Chapter XXIX: A Velón 168 (1)

XXX. Bronze Lion 171

XXXI. Bronze Stag; Museum of Cordova 173

XXXII. Bronze Temple; Museum of Granada 174

XXXIII. Moorish Lamp and Mortar; Museum of Granada 176

XXXIV. Lamp of Mohammed the Third; Madrid Museum 178

XXXV. Abbot Samson's Bell; Museum of Cordova 180

XXXVI. Bronze Crucifix 182

XXXVII. The Puerta del Perdón; Seville Cathedral 184

XXXVIII. The Weathercock of the Giralda Tower 186

ARMS

XXXIX. Crest of Jousting Helmet; Royal Armoury, Madrid 198

XL. Spanish Crossbowman; Royal Armoury, Madrid 202

XLI. The Battle of La Higueruela; El Escorial 206

XLII. Parade Harness of Philip the Third; Royal Armoury,
Madrid 210

XLIII. Moorish Crossbow and Stirrup; Museum of Granada 214

XLIV. Moorish Sword; Casa de los Tiros, Granada 218

XLV. Sword of Boabdil el Chico; Museum of Artillery, Madrid 222

XLVI. Dagger of Boabdil el Chico; Museum of Artillery, Madrid 226

XLVII. Moorish Sword 230

XLVIII. War Harness of Charles the Fifth; Royal Armoury, Madrid 234

XLIX. Jousting Harness of Charles the Fifth; Royal Armoury,
Madrid 238

L. Jousting Harness of Philip the Handsome; Royal Armoury,
Madrid 242

LI. Moorish Buckler; Royal Armoury, Madrid 246

LII. Armour made at Pamplona; Royal Armoury, Madrid 250

LIII. _Adarga_; Royal Armoury, Madrid 254

LIV. Spanish Swords; Royal Armoury, Madrid 258

LV. Spanish Sword; Royal Armoury, Madrid 262

LVI. Spanish Sword 266

LVII. Spanish Swords; Royal Armoury, Madrid 270

LVIII. Sword Marks 272

LIX. _Bridona_ Saddle; Royal Armoury, Madrid 274

LX. Hanging _Jaeces_ for Horses 278

LXI. Travelling Litter attributed to Charles the Fifth; Royal
Armoury, Madrid 282

GOLD, SILVER, AND JEWEL WORK

The hyperbolic language of the ancients spoke of Spain as filled throughout, upon her surface and beneath her soil, with precious stones and precious metals. Old writers--Strabo, Pliny, Aristoteles, Pomponius Mela, and Diodorus Siculus--declare that once upon a time a mountain fire, lighted by shepherds in the Pyrenees and fanned into a conflagration by the wind, heated the earth until the ore within her entrails came bubbling to the top and ran away in rivulets of molten gold and silver, spreading all over Spain. The indigens of Lusitania as they dug their fields were said to strike their implements on nuggets half a pound in weight. The heart of the Peninsula, between the B[oe]tis and the Annas rivers--that is, the country of the Oretani and the Bastitani--was fabled to abound in mines of gold. The traders from Ph[oe]nicia, we are told, discovered silver to be so abundant with the Turdetani that "the vilest utensils of this people were composed thereof, even to their barrels and their pots." Accordingly these shrewd Ph[oe]nicians, offering worthless trinkets in exchange, loaded their ships with silver to the water's edge, and even, when their cargo was complete, fashioned their chains and anchors of the residue.

In spite of their extravagance, upon the whole these legends are not utterly devoid of truth. "Tradition," said so careful an authority as Symonds, "when not positively disproved should be allowed to have its full value; and a sounder historic sense is exercised in adopting its testimony with due caution, than in recklessly rejecting it and substituting guesses which the lack of knowledge renders insubstantial." So with the legends of the gold and silver treasure of the old-time Spaniards. Besides, it seems unquestionable that those fanciful assertions had their origin in fact. Spain stood upon the western border of the ancient world. Year in, year out, the sanguine sun went seething down into the waters at her western marge. Mariners from distant countries viewed those sunsets and associated them with Spain herself. Thus, hereabouts in the unclouded south, would gold and silver be suggested by the solar orb; or emerald and jacinth, pearl and amethyst and ruby, by the matchless colours of the seldom-failing sunset.

Then, too, though not of course in fabulous amount, the precious metals actually existed in this land. Various of her rivers, such as the Calom or Darro of Granada, the Tagus, the Agneda, and the Sil, rolled down, together with their current, grains of gold. "Les Mores," wrote Bertaut de Rouen of the first of these rivers, "en tiroient beaucoup autrefois; mais cela a esté discontinué depuis à cause de la trop grande dépense qu'il y faloit faire. Il est certain que souvent on prend dans le Darro de petits morceaux d'or, et il y a des gens qui sont accoûtumez d'y en chercher."

Centuries before this abbot wrote his book, the Arab author of the geographical dictionary known as the _Marasid Ithila_ had made a similar remark upon this gold-producing stream; and in the sixteenth century I find an Ordinance of Granada city prohibiting the townspeople from digging up the river-bed unless it were to look for gold.[1] Probably, however, and in spite of what some chroniclers suppose, the title Darro is not in any way connected with the Latin words _dat aurum_.

[1] _Ordenanza de la Limpieza_ (1537), Tit. 9: "We command that nobody
remove sand from the aforesaid river Darro unless to extract gold,
in which case he shall fill up the holes he made, or pay a fine of
fifty _maravedis_ for damaging the watercourses that enter this
city and the buildings of the Alhambra."

"Two leagues from Guadarrama," wrote the mineralogist William Bowles, about the middle of the eighteenth century, "opposite the town and in the direction of San Ildefonso, is a deep valley where one notices a vein of common quartz containing some iron. Here, without the use of glasses, I perceived a good many grains of gold.... In Galicia grains of gold are found on sandy hills, and one is astonished to observe the wonderful works carried out by the Romans to bring the sands together, wash them, and extract the precious metal. Local tradition affirms that this precious sand was destined for the purses of three Roman empresses--Livia, Agrippina, and Faustina.... I know a German minister who employed his spare time in washing these sands and collecting the gold."

