r, as to the ascendency of the
Christian over the Moor, the proud founder has affixed his arms, in
which the Church's sacred emblems of the fleur-de-lys and cross forcibly
express the favourite tenets of the Spaniard.

Few cities of Spain more rejoiced in heraldic devices than did
Valladolid, the especial seat of the Castilian nobility, at least until
its removal to Madrid. Amongst all the beautiful fac-similes of
finely-mantled and well-displayed escutcheons which adorn the works of
early printers, given to us by Sir Stirling Maxwell, few excel those
which issued from the presses of the Valladolid printers. The Germans
who followed in the train, or, at any rate under the auspices, of
Charles V., no doubt set the fashion at the commencement of the century
at Seville, which was taken up by Spaniards towards the middle of the
same century at Valladolid. Francesco Fernandez de Cordova appears to
have been the great master of the craft there, and many and splendid are
the heraldic frontispieces of his books from 1548 onwards. His style, at
any rate, was maintained in his family till near the end of the century,
as the title page of the celebrated "Quilatador de la Plata oro y
piedras," by Joan Arphe, 1572,[6] displays the arms of the Cardinal
Bishop of Siguenza, drawn by, and bearing the initials of, no less an
artist than Arphe y Villafane himself. The imprint of the volume bears
no longer the name of Francisco, but the names of Alonzo y Diego
Fernandez de Cordova.

The finest specimen of Francisco's work, given by Sir Stirling Maxwell,
is the grand heading to a proclamation issued by Charles V., in 1549. It
exhibits not only the Royal and Imperial escutcheon, Double-headed
Eagle, and Columns, with the proud motto "plus ultra," but a quantity of
pure Renaissance ornament from which all trace of Gothic has
disappeared.

[Illustration: PLATE 7

VALLADOLID LA CASA DEL INFANTADO

MDW 1869]

PLATE VII.

_VALLADOLID._

LA CASA DEL INFANTADO.

AS in Italy, so in Spain, the architecture of the revival may be divided
into at least two great schools, viz., the early, in which sculpture,
and particularly sculptured arabesque, play a prominent part; and the
late, in which regularity in the use of the orders and a system of
rigidly proportioned plain architectural members form the main
constituents of the most highly commended structures. Both merged into
the extravagance which follows when architects learn to draw