The importance of this industry in Spain may be judged of from the fact that towards the close of the Middle Ages the _guadamacileros_ of Seville occupied nearly the whole of an important street--the Calle Placentines. Similarly, at Cordova they filled the quarter of the city known as the Ajerquía. "So many _guadamecíes_ are made here," wrote Ambrosio de Morales, "that in this craft no other capital can compare with her; and in such quantities that they supply all Europe and the Indies. This industry enriches Cordova and also beautifies her; for since the gilded, wrought, and painted leathers are fixed upon large boards and placed in the sun in order to be dried, by reason of their splendour and variety they make her principal streets right fair to look upon." We owe to Rafael Ramírez de Arellano most valuable and recent information respecting this ancient Spanish-Moorish craft.[26] He has discovered the names of nearly forty _guadamacileros_ who lived and worked at Cordova, principally in the sixteenth century. It is not worth while to repeat these names alone, but one or two particulars connected with a few of them are interesting. In 1557 four of these artificers, named Benito Ruiz, Diego de San Llorente, Diego de Ayora, and Anton de Valdelomar, signed a contract to prepare the cut and painted _guadamaciles_ for decorating a palace at Rome. This contract, which is most precise and technical, is published in No. 101 of the _Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones_. The only further notice which Señor Ramírez de Arellano has discovered relating to any of these four craftsmen, tells us that nine years after the signing of the document just mentioned, Diego de Ayora leased some houses in the Calle de la Feria for a yearly rental of twenty-two ducats and three pairs of live hens. [26] _Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones_, Nos. 101, 102; Art. _Guadamacíes_. Another interesting contract is dated April 17th, 1587. By it the _guadamacilero_ Andrés Lopez de Valdelomar agreed, in company with Hernando del Olmo of Marchena, and with Francisco de Gaviria and Francisco Delgado, painters, of Cordova, to make a number of pieces of _guadamecí_ for the Duke of Arcos. The work was to be terminated by July of the same year. Valdelomar was to receive from the duke's agent three _reales_ for each piece, and the painters two _reales_ and a half; this money to be paid them by instalments as the work proceeded. [Illustration: XVI _CELOSÍA_ (_Alhambra, Granada_)] On August 26th, 1567, before the mayor of Cordova and the two inspectors of this trade, Pedro de Blancas was officially examined and approved in "cutting, working, and completing a _guadamecí_ of red damask with gold and silver borders on a green field, and a cushion with green and crimson decoration and faced with silver brocade."