The Romans, it is true, profited very greatly by the native wealth of the Peninsula. Helvius enriched the treasury with 14,732 pounds of Spanish silver bars and 17,023 pounds of silver money; Cornelius Lentulus, with 1515 pounds of gold, 20,000 pounds of bar-silver, and 34,550 pounds in coin. Cato came back from his pro-consulship with five-and-twenty thousand pounds of silver bars, twelve thousand pounds of silver money, and four hundred pounds of gold. Seventy thousand pounds of coined silver fell to the share of Flaccus, while Minutius exhibited at his triumph eight thousand pounds of silver bars, and three hundred thousand pounds of silver coin.

Mines of silver,[2] gold, and precious stones were also fairly numerous in Spain. Moorish authors wrote enthusiastically of the mines of precious metals in or close to the Sierra Nevada. "Even at this day," said Bowles, "the Moorish mines may be distinguished from the Roman. The Romans made the towers of their fortresses of a round shape, in order to avoid as far as possible the blows of the battering-ram; and their miners, whether from habit or intentionally, made the mouths of their mines round also. The Moors, as strangers to this engine, built their towers square and gave a square shape also to the mouths of their mines. The round mouths of Roman mines are yet to be seen at Riotinto and other places, and the square mouths of Moorish mines in the neighbourhood of Linares."

[2] "I am not aware of any Spanish mine containing silver in a state of
absolute purity; though some, I think, would be discovered if they
were searched for."--Bowles: _Historia Natural de España_.

Emeralds were formerly extracted from a mine at Moron, in the Sierra de Leyta; white sapphires and agates at Cape de Gata,[3] at the eastern extremity of the Gulf of Almeria; amethysts at Monte de las Guardas, near the port of Plata, "in a precipice (_sic_) about twenty feet in depth." According to Laborde, garnets have been discovered down to modern times "in a plain half-way on the road from Almeria to Motril. They are very abundant there, particularly in the bed of a ravine, formed by rain-torrents, at the foot of a little hill, upon which a great number of them are likewise found. The emeralds are in the kingdom of Seville, all the others in that of Granada. It has been said for some time that a pit in the mountain of Bujo, at Cape de Gata, contains a great many precious stones; but none could be found there, notwithstanding the prolonged and careful searches that were lately made."

[3] Possibly, as Bowles suggests, for Cabo de Agata--"Agate Cape." "It
would not be strange," he adds, "if diamonds were found at this
cape, since there are signs of their presence. I found white
sapphires, slightly clouded, together with cornelians, jaspers,
agates, and garnets."

Silver mines exist, or have existed, at Benasque, Calzena, and Bielza, in Aragon; at Cuevas, near Almeria; at Almodovar del Campo; at Zalamea, in Extremadura; at Puerto Blanco, in Seville province; in the Sierra de Guadalupe; at Fuente de la Mina, near Constantina; and near Almazarron, in the province of Carthagena. Not far from this latter city was another mine, that sent to Rome a daily yield of five-and-twenty thousand drachmas, and was worked by forty thousand men. Twenty thousand pounds in weight of pure silver proceeded yearly from Asturias, Lusitania, and Galicia. Hannibal extracted from a Pyrenean mine three hundred pounds a day. The fair Himilca, wife of Hasdrubal, was owner of a silver mine at two leagues' distance from Linares. Laborde wrote of this mine: "It was reopened in the seventeenth century, when a vein five feet in breadth was found, from which many pieces of silver were taken; the working of it, however, has been neglected. It belongs to the town of Baeza."

The same author, who wrote about one hundred years ago, gives curious and instructive notices of several other Spanish silver mines. "The mountains of the kingdom of Seville, on the confines of Extremadura, towards Guadalcanal, Alanis, Puerto Blanco, and Cazalla, which form a part of the extremity of the chain of Sierra Morena, contain several silver mines, which have been worked. There is one of these in the Sierra Morena, three miles from Guadalcanal, which to all appearance must have been very rich: there were three shafts for descending, the mouths of which are still to be seen: it was worked in the seventeenth century, and given up in 1653. It is believed that it was inundated by the workmen, in revenge for a new tax that was laid upon them. Another silver mine was also worked formerly, a league and a half from the other; it has a shaft, and a gallery of ancient construction; the vein is six feet in circumference, and is composed of spar and quartz. There is also a third mine, a league and a half from Guadalcanal, and half a league south-east of the village of Alanis, in the middle of a field; it is two feet wide; the Romans constructed a gallery in it, from south to north; a branch of it running eastward has been worked since their time: it originally contained pyrites and quartz, but it is by no means rich; there is lead at the bottom."

Gold mines, or traces of them, have been found in the neighbourhood of Molina in Aragon, San Ildefonso in Old Castile, and Alocer in Extremadura; in the Sierra de Leyta; in the valley of Hecho in Aragon; and at Paradeseca and Ponferrada--this latter town the _Interamnium Flavium_ of the Romans.

It is said that the chieftains of the ancient Spaniards adorned their robes with rude embroidery worked in gold, and that the men and women of all ranks wore gold and silver bracelets. These statements cannot now be either proved or controverted. Gold or silver objects older than the Roman domination have not been found abundantly in Spain. Riaño describes a silver bowl, conical in shape and evidently fashioned on the wheel, engraved with Iberian characters on one of its sides. A similar bowl was found in Andalusia in the seventeenth century, full of Iberian coins and weighing ten ounces. Gold ornaments, such as earrings, and _torques_ or collars for the neck, have been discovered in Galicia less infrequently than in the other Spanish regions, and may be seen to-day in private collections, in the Royal Academy of History at Madrid, and in the National Museum of Archæology.[4] Villa-amil y Castro has written fully of these _torques_ (Museo Español de Antigüedades, _Adornos de oro encontrados en Galicia_). In nearly every case, he says, they consist of a plain gold bar, C-shaped and therefore not completely closed into a ring, and with a knob at each extremity, as though their pattern were suggested by the yoke of cattle. One or two are decorated with a somewhat rude design extending through a portion of their length.

