On the splendour of Isabel and her Court we have already remarked; but it is significant that, at Tordesillas in 1520, the Commons nevertheless looked back to the reign of the Catholic sovereigns as a time of economy, complaining to the young Emperor that the daily expenses of his household were ten times as great as those of his grandparents. Ferdinand and his Queen were gorgeous in their dress and ceremony; but it was the considered maintenance of their ideal of dignity not the careless extravagance of those who spend what others have earned, and therefore fail to realize its true value. They did not let themselves be imprisoned behind the bars of pomp [wrote the Royal Council to Charles, soon after Ferdinand’s death] for it seemed to them that there was greater security in the good reputation of their government than in the magnificence of their household. It has been urged as an instance of parsimony in contrast to their personal expenditure that the Catholic sovereigns, in spite of their professed love of learning, did not with the exception of the College at Avila found or endow any school or college; and had the education of their land depended solely on the support of the royal treasury such criticism would be just. It will be seen however that, given the momentum of royal encouragement, private enterprise, often almost as well endowed as sovereignty and with far less claims upon its purse, was quite capable of acting “Alma Mater” to the would-be scholars of Spain. The civil wars of Henry IV.’s reign had, it is true, developed muscle and sword-play rather than the literary mind; but the blows suffered by culture at the hands of anarchy, though heavy, had not proved mortal. Men were still alive who recalled the artistic traditions of the Court of John II., Isabel’s father, and rejoiced to see their revival under his daughter. It was not only that Isabel herself, by her own studies and the careful education of her children, set an example which an obsequious Court must necessarily follow; but her whole attitude to life expressed her belief in the importance of this learning that the average young noble would otherwise have held in little esteem. In 1474 the art of printing was introduced into Spain; and before the end of the century presses were set up in Valencia, Saragossa, Barcelona, Seville, Salamanca, Toledo, and all the large cities of the two kingdoms. The Queen, quick to realize the power this invention might become, granted freedom from taxation to German and Italian printers of repute; just as she had encouraged the advent of picked engineers and artisans that the best brains of Europe, whatever the line of their development, might be at her disposal. Spanish books, classics, and classical translations were published; while, in contrast to the heavy tariffs usually levied on imports, foreign books were allowed free entrance into the home markets.