The study of drawing is not limited for the art historian to the designs and traces that the masters presented to their clients, as projects for the realization of architectural, sculptural, pictorial or sumptuary art works. On some occasions, calligraphers and even artists of different specialties were the authors of the covers of manuscript books of different kinds: constitutions and accounts of confraternities, inventories of archives, sacramental books and, of course, of a historical nature. They also had the task of making the preliminary drawing for the engravers to do their work in the case of the covers of printed books.

By way of example, we can cite the delicate covers of the inventory of the papers of the file of the González de Castejón family, the work of the Tudela-born illustrator Juan Antonio Fernández in 1776, or the index of papers of the ecclesiastical chapter of the parish of Andosilla, dated 1797 and decorated with the figures of the parish incumbents Saint Julian and Saint Basilisa, most likely the work of a local schoolmaster, judging by the subject decoration of intertwined lines and spirals, very common among local calligraphers and masters.

The convents and monasteries also had books with rich covers. Let us recall the Espejo del monasterio de Tulebras, a work dated 1686, by the monk of Veruela, Fray Atilano de la Espina, and the books of the Foundation and Election of Prioresses of the Discalced Carmelites of Corella, which were illustrated with an image of Our Lady of Araceli and Saint Joseph, respectively, around 1722. The first one is of great interest to see how the Marian icon was shown to the faithful at that time, still without the rostrillo.

Different religious orders had handwritten or printed manuals for the taking of the habit and, above all, for the professions. Some of the covers of these manuals were drawn with great care, and even with rich illustrations in pen, as is the case in the one for the taking of the habit of the Benedictine nuns of Estella, dated 1731, whose cover shows St. Benedict between Solomonic columns dressed in grapes.

The cover of the handwritten history of Roncesvalles, written between 1609 and 1624 by its sub-prior, graduate Juan de Huarte, trained at the University of Salamanca and canon of the collegiate church between 1598 and 1625, is executed with a very careful design . It is an entire graphic test about a context and a vision of the past of the collegiate church in the early seventeenth century. The drawing is dated 1617 and made in pencil, with colored watercolors. It contains three coats of arms and an registration in Latin, the translation of which is: "These three insignia are more resplendent than the scepters of kings, because they represent the trophies of the holy faith and the sacred laws". The first of them represents the Virgin on a throne of Renaissance ancestry, which is a copy of an engraving of another Marian devotion of the 16th century. At her feet, a kneeling pilgrim commends himself to her, stalked by a pair of wolves, which dates back to the founding of the hospital in the second quarter of the 12th century. The second coat of arms presents the chains of Navarre and the green cross of the collegiate church, emblems of the kingdom and of Roncesvalles. The third is more complex and depicts two ivory cornets, the larger one of Roland and the smaller one of Oliberos; next to them are two maces, the Durindana sword of Roland "which in these times the king of Spain has in his royal armory," according to the author of the manuscript, and the stirrup of Archbishop Turpin. All these objects were secularly placed on the main altar of Roncesvalles, between lamps and were visited by French knights, ambassadors and other persons of rank who "make them come down and venerate them kissing them, and I have seen some of them cry with tenderness at the mere report and representation of such insignificant and ancient things".

Among the most relevant and beautifully illuminated drawings on parchment are two contemporary ones, belonging to the confraternities of San Pedro de Tudela, composed of clerics, and of Santa Bárbara de los comerciantes de Pamplona. The first, dated 1600, illustrates the Libro Rubro de la Congregación de San Pedro y San Pablo of the capital of La Ribera. In addition to the beautifully illuminated tondo with the Prince of the Apostles, the initials of many chapters are illuminated, as well as the covers in pen and ink with Saints Peter and Paul in the book of conference proceedings of the Congregation (1600) and with the rooster and an emblem in the Constitutions of the same (1599), in both cases with spectacular architectural orders, undoubtedly taken from treatises. The author of these illustrations, Mateo Cabello y Aznárez, graduate and priest, who signature different writings of the book and who died in 1613, according to a long Latin registration , after having gone to serve the bishop of Sigüenza, appears in the latter.

The Pamplona example belongs to the account book of the Santa Barbara guild that grouped the merchants. The accounting of that guild corresponding to 1599 and 1600 provides us with the name of the painter who carried it out, a master surnamed Aldaz, along with another similar one for another book of administration of the guild, surely that of its constitutions. For both he charged the amount of 66 reales. Pedro Echeverría provides us with news of the aforementioned painter, undoubtedly Antonio de Aldaz. He was the son of the painter Miguel de Aldaz, he was born around 1550 and his activity is documented until the second decade of the 17th century. In contrast to the few works that are conserved of his hand in polychromies of some images -San Miguel de Izaga- tabernacles like the one of Zariquieta and altarpieces -Rosario de Puente la Reina or Santa Ana de Oroz Betelu-, the documentation is very rich in his presence as appraiser of numerous works, which speaks of his expertise. In his life staff stands out the fact that he took refuge in sacred, in the Pamplona parish of San Lorenzo, to escape from the secular justice.

The representation of the saint obeys the iconographic uses of her subject. She carries the palm of the martyrs and a book, and the tower with the three windows is also present. The latter is based on the Golden Legend, which relates the life of the martyr and makes her the daughter of the satrap Dióscuro, who locked her in a tower with two windows. However, a priest posing as a doctor instructed and baptized the young girl, who pierced a third window to show her faith in the Trinity. It is striking in the composition the presence of a scene foreign to the life of the saint, which is Christ calming the storm in the boat and with the apostles (Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41, and Luke 8:22-25). The topic was undoubtedly very useful for merchants who had to face the difficulties of moving and traveling with their merchandise, not only by land, but also by sea.

We can hardly present a project drawn for the cover of a book that did not have the fortune of reaching the presses, because another one that arrived from Madrid was preferred. We refer to the cover for the 1766 reprint of the Annals of Navarre by Father Moret, the work of the Aragonese José Lamarca, who designed a model which, as we have mentioned, was never published, but of which the drawing has been preserved. In it we see the coat of arms of Navarre on a delicate classical architecture and a rhetorical and theatrical drapery. Around it, we see the winged figure of Fame, another personification with helmet and spear, holding some slaves with a chain and that we can identify with victory or, better yet, with Athena, goddess of the just war of wisdom and the arts, and a third winged figure, seated on a column shaft, holding a kind of pen or chisel and with several books at her feet, so it has to be identified with the allegory of history. The reading of the drawing seems to be quite clear, around the vision of the Kingdom as triumphant over its enemies and favoring the arts and culture.