[4] A fresh find of _torques_ and _fibulæ_ has occurred in the spring
of this year at La Moureta, near Ferrol.

On one of these occasions a pair of curious, kidney-shaped earrings was found, together with a _torque_. These earrings, apparently of later workmanship than the other ornament, are decorated over all their surface, partly with a filigree design, and partly with a fine, beadlike pattern executed with a small chisel or graving tool in the manner known in French as _fusé_, _guilloché_, or _hachié_. Their material is hollow gold, and when discovered they were filled with a substance resembling powdered charcoal, mixed with a metallic clay.

These ornaments are ascribed by most authorities to an undetermined period somewhere previous to the Roman domination. I think, however, that less improbably they were produced by Spanish craftsmen in imitation of the Roman manner, and during the time of Roman rule in the Peninsula. This would account for their deficiencies of execution, and also for certain characteristics which they evidently share with Roman work.

We know that Rome imposed her usages on all the peoples whom she subjugated. Consequently, following this universal law, the Spaniards would adopt, together with the lavish luxury of Rome, the Roman ornaments and articles of jewellery. Such were the _annulus_ or finger-ring; the _fibula_, a brooch or clasp for securing the cloak; the _torques_ or neck-ring, more or less resembling those in use among the Persians; and the _phalera_, a round plate of gold, silver, or other metal, engraved with any one of a variety of emblems, worn upon the breast or stomach by the persons of either sex, and very commonly bestowed upon the Roman soldiers in reward of military service. Then there were several kinds of earrings--the variously-designed _stalagmium_ or pendant, the _inaures_, or the _crotalium_, hung with pearls that brushed together as their wearer walked, and gratified her vanity by their rustling; and also several kinds of bracelets--the gold or bronze _armilla_, principally worn by men; the _periscelis_, the _spathalium_, and the _dextrale_, worn round the fleshy part of the right arm.[5]

[5] These ornaments were retained in use by the Visigoths, and find
their due description in the _Etymologies_ of Saint Isidore;
_e.g._:--

"_Inaures_ ab aurium foraminibus nuncupatae, quibus pretiosa genera
lapidum dependuntur."

"_Tourques_ sunt circuli aurei a collo ad pectus usque dependentes.
Torques autem et bullae a viris geruntur; a foeminis vero monilia et
catellae."

"_Fibulæ_ sunt quibus pectus foeminarum ornatur, vel pallium tenetur:
viris in humeris, seu cingulum in lumbris."

Discoveries of Roman jewellery and gold and silver work have occurred from time to time in the Peninsula; for example, at Espinosa de Henares and (in 1840) near Atarfe, on the southern side of the volcanic-looking Sierra Elvira, a few miles from Granada. Riaño describes a Roman silver dish found in a stone quarry at Otañez, in the north of Spain. "It weighs thirty-three ounces, and is covered with an ornamentation of figures in relief, some of which are gilt, representing an allegorical subject of the source of medicinal waters. In the upper part is a nymph who pours water from an urn over rocks; a youth collects it in a vessel; another gives a cup of it to a sick man; another fills with it a barrel which is placed in a four-wheeled car to which are yoked two mules. On each side of the fountain are altars on which sacrifices and libations are offered. Round it is the inscription: SALVS VMERITANA, and at the back are engraved, in confused characters, the words: L. P. CORNELIANI. PIII...."

The same author is of opinion that in the time of the Romans "objects of all kinds in gold and silver were used in Spain to a very great extent, for, notwithstanding the destruction of ages, we still possess inscriptions which allude to silver statues, and a large number of objects in the precious metals exist in museums and private collections." Doubtless, in the case of articles and household utensils of smaller size--bowls, dishes, and the like, or ornaments for the person--the precious metals were made use of freely; but when we hear of mighty objects as also made of silver, _e.g._ principal portions of a building, we might do well to bear in mind a couple of old columns that were standing once not far from Cadiz, on a spot where in the days preceding history a temple sacred to the Spanish Hercules is rumoured to have been. Philostratus affirmed these columns to be wrought of solid gold and silver, mixed together yet in themselves without alloy. Strabo reduced them modestly to brass; but it was reserved for a curious Frenchman, the Père Labat, who travelled in Spain in 1705, to warn us what they really were. "Elles sont sur cette langue de terre, qui joint l'Isle de Léon à celle de Cadix; car il faut se souvenir que c'est ainsi qu'on appelle la partie Orientale, et la partie Occidentale de la même Isle. Il y a environ une lieue de la porte de Terre à ces vénérables restes de l'antiquité. Nous nous en approchames, croyant justifier les contes que les Espagnols en débitent. Mais nous fûmes étrangement surpris de ne pas rencontrer la moindre chose qui pût nous faire seulement soupçonner qu'elles fussent d'une antiquité un peu considérable. Nous vimes que ces deux tours rondes, qui n'ont à présent qu'environ vingt pieds de hauteur sur douze à quinze pieds de diamètre, étoient d'une maçonnerie fort commune. Leurs portes étoient bouchées, et nous convinmes tous qu'elles avoient été dans leur jeune tems des moulins à vent qu'on avoit abandonnés; il n'y a ni inscriptions, ni bas-reliefs, ni reste de figures quelconques. En un mot, rien qui méritât notre attention, ni qui recompensât la moindre partie de la peine que nous avions prise pour les aller voir de près. Car je les avois vue plus d'une fois du grand chemin, où j'avois passé, et je devois me contenter. Mais que ne fait-on pas quand on est curieux, et aussi des[oe]uvré que je l'étois alors."

