[224] An inscription was put up in the time of Philip II. giving the history of the bridge, and stating that it had been rebuilt by Pedro Tenorio, the archbishop: “Pontem cujus ruinæ in declivis alveo proxime visuntur, fluminis inundatione, quæ anno Domini MCCIII. super ipsum excrevit, diruptum Toletani in hoc loco ædificaverunt. Imbecilla hominum consilia, quem jam amnis lædere non poterat, Petro et Henrico fratribus pro regno contendentibus interruptum, Petrus Tenorius archiepiscopus Toletan. reparâdum curavit.”
A quaint story is told of the building of this bridge. The architect whilst the work was going on perceived that as soon as the centres were removed the arches would fall, and confided his grief to his wife. She with woman’s wit forthwith set fire to the centring, and when the whole fell together all the world attributed the calamity to the accident of the fire. When the bridge had been rebuilt again she avowed her proceeding, but Archbishop Tenorio, instead of making her husband pay the expenses, seems to have confined himself to complimenting him on the treasure he possessed in his wife.—Cean Bermudez, Not. de los Arquos., &c., vol. i. p. 79.
[225] A stone was found in the 16th century with this inscription on it:—
IN NOMINE DNI CONSECRA
TA ECCLESIA SCTE MARIE
IN CATHOLICO DIE PRIMO
IDUS APRILIS ANNO FELI
CITER PRIMO REGNI DNI
NOSTRI GLORIOSISSIMI H
RECCAREDI REGIS ERA
DCXXV
This stone is still preserved, and is interesting as a proof that a church was standing here in the year 587.
[226] Bernard, the first bishop, after the expulsion of the Moors was sent from France, at the request of the king, by Hugo, Abbot of Cluny. The story of this seizure of the mosque is as follows: “Regina Constantia hortante de revete adscitis militibus Christianis, majorem Mezquilam ingressus est Toletanam, et eliminata spurcitia Mahometi, erexit altaria fidei Christianæ, et in majori turri campanas ad convocationem fidelium collocavit.” The king came back forthwith in great wrath, determined to burn both queen and archbishop, and riding into the city was met by a crowd of Moors, to whom he cried out that no injury had been done to them, but only to him who had solemnly given his oath that their mosque should be preserved to them. They, however, prudently begged him to let them release him from his oath, whereat he had great joy, and riding on into the city the matter ended peacefully.—Archbishop Rodrigo, De Rebus Hispaniæ, lib. vi. cap. xxiii.
[227] “In the era 1264 (A.D. 1226) the king D. Fernando, and the archbishop Don Rodrigo, laid the first stones in the foundation of the church of Toledo.”—Anales Toledanos III. Salazar de Mendoza, in the prologue to the Chronicle of Cardinal D. Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, says that the function took place on the 14th Aug. 1227, the eve of the Assumption. The archbishop, in his History, lib. ix. cap. 13, says that the work was carried on to the great admiration of the people: “Et tunc jecerunt primum lapidem” (the Toledo MS. has lapides) “Rex et Archiepiscopus Rodericus in fundamento ecclesiæ Toletanæ, quæ in forma mexquitæ” (of a mosque) “à tempore Arabum adhue stabat: cujus fabrica opere mirabili de die in diem non sine grandi admiratione hominum exaltatur.” It is vexatious to find the archbishop who laid the first stone writing a history of his own times, and saying nothing throughout the entire volume beyond these few words about his cathedral. No one seems to be able to judge what will interest another age. Most of the archbishop’s facts are rather insignificant, and what thanks would we not have given him for any information as to the building of one of the grandest churches of the age!—See his History—finished in 1243—in vol. iii. of Coll. Patrum Ecc. Toletanæ, Madrid, 1795.
[228] It is preserved in the Chapel of St. Catherine.—See Blas Ortiz, Summi Templi Toletani graphica Descriptio.
[229] I venture to speak with great positiveness about some features of detail. It is possible enough that architects in various countries may develop from one original—say from a Lombard original—groups of buildings which shall have a general similarity. They may increase this similarity by travel. But in each country certain conventionalities have been introduced in the designing of details which it is most rare to see anywhere out of the country which produced them. Such, e.g., are the delicate differences between the French and English bases of the thirteenth century, nay even between the bases in various parts of the present French empire. These differences are so delicate that it is all but impossible to explain them; yet no one who has carefully studied them will doubt, when he sees a French moulding used throughout a building, that French artists had much to do with its design.
[230] Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Esp., &c., vol. i. pp. 253-4; and Bellas Artes en España, passim.