XLI (a)
IVORY CRUCIFIX
(11th Century. Back view. Madrid Museum)

The Letter of Testament setting forth the various objects bequeathed by Ferdinand the First and his consort Sancha to the church of Saint John the Baptist (or of Saint Isidore) at León, mentions an ivory cross (which will be noticed presently), an ivory box fitted with gold, and two ivory boxes fitted with silver, one of them containing three other silver boxes, similarly decorated.

One of these boxes is described by Ambrosio de Morales, and from his words we conclude it to be the one which was adorned with gold, “of which metal,” he wrote in 1572, “it has even more than of ivory,” adding that it measured more than half a yard in length, and enshrined the body of Saint Vincent of Avila. He also tells us that it bore the following inscription, carved upon a golden frieze:—

ARCULA SANCTORUM MICAT HAEC SUB HONORE DUORUM
BAPTISTAE SANCTI JOHANNIS SIVE PELAGII
CEU REX FERNANDUS, REGINAQUE SANTIA, FIERI JUSSIT.
ERA MILLENA SEPTENA SEU NONAGENA.[59]

This arca has been much mutilated, and stripped of all the precious metal. Morales' description is therefore of especial value, as are the ivory tablets (eleventh century), carved with Christian themes, which yet remain upon the body of the box.

XLII
BYZANTINE CRUCIFIX

Dating from the thirteenth century is a Moorish casket (Plate [xl].), preserved in the Academy of History at Madrid, and proceeding from the Carthusian monastery of Val de Cristo at Segorbe. It measures a foot in length by eight inches in height and four and a half inches in depth. The lid is deeply bevelled, and contains on each of the bevelled sides shields with the bars which constitute the arms of Aragon, painted upon a gold ground, together with imperial eagles painted in black upon a carmine ground. A decorative device of leaves and stems is also painted on the ivory.