Many of the usages of Roman Spain descended to the Visigoths. The jewels of this people manifest the double influence of Rome and of Byzantium, and the latter influenced in its turn from Eastern sources. We learn from that extraordinary encyclopædia of early mediæval Spanish lore--the _Etymologies_ of Isidore of Beja--that the Visigothic women decked themselves with earrings, necklaces, and bracelets, set with precious stones of fabulous price. Leovigild is stated by the same writer to have been the first of the Visigothic princes to use the insignia of royalty. One of his coins (engraved in Florez) represents him with an imperial crown surmounted by a cross resembling that of the Byzantines. Coins of a similar design, and also bearing the imperial crown, were minted at Toledo, Cordova, or Merida, in the reigns of Chindaswint, Wamba, Ervigius, and Egica.

But the true fountain-head of all our modern knowledge respecting the jewellery of Visigothic Spain is in the wonderful crosses, crowns, and other ornaments discovered in 1858 upon the site of some old Christian temple, two leagues distant from Toledo. These objects, known collectively as "the treasure of Guarrazar," were stumbled on by certain peasants after a heavy storm had washed away a quantity of earth. Some were destroyed upon the spot; others were sold to the Toledo silversmiths and melted down by these barbarians of our day; but fortunately the greater part remained intact, or very nearly so. There were in all, composed exclusively of gold and precious stones, eleven crowns, two crosses containing legible inscriptions, fragments such as the arms of a processional cross, and many single stones which time had doubtless separated from the crosses or the crowns.[6]

[6] There is also in the Archæological Museum at Madrid a small
collection of what has been described as Visigothic jewellery,
consisting of a handsome _phalera_, necklaces, finger-rings, and
earrings. Most of these objects were found at Elche in 1776. The
_Museo Español de Antigüedades_ published a full description by
Florencio Janer. Their interest is by no means as great as that of
the treasure of Guarrazar, nor is the date of their production
definitely ascertained. From various details I suspect that many
of them may be purely Roman.

Part of this treasure passed in some mysterious way to France, and is now in the Cluny Museum at Paris. The rest is in the Royal Armoury at Madrid. Paris can boast possession of nine of the crowns; Madrid, of two, together with a fragment of a third--this latter of a balustrade or basket pattern. Five of the nine crowns preserved at Paris are fashioned of simple hoops of gold. The most important of the five, the crown of Recceswinth, who ruled in Spain from 650 to 672 A.D., consists of two hinged semicircles of hollow gold, about a finger's-breadth across the interspace. It measures just over eight inches in diameter and four inches in depth. Both the upper and the lower rims are decorated to the depth of nearly half an inch with a design of four-pointed floral or semi-floral figures within minute circles. Amador de los Ríos has recognized this same design in the frieze of certain buildings at Toledo, and in the edges of mosaic discovered at Italica and Lugo, as well as in the Balearic Islands. The interstices of this design upon the crown are filled with a kind of red enamel or glaze, the true nature of which has not been definitely ascertained. Riaño calls it "a delicate ornamentation of _cloisonné_ work, which encloses a substance resembling red glass." The centre of the crown is filled with three rows of large stones, principally pearls and sapphires. There are also several onyxes, a stone which in those days was held in great esteem. The spaces between the rows of stones are ornamented with a somewhat rudimentary design of palm branches, the leaves of which appear to have been filled or outlined with the kind of red enamel I have spoken of.

This crown is suspended by four gold chains containing each of them five leaf-shaped links, _percées à jour_. The chains unite at a gold rosette in the form of a double lily, terminated by a stoutish capital of rock-crystal. This in its turn is capped by another piece of crystal holding the final stem of gold which served as a hook for hanging up the crown. Suspended from the gold rosette by a long chain is a handsome cross, undoubtedly of more elaborate workmanship, studded with union pearls and monster sapphires. Amador believed this ornament to be a brooch. If this were so it is, of course, improperly appended here. Twenty-four gold chains hang from the lower border of the crown, concluding in pyriform sapphires of large size. Each sapphire is surmounted by a small, square frame of gold containing coloured glass, and above this, in each of three-and-twenty of the chains, is one of the golden letters forming the inscription, [cross] RECCESVINTHVS REX OFFERET.

Besides this crown there are at Paris--

(1) A similar though slighter crown, the body of which is studded with
fifty-four magnificent stones. A cross, now kept apart in the same
collection, is thought by Spanish experts to have once been pendent from
the crown. If so, the latter was perhaps presented to the sanctuary by
one Sonnica, probably a Visigothic magnate, and not a woman, as the
termination of the name induced some foreign antiquaries to suppose. The
cross is thus inscribed:--
_
IN DI
NOM
INE
OFFERET ___ SONNICA
SCE
MA
RIE
INS
ORBA
CES[7]

[7] The last word is commonly believed to be the name of a
place--_Sorbaces_. There has been much discussion as to its
meaning.

(2) Three crowns of plain design consisting of hoops of gold with primitive _repoussé_ decoration, and, in the case of one, with precious stones.

(3) Four crowns, each with a pendent cross. The pattern is a basket-work or set of balustrades of thin gold hollow plates (not, as Riaño stated, massive) with precious stones about the intersections of the bars or meshes, and others hanging from the lower rim. Three of these crowns have three rows or tiers of what I call the balustrade; the other crown has four.

The custom of offering votive crowns to Christian temples was taken by the emperors of Constantinople from heathen peoples of the eastern world. In Spain this custom, introduced by Recared, outlived by many years the ruin of the Visigothic monarchy--survived, in fact, until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Thus in 891 Alfonso the Third presented to the monastery of San Adrian and Santa Natalia four crowns of gold and three of silver, while just a hundred years afterwards Ordoño the Second presented three silver crowns to the monastery of Samos. Other crowns were offered by the prelates and the secular nobility.

