Seville was thus the principal centre of the craft of decorative tile-making. _Azulejos_ were also made at Barcelona and other towns in Cataluña, at Talavera de la Reina, Burgos, Toledo, Granada, and Valencia, in several towns of Aragon, and probably at Cordova. Riaño quotes a letter written about the year 1422, from the wife of the Admiral of Castile to the abbess of the nunnery of Santo Domingo at Toledo, requesting that a number of _azulejos_ be sent to her. "She alludes, in the same letter, to painted tiles, and says she was expecting a master potter from Seville to place the tiles in their proper places. This shows us" (continues Riaño) "that it was only in the province of Andalusia that the art was known of cutting these tiles into geometrical sections and mosaic patterns." The meaning of this passage is obscure. Riaño speaks of painted tiles and _azulejos_ as though they were distinct objects, and yet they are essentially the same. Again, if only Andalusia was able to produce such tiles, why did the Almirante's wife order them from Toledo? Perhaps the faulty English of Riaño's handbook is responsible, but, as it stands, this passage tells us practically nothing. In any case, abundant evidence exists to show that large quantities of Mudejar and Renaissance tiles were manufactured at Toledo. In general appearance, they are similar to those of Seville. Ramírez de Arellano believes that decorative tiles were manufactured at Cordova in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and quotes, in proof of this, the names of "maestros de hacer vidriado" or makers of glazed ware, who resided at this ancient capital. One of these craftsmen was Alonso Rodriguez the younger, who, on June 7th, 1574, sold to a canon of the cathedral ten thousand white and green tiles of a common kind (_ladrillos_), probably employed for roofing. The price was three ducats the thousand. On April 10th, 1598, Juan Sanchez engaged to supply the same temple with the same quantity of glazed tiles (_tejas_) for roofing, coloured white, green, and yellow, at sixteen _maravedis_ each tile. _Azulejos_ were certainly made at Granada in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and probably earlier. [Illustration: LVI THE GATE OF WINE (_Showing polychrome tiling. Alhambra, Granada_)]