The old Cathedral of Saragossa is called "La Seo," par excellence, to distinguish it from the other called "del Pilar," "seo" being the usual term for the principal church. It was erected in 1119-1520 on the site of the principal mosque of the Moors, and the general arrangement of the interior resembles that of a mosque. The sides are flanked with chapels; and the Chapel of Zaporta (Zaporta was a rich citizen of the city who died early in the sixteenth century) is shut off by an iron screen, of excellent workmanship in the less elaborate "plateresque" style, shown in the small engraving on page 45. [Illustration: WROUGHT-IRON PULPIT AVILA CATHEDRAL] After the sixteenth century smiths' work in Spain declined in artistic interest and importance. The abilities of the iron-workers were devoted to constructing objects on a smaller scale, such as door locks, clock ornaments and the like; the arts of inlaying iron-work with gold and silver sprung into prominence, and Spanish artists practically ceased to undertake the great carved and chiselled grilles which have formed the subject of this paper. S. F. N. [Illustration: PLATE XXIV SCREEN, ENTRANCE TO LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA] XII. Century Capitals from the Benedictine Monastery, Monreale The Cathedral church of Santa Maria Nuova, with its adjoining Benedictine monastery and cloister, were erected at Monreale (pronounced Mur-ri-a-li by its Sicilian inhabitants) by William II. of Sicily in 1174-82. [Illustration: CAPITAL FROM MONREALE] This splendid work of Norman-Sicilian artists is Latin in its shape, Roman in its colonnade, Byzantine in its mosaics, Greek in its sculpture, Saracenic and Norman in its many mouldings, exhibiting a most curious combination of styles. The names of the architects are unknown (the näive Vasari attributes this to "their stupidity or contempt of fame"), but the evidence afforded by a careful examination of the mosaics, establishes the conclusion that King William intrusted the embellishment to Greek, that is to say, Byzantine, artists or to their Sicilian disciples. At any rate, the artists who embellished Monreale in the latter part of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth centuries were in every way the equals in artistic abilities of the Italian masters who lived and worked a century later; and when we talk of the Renaissance we should not forget that long before its advent these Sicilian artists had here produced work that today challenges the wonder and admiration of critics. [Illustration: CAPITAL FROM MONREALE]