Returning to the crowns of Guarrazar, there has been great controversy as to whether these were worn upon the head. Some experts think they must have been so worn; and in this case the rings upon the rim, through which the chains are passed, would seem to have been added on the presentation of these objects to the sanctuary. Lasteyrie, on the other hand, considered that the crowns were merely votive and were never meant for personal use, arguing that the rings were fixed about the border from the very moment when the crowns were made;[8] but Amador ingeniously replied to this by pointing out that in a few of the old Castilian coins--for instance, one of Sancho the Third--the crown, with rings about its rim, is actually upon the monarch's head. It is possible, adds the same authority, that these were old votive crowns proceeding from some church, although he thinks it still more likely that they were fashioned with the rings attached to them. We should remember, too, the hinge which serves to open and close the body of these crowns. It is difficult to guess the purpose of this hinge, unless it were to fit the crown more comfortably on the head.

[8] _Description du trésor de Guarrazar_.

Of that portion of the treasure of Guarrazar which has remained at Madrid (Plate i.), the most important object is the votive crown of King Swinthila, son of Recared, and described as "one of the most illustrious and unlucky princes that ever occupied the throne of Atawulf." This crown measures nine inches in diameter by two and a half in height. It consists of thin gold plates united at the edge, leaving, between the inner and the outer side, a hollow space about a quarter of an inch across. The exterior is divided into a central horizontal hoop or band between two others, somewhat narrower, at the top and bottom, these last being slightly raised above the level of the third. A triple row of precious stones, amounting to one hundred and twenty-five pearls and sapphires in the entire crown, surrounds the outer surface of the same, the central band or zone of which contains besides, wrought in _repoussé_ on the hoop, a simple circular device wherein each centre is a sapphire or a pearl, though many of these have fallen from their setting. The spaces which describe these circles are superposed on what looks like a red enamel retaining at this moment all or nearly all its pristine brightness of twelve hundred years ago. This substance was believed by French investigators to be a coloured glass or paste,[9] but Amador, after protracted chemical experiments, declared it to be layers of cornelian. Some of these layers have fallen from their grip, and if the crown be stirred are heard to move within. It is worth remarking, too, that the fillets which form the setting of the precious stones were made apart and welded afterwards; nor are these settings uniform in shape, but tally in each instance with the outline of the gem.

[9] "_Ce que je puis affirmer, après l'examen le plus minutieux, c'est
que la matière qui fait le fond de cette riche ornementation est
réellement du verre._"--Lasteyrie, supported by Sommerard.

The chains which served for hanging up the crown are four in number. As in the crown of Recceswinth, each of them is composed of four _repoussé_ cinquefoil links adorned along their edge with small gold beads minutely threaded on a wire and fastened on by fusing. The chains converge into an ornament shaped like two lilies pointing stem to stem, so that the lower is inverted, although they are divided by a piece of faceted rock crystal.[10] Four gems are hung from either lily, and issuing from the uppermost of these a strong gold hook attaches to the final length of chain.

[10] "In Spain," said Bowles (_Hist. Nat. de Esp._, p. 498), "are found
two species of rock crystal. The one, occurring in clusters, are
transparent, six-sided, and always have their source in rocks.
There are great quantities all over the kingdom, and at Madrid
they are found near the hills of San Isidro. The other species are
found singly, and are rounded like a pebble. I have seen them from
the size of a filbert to that of my fist. Some were covered with a
thin, opaque integument.... The river Henares abounds with these
crystals, and as it passes San Fernando, at two leagues' distance
from Madrid, sweeps some of them along which are the size of the
largest ones at Strasburg, though very few are perfect."

Possibly the chain and cross now hanging through the circuit of the crown were not originally part of it. This cross is most remarkable. It has four arms of equal length, gracefully curved, and is wrought of plates of gold in duplicate, fastened back to back by straps of gold along the edges. The centre holds a piece of crystal in the midst of pearls and gold bead work threaded on a wire of the same metal and attached by fusion. Several fairly large stones are hung from the lateral and lower arms of the cross by small gold chains.

The letters hanging from Swinthila's crown are cut and punched from thin gold plates. Their decoration is a zigzag ornament backed by the same mysterious crimson substance as the circular devices on the hoop. Hanging from the letters are pearls, sapphires, and several imitation stones--particularly imitation emeralds--in paste.

The cross before the letters points to a custom of that period. We find it also on Swinthila's coins, and those of other Visigothic kings. Of the letters themselves twelve have been recovered, thus:--

[cross] SV TI NV REX OFF T

The chains, however, or fragments of them, amount to twenty-three--precisely (if we count the cross) the number needed to complete the dedication.[11]

[11] A veritable cryptogram awaited the decipherers of these legends.
When King Swinthila's crown was brought to light, four of the
letters only were in place, thus:--

[cross] ...... I ... V . R .... F ....

Eight of the others were recovered shortly after; two more, an E
and L, appeared at a later date, and eight continued to be missing.
The inscription dangling from the crown of Recceswinth arrived at
Paris in this eloquent form:--

[cross] RRCCEEFEVINSTVSETORHFEX

The Royal Armoury contains another crown, a great deal smaller and less ornamented than Swinthila's. The body of this crown, which was presented by the finder to the late Queen Isabella the Second, is just a hoop of gold, two inches deep and five across, hinged like the more elaborate and larger crowns, but merely decorated with a fine gold spiral at the rims, a zigzag pattern in _repoussé_, and a rudely executed scale-work. The dedication on this cross is in the centre of the hoop, and says-- __ [cross] OFFERET MVNVSCVLVM SCO STEFANO _ THEODOSIVS ABBA

We do not know who Theodosius was, but Amador, judging from the simple decoration of this crown, believes him to have been a priest of lower rank, and by no means a dignitary of the Visigothic church.

A votive cross also forms part of this collection, which has a simple sunk device along the edges and seven pendent stones, two of these hanging from each of the lateral arms, and three, a little larger, from the lower arm. The inscription, which is rough in the extreme, appears to be the work of some illiterate craftsman, and has been interpreted with difficulty:-- __ IN NOMINE DEI: IN NOMINE SCI OFFERET LUCETIUS E

This reading gives an extra letter at the end, which may be construed as _Episcopus_--or anything else, according to the student's fancy.

