The artistic industry of silk manufactures which was initiated in Spain by the Arabs, continued to flourish during the Middle Ages and a great part of the Renaissance. Malaga and Almeria were important centres, but later on this industry was chiefly centred at Granada. The silk fabrics made at Seville, Toledo, Murcia and Valencia were much esteemed. The Moorish style of ornamentation in embroideries and stuffs must soon have fallen into disuse. Owing to the materials of similar kinds imported from Italy, France, Flanders, and other countries, these manufactures were imitated to a great extent, as may be gathered by the immense number of specimens which are still to be met with in Spanish churches. The cathedral of Toledo is quite a museum of objects of this kind, but all the textiles there are woven in the European manner. The Moorish style in stuffs was preserved at Granada longer than in any other town in Spain. In 1502, ten years after its conquest by the Christians, we find it stated in the "Voyage of Philip le Beau," the father of the Emperor Charles V.: "Grenade est fort marchande, principallement de soyes, car les marchans y achattent la pluspart des soyes que l'on maine en Italie, pour faires les draps de soyes. Le lieu où on les vendt est nommé le Sacquatin. Auprès de ce lieu est une place appellée l'Allecasserie, où on vendt les draps de soyes ouvrés à la Moresque, qui sont moult beaus pour la multitude des couleurs et la diversité des ouvrages, et en font une grande marchandise." ["Collect. de Voyages, par M. Gachard, Bruxelles," 1870, i. 205.] Navagiero, who visited Spain twenty years after, tells us in his "Viaggio fatto in Spagna" [Vinegia 1563, p. 21]: "One enters a place called Alcaiceria which is enclosed within two doors, and full of alleys where the Moors sell silks and embroideries of every kind" [p. 29]: "All sorts of cloths of silks are made there; the silks made at Granada are much esteemed all over Spain; they are not so good as those which come from Italy. There are several looms, but they do not yet know how to work them well; they make good taffetas, sarcenet, and silk serges. The velvets are not bad, but those that are made at Valencia are better in quality." Dr. Rock considers the following specimens in the Kensington Museum to have been made at Granada: Nos. 26, 27, 60, 65, 73, 128, 161, 166. Larruga tells us in his "Memorias" [vol. vii. 205], that the silk manufactures established at Toledo consumed in 1480 about 450,000 pounds of silk: they decreased about forty years afterwards. In the ordinances issued from that town in 1494, which were confirmed by the Emperor Charles V. we find that the following stuffs were made at Toledo: "Stuffs of gold and silver which are made in the same manner as satin. "Satins woven with gold. "Satins brocaded with silk and gold or silver flowers. "Silver serges with double filigree. "Silver and gold materials, which are made like _gorgoran_ or serge.