Note 1 — Letter from Miguel Lopez de Legazpi to Felipe II
Reading edition
The palace of the Escorial was built in the town of that name, twenty-four miles from Madrid, by Felipe II; it was begun in 1563, and completed in 1584, except that the pantheons were added by Felipe IV. The total cost is estimated at £660,000 sterling; it is one of the largest buildings in the world, being a rectangle of six hundred and eighty by five hundred and thirty feet. It is a palace and monastery combined, the latter being in charge of the Augustinian order.