For the historical portions of the description contained in the letterpress I have levied tribute on a variety of authors. The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, by the learned Spanish Orientalist, Don Pascual de Gayángos; Raphaël Contreras’ Étude Descriptive des Monuments Arabes; Richard Ford’s reverent appreciations; Dr. R. Dozy’s history; Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole’s The Moors in Spain; Washington Irving’s fascinating writings; and The Alhambra Album, presented by Prince Dolgorouki in 1829, containing the autographs, poems, and thoughts of succeeding generations of visitors to Granada, these and many others have been drawn upon in the following pages.
But the multiplicity of my illustrations convinced me that if I adhered to my idea of furnishing an amount of letterpress sufficient to “carry” the blocks, I should only end in producing a book that would tax the physical endurance of my readers by reason of its bulk, and exhaust their patience with a tedious super-abundance of minute descriptive pabulum. I resolved, therefore, to give pride of place to the pictorial side of the volume; to abandon the traditions regulating the proportions of prose to pictures; and make my appeal to the public by the beauty and variety of the illustrations I have collected, and the immensity of elaborate letterpress which I have not written.
A. F. C.
“Royston,”
Hampstead, N.W., 1904.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
The compilation of a book of this kind reveals in the author a refreshing optimism which does not always survive the ordeal of publication, and it is, perhaps, out of sympathy with the misgivings that assail him as he approaches the bar of public and critical opinion, that convention cedes to him the privilege of making some apology for the faith that is in him. In his preface he is permitted to explain himself, and this apologia or justification, call it which you will, stands as the last word in his own defence. But the demand for a further edition is the outcome of an amiable conspiracy on the part of the public, and it is not required of the author to explain, justify, or excuse an issue for which he is not directly responsible. Any revision or amplification, however, which is to be found in a second impression, may be briefly referred to, and at the same time tradition allows him to express the feelings of gratitude and gratification that the occasion inspires.
It has been my ambition to acknowledge the favour with which this book has been received, by having the present edition produced with the greatest care on special paper, and by the addition of a number of new illustrations, including some half-tone and coloured plates reproduced from the Monumentos Arquitectónicos de España and other sources, which I have acquired since it was first produced. It will be seen that several of the coloured pictures in this book illustrate designs which are common to the Arabian ornamentation to be found in Cordova and Seville, and, as being representative of the Moresco work of the period, they also appear in the companion volume on Moorish Remains in Spain, but it may be stated that the whole of the plates reproduced here are from photographs and drawings secured or specially made to illustrate The Alhambra. In its pictorial appeal it has been my ambition to make this edition as worthy of its subject as means and ability permit, and I offer this assurance as an earnest of my sincere appreciation of the generous manner in which the Press and public rewarded my previous effort.
PREFACE TO NEW EDITION
The generous appreciation with which my larger book on the Alhambra was received by both the Press and the public in Spain and America, as well as in this country, encourages me to hope that the present volume will prove a popular addition to this Spanish Series. Three years ago, when I published The Alhambra to supply what my own experience taught me to be a real want, the scale and quality of the illustrations made it impossible to issue the work at a popular price. I am now enabled to present an inexpensive and, I trust, adequate souvenir of the fascinating city of Granada and its Red Palace. The text is no mere reprint of the matter which appeared in my former work, but embodies the results of a more critical, though not less appreciative, survey of the last monuments of the Spanish Moor. Bearing in mind, too, that the illustrations, being on a reduced scale, called for fuller explanation, I have endeavoured to condense as much detail and descriptive matter into the letterpress as the limits I had laid down for myself admitted. Those limits were still further encroached upon by the additional wealth of illustration which resulted from the decision to include the city of Granada in a work which, in previous issues, had been devoted entirely to the palace of the Alhambra, and the new pictorial matter so acquired threatened to annex all the space allotted for the text. But little as I liked the idea of further condensing the letterpress, I was even less inclined to neglect the opportunity of enhancing the pictorial value of the volume. In dealing with the Moorish art of Spain, I have always recognised that the popular want is for pictures rather than the printed word, and I venture to hope that the present volume, which surpasses its costlier predecessors in the number of the plates reproduced, will constitute a serviceable if not exhaustive guide to the beautiful Moorish capital, and an artistic remembrancer of its fascinating monuments.