The same writer publishes the names (hitherto completely unrecorded) of thirteen other artist-carpenters who worked at Cordova in the latter half of the sixteenth century and early in the seventeenth. The craft, in fact, died hard, and ceilings of this kind, replete with Moorish detail, were made in certain parts of Southern Spain until the closing moments of the eighteenth century. [Illustration: XXIII SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST (_San Juan de Dios, Granada_)] Marvellous in conjunction with the thousand lighted lamps which served to manifest its beauties, must have been the primitive ceiling (_as-sicafes_) of the mosque of Cordova, of which an Arab poet sang; "Look at the gold on it, like the kindled flame, or like the lightning-stroke that darts across the heavens."[39] Our notices of this ceiling, barbarously hacked to pieces by Christian architects, are neither numerous nor clear. We are told, however, that it was nearly finished in the reign of Abd-er-Rhaman the First, and terminated altogether by his son Hixem. New ceilings were added on the enlarging of the mosque by Abd-er-Rhaman the Second, while fresh additions were made by Al-Hakem the Second and Al-Manzor. Ambrosio de Morales gives a quaint description of the earliest, or an early, ceiling of this temple. "The roof of the whole church, made of wood painted and adorned in divers ways, is of incredible richness, as will be seen from what I am about to say. It is of larch throughout, odorous, resembling pine, which is not found in any part but Barbary,[40] whence it is brought by sea. And every time that a part of this temple was thrown down for new constructions to be added, the wood removed was sold for many thousand ducats for making guitars and other delicate objects. The ceiling was built across the church upon the nineteen naves thereof, and over it, covered likewise with wood, the roofs, nineteen in number also, each with its ridge atop, drooping to one and other side."[41] [39] That the Moors were proud of their mastery in woodwork is proved by an inscription in the Torre de la Cautiva at Granada, saying; "In the plaster and the tiles is work of extreme beauty, _but the woodwork of the roof has vanquished them in elegance_." [40] Morales was probably mistaken. "On entering Aragon one sees whole forests of 'Spanish Cedar' or _alerce_, some of the trees so thick that they measure four feet in diameter."--Bowles' _Natural History of Spain_, p. 102. [41] _Antigüedades de las ciudades de España_ (A.D. 1575), p. 123.