owner always
wants the sand that takes less lime, and the lime that is less pricey; and that
the materials be those that are near, and whose transport be less expensive.
Such conditions rarely conform with the work's goodness, and strength;
and, as the building does not speak until after becoming a wreck, only then
its owner knows the sad consequence of a badly engendered economy.38

Hence, the Problem of Civil Architecture copes with issues concerning the
conception and construction of buildings. Not only directly, while
discussing stones, lime, sand and water as building materials, or while
assessing design practices and construction economy, and their vices, but
also indirectly, by stressing the decisive influence of all these factors in the
resulting features of buildings.
Yet, it is not just a book on architecture, but possibly the first one
published by a Brazilian author; and its typographic plainness should not
entail the feat's underestimation. Without any illustrations came to light
Vitruvius' De architectura libri decem, rediscovered in 1414 by Poggio
Bracciolini (1380-1459), a book in fact dealing predominantly with
building materials and machinery, today considered engineering topics, in
a division of labour that might be about to be questioned.
View corroborated by Frank Granger (1934, p. ix), translator of Vitruvius
into English, in his introduction:

It is only in modern times that Vitruvius has been regarded mainly as an

architect, and that attention has been almost concentrated upon his
exposition of the orders of architecture to the neglect of the major part of
his achievement. Not unnaturally the expectation has been raised that his
style should exhibit the qualities of order, arrangement and symmetry
which he somewhat confusedly traces in architecture, Book I. ii. 1. If with

38
Ibid., pt. II, pp. 73-74: “Todos os architectos conhecem bem esta verdade
pratica; porém nem todos podem usar della; porque fabricaõ á vontade do
proprietario, e naõ á sua: entendem perfeitamente o que he melhor; porém o seu
entender he tomado ás vezes por hum escrupulo pouco necessario, e impertinente:
o proprietario sempre quer a arêa que leve menos cal; e quer aquella cal que he de
menos preço; e que os materiaes sejaõ aquelles que estaõ perto, e de que o
transporte seja menos dispendioso. Estas condições raramente se conciliaõ com a
bondade, e fortaleza da obra; e como esta naõ falla senaõ depois de arruinada, só
entaõ conhece o senhor della a triste consequencia de huma mal disposta
economia.”
21 Form and Matter in Mathias Ayres’ Problema de Arquitectura Civil

more propriety we follow tradition and approach him as an engineer, the

case is altered.

Another publication which that had no illustration was De re aedificatoria,

published in 1452 by Leon Battista Alberti (1404-472), three centuries
before our Problem of Civil Architecture. In his Vocabulário Portuguez e
Latino (Portuguese and Latin Vocabulary), Rafael Bluteau defines
architecture broadly as the art or science of all kind of buildings,39 thus
corroborating the relevance that held Mathias Ayres' commentaries in his
times. But for us, his opinions are still relevant and fitting:

That is the resolution of our Problem. Old buildings lasted longer, and
resisted some more time to underground movements; because they had
being made with more regularity. Some of our modern buildings resist less,
and have less duration; because they are produced with less attention, and
without intention that they last long: thus it follows that it is not surprising
that we witness the little they last. In this, I do not say anything new; I just
point out what everybody knows. What else I did, it was to verify that
well-known truth, with equally well-known physical experiments. For the
architects, it was not necessary to say anything; because they are better
acquainted than I with all the precepts of a profession that is not mine.40

39
Bluteau, 1712, v. 1, p. 476: “Arte ou ciência de todo o gênero de edifícios.”
40
Eça, 1777, pt. II, pp. 253-54: “Aquella he a resoluçaõ do nosso Problema. Os
edificios antigos duravaõ mais, e resistiaõ algum tempo mais aos movimentos
subterraneos; porque foraõ fabricados com mais regularidade. Alguns dos nossos, e
modernos edificios resistem menos, e tem menos duraçaõ; porque se fabricaõ com
menos attençaõ, e sem intençaõ de durarem muito: de que se segue que naõ he para
admirar que os vejamos durar pouco. Nisto naõ digo eu nada de novo; lembro
aquillo mesmo que todos sabem. O mais, que fiz, foi verificar aquella verdade
conhecida, com experimentos physicos igualmente conhecidos. Para os architectos
naõ era preciso dizer nada; porque sabem melhor do que eu todos os preceitos de
huma profissaõ, que naõ he minha.”
22 Chapter 14

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