In the south transept, still fortunately preserved, are four interesting tombs, which appear to date from the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century. The first is crudely sculptured with reliefs of the Adoration of the Magi, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection; the recumbent figure is said to be that of Diego Lopez, Archdeacon of Ledesma. Beneath a star-shaped cupola is the hooded figure of a woman, one Doña Elena, who passed away in the year 1272; the reliefs represent her deathbed and ascent to heaven. The third tomb is that of Don Alfonso Vidal, Dean of Avila and Canon of Salamanca; and the fourth, in the best Gothic style and fine arabesques, probably dates from the beginning of the fifteenth, rather than the preceding, century. It certainly cannot be, as used to be believed, the tomb of the precentor Aparitius, who died in 1274. Other very plain tombs are to be seen in the aisles, which are adorned with paintings by Fernando Gallego, called by Quadrado the Dürer of Salamanca. The cloister, though as old as the church, has been extensively modernised. The doorway from the transept, however, has not lost its Byzantine character, nor its capitals their beautiful ornamentation of foliage with birds and nude figures. The four altars at the angles, dedicated respectively to the Blessed Virgin, St. Michael, St. Anthony of Padua, and the Magi, are enriched with the paintings of Gallego. In the cloister are also some tombs in the late Gothic style. The sarcophagus of the Archdeacon Diego Rodriguez (1504) is upheld by three lions; and another tomb enshrines the remains of Pedro Xerique (1529), a canon of this cathedral, who left a fund for the endowment of fifty poor girls with dowries--a very necessary bequest in these unsentimental Latin countries! Of the old twelfth-century sepulchres nothing but a few epitaphs and tablets remain. Communicating with the cloister by some very ancient doorways are four interesting chapels. The oldest is the Capilla de Talavera, so called after the ‘Doctor de Talavera’ (one of the Maldonado family), who in the beginning of the fifteenth century endowed it with twelve chaplaincies for the celebration of the Mozarabic ritual. The chapel must have been very old at that time. ‘It is a very remarkable chamber,’ says Street, ‘square in plan below, and brought to an octagon above by arches thrown across the angles, and finally roofed with a sort of dome, carried upon moulded and carved ribs of very intricate contrivance. The interlacing of these ribs gives the work somewhat the effect of being Moorish, and there can be little doubt, I think, that it owes its peculiarities in some degree to Moorish influence. I should be inclined to attribute this room and its vault to the architect of the lantern of the church.’ The Mozarabic rite is still performed here six times a year.