I may close my notice of this collection in the Royal Armoury at Madrid by drawing attention to a greenish, semi-opaque stone, three-quarters of an inch in height. It is engraved _en creux_ upon two facets with the scene of the Annunciation. The gem itself is commonly taken for an emerald, of which, referring to the glyptic art among the Visigoths, the learned Isidore remarked that "_Sculpentibus quoque gemmas nulla gratior oculorum refectio est._" I shall insert a sketch of the cutting on this stone as a tailpiece to the chapter, and here append a full description. "The Virgin listens standing to the Archangel Gabriel, who communicates to her the will of the Almighty. Before her is a jar, from which projects the stem of a lily, emblematic of the chaste and pure, that reaches to her breast. Her figure is completely out of measurement. Upon her head appears to be a _nimbus_ or _amiculum_; her breast is covered with a broad and folded _fascia_, enveloping her arms, while her tunic, reaching to the ground, conceals one of her feet. The angel in the cutting on the stone is at the Virgin's right. His attitude is that of one who is conveying tidings. Large wings folded upon his shoulders and extending nearly to the ground are fitted to his form, better drawn and livelier than the Virgin's. He executes his holy mission with his right hand lifted. His dress is a tunic in small folds, over which is a cloak fastened by a brooch and fitting closely. Upon his head he wears a kind of helmet."[12]

[12] Amador de los Ríos, _El Arte latino-bizantino en España y las
Coronas Visigodas de Guarrazar_, p. 121.

The drawing of this design upon the stone is most bizarre and barbarous; for the Virgin's head is so completely disproportioned that it forms the one-third part of her entire person.

The merit of all this Visigothic gem or gold and silver work has been extolled too highly by the French and Spanish archæologists.[13] It is, however, greatly interesting. Rudely and ponderously magnificent, it tells us of a people who as yet were almost wholly strangers to the true artistic sense. Such were the Visigoths and the Spaniards of the Visigothic era, of all of whom I have observed elsewhere that "serfdom was the distinguishing mark of the commons; arrogance, of the nobility; avarice, and ambition of temporal and political power, of the clergy; regicide and tumult, of the crown."[14] These crowns of Guarrazar proclaim to us in plainest language that the volume of the stones, and showiness and glitter of the precious metal were accorded preference of every other factor--the _pondus auri_ preference of the _manus artificis_. We gather, too, from documents and chronicles and popular tradition, that the Visigothic princes, as they set apart their stores of treasure in secluded caves or in the strong rooms of their palaces, were ever captivated and corrupted by the mere intrinsic worth in opposition to the nobler and æsthetic value of the craftsmanship.

[13] _E.g._ Sommerard: "_Une collection sans égale de joyaux les plus
précieux qui, par la splendeur de la matière, le mérite de
l'exécution, et plus encore, peut être, par leur origine
incontestable et par leur étonnante conservation, surpassent tout
ce qui possédent d'analogue les collections publiques de l'Europe
et les trésors les plus renommés de l'Italie_."

[14] _Toledo and Madrid_; p. 16.

Thus we are told that Sisenand owned a plate of gold (no word is said of its design or style) five hundred pounds in weight, proceeding from the royal treasure of his race, and which, long years before, had been presented by the nobleman Accio to King Turismund. When Sisenand was conspiring to dethrone Swinthila, he called on Dagobert the king of France to come to his support, and promised him, as recompense, this golden plate. The French king lent his help forthwith, and then, as soon as Turismund was seated on the throne of Spain, despatched an embassy to bring the coveted vessel to his court. Sisenand fulfilled his word and placed the envoys in possession of the plate, but since his subjects, rising in rebellion, wrenched it from their power and kept it under custody, he compensated Dagobert by a money payment of two hundred thousand _sueldos_.[15]

[15] _Ajbar Machmua_. Lafuente y Alcántara's edition; p. 27, note.

Innumerable narratives and legends dwell upon the treasure taken by the Moors on entering Spain. Such as relate the battle of the Guadalete, or the Lake of Janda (as it is also called by some authorities), agree that when the fatal day was at an end the riderless steed of Roderick was found imbedded in the mire, wearing a saddle of massive gold adorned with emeralds and rubies. According to Al-Makkari, that luckless monarch's boots were also made of gold studded with precious stones, while the Muslim victors, stripping the Visigothic dead, identified the nobles by the golden rings upon their fingers, those of a less exalted rank by their silver rings, and the slaves by their rings of copper. The widow of the fallen king was also famous for her stores of jewellery. Her name was Eila or Egilona (Umm-Asim of the Moors), but she was known besides as "the lady of the beautiful necklaces." After being made a prisoner she was given in marriage to the young prince Abd-al-Azis, who grew to love her very greatly, and received from her, "seeing that she still retained sufficient of her royal wealth," the present of a crown.

Muza, on returning to the East, is said to have drawn near to Damascus with a train of thirty waggons full of Spanish silver, gold, and precious stones. Tarik ben Ziyed, marching in triumph through the land, secured at Cordova, Amaya, and other towns and capitals, enormous store of "pearls, arms, dishes, silver, gold, and other jewels in unprecedented number." One object, in particular, is mentioned with insistency by nearly all the chronicles, both Mussulman and Christian. Quoting from the _Pearl of Marvels_ of Ibn Alwardi, this was "the table which had belonged to God's prophet, Solomon (health be to both of them). It was of green emeralds, and nothing fairer had been ever seen before. Its cups were golden and its plates of precious jewels, one of them specked with black and white." All manner of strange things are said about this table, though most accounts describe it as consisting of a _single_ emerald. Perhaps it was of malachite, or of the bright green serpentine stone extracted formerly as well as nowadays from the Barranco de San Juan at Granada, and several other spots in Spain. Bayan Almoghreb says it was of gold mixed with a little silver and surrounded by three gold rings or collars; the first containing pearls, the second rubies, and the third emeralds. Al-Makkari describes it as "green, with its 365 feet and borders of a single emerald." Nor is it known for certain where this "table" fell into the hands of Tarik. Probably he found it in the principal Christian temple at Toledo--that is to say, the Basilica of Santa María. Ibn Alwardi says that in the _aula regia_, or palace of the Visigothic kings, the lancers of the Moorish general broke down a certain door, discovering "a matchless quantity of gold and silver plate," together with the "table." Doubtless this strong room was the same referred to in the following lines. "It was for ever closed; and each time that a Christian king began to reign he added to its door a new and powerful fastening. In this way as many as four and twenty padlocks were gathered on the door."

