El zuncho en la Tratadística

Abstract

This article, an offshoot of broader research on the most prevalent tying techniques in monument restoration, aims to clarify some of the fundamentals of those techniques. Its analysis of the etymology of the Spanish word zuncho (tie beam) and its adoption in construction jargon, is followed by a chronological account, based on documentary sources, of the origin and evolution of tying systems viewed as the direct precursors of today’s tie beams. References to chain bonding systems can be found in texts dated across four centuries, beginning with the earliest sixteenth century translations of architectural treatises to the construction manuals published at the dawn of the twentieth. These systems range from the simplest solutions, such as building up courses of masonry to form collars or fastening adjacent ashlars with cramps, to more complex solutions consisting of embedding interconnected metal elements in enclosure walls to form a closed and tensioned perimetric ring