Menacing, majestic, and magnificent in its strength and splendid isolation, Toledo, guarded by its Moorish masonry, a rock built upon a rock, has been described by Padilla as “the crown of Spain, the light of the world, free from the time of the mighty Goths.” The light of the world has dwindled in the socket of modern progress, the Moor has left his scars upon the freedom of the Goth; but Toledo, which was old when Christianity was born, presents an epitome of the principal arts, religions, and races which have dominated the world for the last two thousand years. In the three cities of Cordova, Seville, and Toledo, in which the hand of the Moor touched nothing that it did not beautify, I have found the supplement to the art wonders that I attempted to describe in my book upon the Alhambra; and, encouraged by the cordiality of the welcome extended to that volume in Spain and America, as well as in this country, I have followed the course which I therein adopted, of making the letterpress subservient to the illustrations. While immersed in authorities, and tempted often by the beauties of the scenes to indulge the desire to emotionalise in words, I have never permitted myself to forget that my purpose has been to present a picture rather than to chronicle the romance of Spanish-Morisco art. For the historical data, and some of the descriptions contained in this book, I have levied tribute on a large number of authors. Don Pascual de Gayángos, the renowned translator of Al-Makkari; the _Handbook_ and the _Gatherings_ of Richard Ford; William Stirling-Maxwell’s _Don John of Austria_; _The History of the Conquest of Spain_, by Henry Coppeé; Washington Irving’s _Conquest of Granada_; Miss Charlotte Yonge’s _Christians and Moors in Spain_; Stanley Lane-Poole’s _The Moors in Spain_; the writings of Dr. R. Dozy, of Leipsic; Muhammed Hayat Khan’s _Rise and Fall of the Muslim Empire in Spain_; Hannah Lynch’s _Toledo_; Walter M. Gallichan’s _Seville_; _The Latin-Byzantine Monuments of Cordova_; _Monumentos Arquitectonicos de España_; Pedro de Madrazo’s _Sevilla_--these, and many less important writers on Spain, have been consulted.