Standing on the central floor of that spectacular cathedral in Seville, I was gaping like a rube come to town for the fair, while marveling at the genius of whoever was responsible for guiding all that lowly stone and mortar into this soaring tribute of man to his Maker-long before the first college of architecture or faculty of engineering had opened for business—when I spied a young male, obviously American, seated in a nearby pew examining what appeared to be a secular volume.
Emboldened by curiosity, I went over and asked, “Is your book about church architecture?” “Indeed,” he replied, and we fell into discussion, which he, as a graduate architect, illuminated most helpfully. Finally, still dazzled by the splendor of the 500-year-old structure, I said, “Isn't it amazing how…