Antonio de Alloytiz was the most outstanding architect of the altarpiece during the 17th century in Vizcaya, to which his knowledge of the sculptural style of Gregorio Fernández and his contacts with the altarpiece architect Pedro de la Torre contributed. We study his relationship with Torre and other court architects such as Bernabé Cordero and the Jesuit Francisco Bautista, his numerous trips to the court, where his business dealings led him to buy and sell a chapel in the convent of Santo Domingo el Real, acting as an intermediary in the context of a complex lawsuit. We also attribute to him two works conserved in museums and related to Madrid for different reasons, a monstrance from the Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art in Bilbao, which belonged to the disappeared main altarpiece of the parish church of Ochandiano, and an Immaculate Conception in the National Archaeological Museum, possibly from an altar in the church of Gordejuela.

This article deals, with a didactic intention, with the evolutionary study of writing during the medieval centuries in Christian Spain, up to the Modern Age, with reference to some pieces preserved in the collection of the National Archaeological Museum, analysing their essential characteristics, from a palaeographic point of view, and explaining the different cycles that developed, the historical and social context in which they arose, the causes that influenced the different forms of writing, including the writing materials, giving an overall view of the use of writing in the Middle Ages, and explaining the different cycles that developed, the historical and social context in which they arose, the causes that influenced the different forms of writing, including the written materials, giving an overall view of the use of writing in this period, as a cultural expression and testimony of human activity.