However, the most explicit and informative of all these ancient authors is Ibn Hayyan, who says; "The table had its origin in the days of Christian rulers. It was the custom in those times that when a rich man died he should bequeath a legacy to the churches. Proceeding from the value of these gifts were fashioned tables, thrones, and other articles of gold and silver, whereon the clergy bore the volumes of their gospel when they showed them at their ceremonies. These objects they would also set upon their altars to invest them with a further splendour by the ornament thereof. For this cause was the table at Toledo, and the [Visigothic] monarchs vied with one another in enriching it, each of them adding somewhat to the offerings of his predecessor, till it surpassed all other jewels of its kind and grew to be renowned exceedingly. It was of fine gold studded with emeralds, pearls, and rubies, in such wise that nothing similar had ever been beheld. So did the kings endeavour to increase its richness, seeing that this city was their capital, nor did they wish another to contain more splendid ornaments or furniture. Thus was the table resting on an altar of the church, and here the Muslims came upon it, and the fame of its magnificence spread far abroad."

Another chronicle affirms that Tarik found the "table" at a city called Almeida, now perhaps Olmedo. "He reached Toledo, and leaving a detachment there, advanced to Guadalajara and the [Guadarrama] mountains. These he crossed by the pass which took his name, and reached, upon the other side, a city called Almeida or _The Table_, for there had been discovered the table of Solomon the son of David, and the feet and borders of it, numbering three hundred and sixty-five, were of green emerald."

In any case this venerated jewel gave considerable trouble to its captors. When envious Muza followed up the march of Tarik, his lieutenant, he demanded from him all the spoil, and in particular the ever-famous table. Tarik surrendered this forthwith, but after slyly wrenching off a leg. Muza perceived the breakage, and inquired for the missing piece. "I know not," said the other; "'twas thus that I discovered it." Muza then ordered a new leg of gold to be made for the table, as well as a box of palm leaves, in which it was deposited. "This," says Ibn Hayyan, "is known to be one of the reasons why Tarik worsted Muza in the dispute they had before the Caliph as to their respective conquests." So it proved. Ibn Abdo-l-Haquem[16] relates that Muza appeared before the Caliph Al-Walid and produced the table. Tarik interposed and said that he himself had taken it, and not the other leader. "Give it into my hands," the Caliph answered, "that I may see if any piece of it be wanting," and found, indeed, that one of its feet was different from the rest. "Ask Muza," interrupted Tarik, "for the missing foot, and if he answer from his heart, then shall his words be truth." Accordingly Al-Walid inquired for the foot, and Muza made reply that he had found the table as it now appeared; but Tarik with an air of triumph drew forth the missing piece which he himself had broken off, and said: "By this shall the Emir of the Faithful recognize that I am speaking truth; that I it was who found the table." And thereupon Al-Walid credited his words and loaded him with gifts.

[16] _Account of the Conquest of Spain_, published, with an English
translation and notes, by John Harris Jones. London, 1858.

Comparing the statements of these writers, we may be certain that the "table" was a kind of desk of Visigothic or, more probably, Byzantine workmanship, for holding the gospels on the feast-days of the national church. Probably, too, seeing that a palm-leaf box was strong enough to keep it in, its size was inconsiderable. Its value, on the statement of Ibn Abdo-l-Haquem, was two hundred thousand _dinares_.

The sum of my remarks upon the Visigothic jewel-work is this. Distinguished by a coarse though costly splendour, we find in it a mingled Roman and Byzantine source, although it was upon the whole inferior to these styles, being essentially, as Amador observes, "an imitative and decadent art." Yet it did not succumb before the Moors, but lurked for refuge in the small Asturian monarchy, and later, issuing thence, extended through the kingdom of León into Castile. We find its clearest characteristics in such objects as the Cross of Angels and the Cross of Victory. Then, later still, it is affected and regenerated by the purely oriental art of the invader; and lastly, till the wave of the Renaissance floods the western world, by Gothic influences from across the Pyrenees.

A similar sketch may be applied to other arts and crafts of Spain--particularly furniture and architecture.

The pious or superstitious kings and magnates of this land have always taken pride in adding (at the instigation of the clergy) to the treasure of her churches and cathedrals. Such gifts include all kinds of sumptuous apparel for the priesthood; chasubles and dalmatics heavily embroidered with the precious metals, gold or silver crowns and crosses, paxes,[17] chalices and patines, paraments and baldaquinos, reliquaries in every shape and style and size, and figures of the Virgin--such as those of Lugo, Seville, Astorga, and Pamplona--consisting of elaborate silver-work upon a wooden frame. Visitors to Spain, from leisurely Rosmithal five hundred years ago to time-economizing tourists of our century, have been continually astonished at the prodigal richness of her sanctuaries. Upon this point I quote a typical extract from the narrative of Bertaut de Rouen. "The treasure of this church," he said of Montserrat, "is wonderfully precious, and particularly so by reason of two objects that belong to it. The first is a crown of massive gold of twenty pounds in weight, covered with pearls, with ten stars radiating from it also loaded with large pearls and diamonds of extraordinary value. This crown took forty years to make, and is valued at two millions of gold money. The second object is a gold crown entirely covered with emeralds, most of them of an amazing size. Many are worth five thousand crowns apiece. The reliquary, too, is of extraordinary richness, as also a service of gold plate studded with pearls, donated by the late emperor for use in celebrating Mass."

