Abstract
In the early years of the 16th Century, New Spain began receiving pieces of work about architecture, engineering and urbanistics written by notorious architects and engineers who left testimony of their talent and architectonic knowledge in their writing. From the primitive chapels built in the 16th Century to the imposing monasteries, courthouses and palace-like residences built throughout three centuries, all were works inspired by European models which appear in numerous books and treaties of architecture. Thus, works such as the Diez libros de la arquitectura by Italian architect Vitrubio, going through other distinguished architects such as Andrea Palladio and his I Quattro libri dell'architettura or the Tratado de alarifes by the Spaniard Diego López de Arenas, make evident that it was through books that the most distinguished architects from 16th Century Europe throughout the 19th Century, established the bases for the creation of modern architecture.