[93] See p. 50.
[94] Libro de las Tablas, pp. 17, 18. See Madrazo, Cordova, pp. 273 et seq.
[95] In documents which relate to him (see Gestoso's Dictionary of Sevillian Artificers) Morel is often called an artillero. His father, Juan Morel, was also a founder of cannon, and signed a contract in 1564 to cast two bronze pieces or tiros, with the royal arms on them.
[96] The efficacy of light in illuminating, or may be in dazzling and confounding, Christian worshippers is too self-evident to call for illustration. The symbolic meaning of church candles is, however, neatly indicated by the wise Alfonso in his compilation of the seven Partidas. “Because three virtues dwell in candles, namely, wick, wax, and flame, so do we understand that persons three dwell in the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and we may understand three other things that dwell in Jesus Christ; to wit, body, soul, and godhead. Hence the twelve lighted candles manifested to each quarter of the church exhibit unto us the twelve apostles who preached the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ through all the earth, and manifesting truest wisdom illumined all the world.”
[97] The English rendering of Cean's description inserted by Riaño is inaccurate throughout.
[98] As architect, he made a monument (which exists no longer) for the festivals of Holy Week at Seville.
[99] In 1565 Juan del Pozo, an ironsmith, received one hundred reales “on account of an engine which he made of iron for moving the tenebrarium of the cathedral, and other heavy things.”—Gestoso, Diccionario de Artífices Sevillanos, vol. i. p. 313.
[100] The statue, which looks so tiny from the street, measures nearly fourteen feet in height, and weighs more than two thousand two hundred pounds. The banner alone weighs close upon four hundred pounds. The figure was raised into its place in 1568, in which year I find that eighteen Moriscos were paid seventy-eight reales between them all for doing the work of carriage (Gestoso, Diccionario). Gestoso also mentions a large bronze plate made by Morel for the pavement of the cathedral, and which has disappeared. It weighed 2269 pounds, or about the same as the weathercock of the Giralda, and Morel was paid for it the sum of 289,361 maravedis.
[101] Spaniards have a very scanty confidence in one another's honesty, as well as in the competence of their police. Often, at Madrid, and at this day, the porter of a house, as soon as it is dark, unscrews the knockers from the downstairs door, and guards them in his conciergerie until the morning.