[17] The pax or osculatory used in celebrating High Mass is commonly,
says Rosell de Torres, "a plate of gold or ivory, or other metal
or material, according to the time and circumstances of its
manufacture. The priest who celebrates the Mass kisses it after
the _Agnus Dei_ and the prayer _ad petendam pacem_, and the
acolytes present it, as a sign of peace and brotherly union, to
all the other priests who may be present. This usage springs from
the kiss of peace which was exchanged, prior to receiving the
communion, between the early Christians in their churches. The pax
has commonly borne an image of the Virgin with the Holy Infant,
the face of Christ, or else the Agnus Dei." Its Latin name was the
_deosculatorium_.

Similar accounts to the above exist in quantities, relating to every part of Spain and every period of her history.

Reverting to the earlier Middle Ages, a few conspicuous objects thus presented to the Spanish Church require to be briefly noted here. Famous chalices are those of Santo Domingo de Silos (eleventh century), made to the order of Abbot Domingo in honour of San Sebastian, and showing the characteristic Asturian filigree-work; and of San Isidoro of León, made in 1101 by order of Urraca Fernandez, sister of the fourth Alfonso. The latter vessel, inscribed with the dedication of _Urraca Fredinandi_, has an agate cup and foot. A remarkably handsome silver-gilt chalice and patine (thirteenth century) belong to Toledo cathedral. The height of this chalice is thirteen inches, and the diameter of its bowl, which has a conical shape, eight and a half inches. Inside and out the bowl is smooth, but midway between the bowl and the foot is a massive knot or swelling in the stem, and on the knot the emblematic lion, eagle, bull, and angel are chiselled in high relief. Below the knot is a ring of graceful rosettes. The patine which accompanies this chalice measures twelve inches in diameter. It has upon it, thinly engraved within a slightly sunk centre with a scalloped edge, the figure of Christ upon the cross, between the Virgin and St John. This central group of figures and the border of the plate are each surrounded with a narrow strip of decoration.

The cathedral of Valencia has a beautiful and early cup asserted to be the veritable Holy Grail (_greal_, _garal_, or _gradal_, in the old Castilian), "of which," wrote Ford with his accustomed irony, "so many are shown in different orthodox _relicarios_." However this may be, the chalice of Valencia is particularly handsome. According to Riaño it consists of "a fine brown sardonyx which is tastefully moulded round the lip. The base is formed of another inverted sardonyx. These are united by straps of pure gold. The stem is flanked by handles, which are inlaid with delicate arabesque in black enamel. Oriental pearls are set round the base and stem, which alternate with rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. This chalice is a work of the Roman imperial epoch, and the mounts are of a later date."

A series of Spanish chalices, beginning chronologically with specimens which date from the early Middle Ages, and terminating with the chalice, made in 1712, of Santa María la Blanca of Seville, was shown in 1892 at the Exposición Histórico-Europea of Madrid. Among the finer or most curious were chalices proceeding from the parish church of Játiva, Las Huelgas, and Seville cathedral, and the Plateresque chalices of Calatayud, Granada, and Alcalá de Henares. Another chalice which is greatly interesting because of the date inscribed on it, is one which was presented to Lugo cathedral by a bishop of that diocese, Don Garcia Martinez de Bahamonde (1441-1470). The workmanship, though prior to the sixteenth century, is partly Gothic. An article by José Villa-amil y Castro, dealing with all these chalices, will be found in the _Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones_ for April, 1893.

A small exhibition was held at Lugo in August 1896. Here were shown sixteen chalices, nearly all of them of merit from the point of view of history or art. Such are the chalice of San Rosendo, proceeding from the old monastery of Celanova; the Gothic chalices of Tuy cathedral, Lugo cathedral, Santa María del Lucio, Santa Eulalia de Guilfrei, San Pedro de Puertomarín, and the Franciscan friars of Santiago; and the chalice and patine of Cebrero (twelfth century), in which it is said that on a certain occasion in the fifteenth century the wine miraculously turned to actual blood, and the Host to actual flesh, in order to convince a doubting priest who celebrated service.

The Cross of Angels and the Cross of Victory--presents, respectively, from Alfonso the Chaste and Alfonso the Great--are now preserved at Oviedo, in the Camara Santa of that stately temple. The former of these crosses, fancied by credulous people to be the handiwork of angels--whence its title[18]--was made in A.D. 808. It consists of four arms of equal length, radiating from a central rosette (Pl. ii.). The core or _alma_ is of wood covered with a double plate of richly decorated gold, chased in the finest filigree (indicative already of the influence of Cordova) and thickly strewn with sapphires, amethysts, topazes, and cornelians. Other stones hung formerly from six small rings upon the lower border of the arms. The cross is thus inscribed:--

_"Susceptum placide maneat hoc in honore Dei
Offeret Adefonsus humilis servus Xti
Hoc signo tuetur pius
Hoc signo vincitur inimicus._

_Quisquis auferre presumpserit mihi
Fulmine divino intereat ipse
Nisi libens ubi voluntas dederit mea
Hoc opus perfectum est in Era DCCXLVI."_

[18] This marvel is related by the Monk of Silos. A quotation from
another of my books is applicable here. "Last year," I wrote in
1902--(pp. 64, 65 of _Toledo and Madrid: Their Records and
Romances_)--"the young King Alfonso the Thirteenth paid a visit to
Oviedo cathedral, and was duly shown the relics and the jewels.
Among these latter was the 'Cross of the Angels.'

"'Why is it so called?' inquired the king.

"'Because,' replied the bishop of the diocese, 'it is said that the
angels made it to reward King Alfonso the Chaste.'