“An aureole of the fifteenth century, studded with precious stones belonging to a statuette of the apostle Santiago.
“The authorities were summoned and at once began their search.
“They find that two of the thick iron bars of the skylight in the ceiling of the cloister have been filed through. This cloister has a skylight which opens upon the chapel.
“They have also found, upon the roof, a knotted rope. This rope was only long enough to reach a cornice in the chapel wall. The wall itself affords no sign that anybody has attempted to descend by it.”
[26] This form of reliquary was not uncommon. Morales, in his Viaje Sacro, describes another one, also preserved at Santiago, saying that it was a bust of silver, life-size and gilded to the breast, “with a large diadem of rays and many stones, both small and great, all or most of them of fine quality, though not of the most precious.” Other bust-reliquaries belong, or have belonged, to the Cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo.
[27] The Mudejares were the Mussulmans who submitted, in the conquered cities, to the Spanish-Christian rule. The word Mudejar is of modern growth, nor can its derivation be resolved with certainty. From the thirteenth century onwards, and formed by the fusion of the Christian and the Saracenic elements, we find Mudejar influence copiously distributed through every phase of Spanish life and art, and even literature.
[28] Amador prefers to call these Tables “the triptych of the learned king,” in order to distinguish them by this explicit title from the Astronomical Tables prepared by order of the same monarch.
[29] Riaño, Spanish Arts, p. 16.
[30] So named because the silversmiths (plateros) of this country used it in their monstrances (custodias) and in many other objects or utensils of religious worship. The most refined and erudite of Spanish silver-workers, Juan de Arfe, thus referred to it in rhyme:—
“Usaron desta obra los plateros
Guardando sus preceptos con zelo;
Pusiéronle en los puntos postrimeros
De perfección mi abuelo.”