TY - JOUR
AU1 - González Ramos,, Roberto
AB - Abstract The Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso and University of Alcalá was an important cultural institution in the Hispanic world of the early modern era. Founded by Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros (1436–1517), it assembled an important group of symbolic objects, amongst them trophies, relics, images and mirabilia. The beatification of the founder led not only to a corresponding increase in the numbers of those objects, seen as relics, but also to their display in particular places, with the creation of a number of proto-museums. With the coming of the Enlightenment, a number of veritable museums were formed, with consequent changes in the values attributed to the symbolic items. From that time until the creation in 1836 of the University of Madrid, by making use of the assets and professorships of the University of Alcalá, the remaining symbolic objects were considered primarily as illustrating the history of the institution. The Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, Fr Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros (1436–1517) is one of the most important figures from the beginning of the early modern period in Spain.1 His abilities and mentality were well ahead of his time, and his historical influence is manifest in two aspects: as a statesman and as a man of the church. As a statesman, he played an essential role in the Catholic Monarchs’ project to establish a modern state; as a man of the church, he undertook to reform the religious orders, starting with his own Franciscan order. He also strove to further the cultural advancement of the clergy in general, to which end he spearheaded several projects, the most noteworthy of which were the publication of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, and the founding of the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares in 1499. Cardinal Ximénez played a leading yet controversial role, because of his methods, in the first attempts at evangelizing the population of the recently conquered kingdom and city of Granada; he chalked up major successes as well as failures that led to civil unrest. Characterized by an uncommon messianic vision, Ximénez was determined to conquer North Africa and in 1509, equipped with all the logistical and military resources of his archbishopric, he personally witnessed the successful conquest of the African city of Oran. Ximénez, an astute clergyman who in old age became a humble and devoutly spiritual Franciscan, would end his career holding the highest positions in the church and state of the kingdom of Castile: the Queen’s confessor, Minister Provincial of the Franciscans, Grand Inquisitor, Archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal and regent, in all of which offices he stood out for his intelligence and skilful management. He died on 8 November 1517. The University of Alcalá (Fig. 1) was one of the cardinal’s most important and successful projects.2 In terms of its construction and economic foundation, he ensured it was handsomely provided for, with a focus primarily on theological training, as part of wide-ranging plans to make major advances in the training of the clergy at all levels. The institution would be governed, administered and headed by a Colegio Mayor dedicated to St Ildephonsus (San Ildefonso), the rector of which would also be the rector of the whole university. The university was the cardinal’s heir, and on his death it received a large number of objects bequeathed by him, even including his corpse, which was laid to rest in the chapel of the Colegio Mayor. Fig. 1. View largeDownload slide Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso and University of Alcalá. Photograph by Constantin Uhde, 1888. Fig. 1. View largeDownload slide Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso and University of Alcalá. Photograph by Constantin Uhde, 1888. The aim of this paper is to provide a complete analysis of the collections of objects of a symbolic and institutional nature owned by the Colegio Mayor and the university founded by Cardinal Ximénez. It concerns the study of the treasures and collections gathered together by one of the most important universities in the Hispanic world of the early modern period. In one way or another, scholars associated that group of objects with the memory of the founder, and converted them from simple bequests into essential elements of the history of the institution itself, to the extent that, as Ximénez came to be viewed as a saint, they came to be preserved and deployed as a veritable proto-museum in his memory. The arrival of the Enlightenment and the modern period transformed this viewpoint, introducing a university hitherto anchored in the past to more modern ideas, including a newly minted concept of museum. Unfortunately, the nineteenth century brought a radical solution to the conflict between traditionalism and modernity: against an unfavourable political and economic backdrop, the University of Alcalá disappeared with the establishment of its academic replacement in Madrid, which, although proud of its past in Alcalá, was unable satisfactorily to take charge of the institutional legacy bequeathed to it. The endowment of the Colegio university: idols from the Indies; trophies from Oran and Granada The first biographers of Ximénez de Cisneros focused on initial evidence confirming that the cardinal left the nascent Colegio Mayor and University of Alcalá a series of objects that, from the beginning, had a deep symbolic significance. First, there are references to a series of objects from the recently-discovered Indies. Juan de Vallejo, a member of the entourage of Ximénez, refers to them in his biography of the cardinal, when he describes how Fr Francisco Ruiz, Bishop of Ávila, also a Franciscan and an associate and loyal companion of the prelate, having completed an important mission to the Antilles, in relation to missionary work and incipient problems caused by the Castilian colonizers with the indigenous people, arrived at court in 1503 to report to the Catholic Monarchs. He immediately requested permission to travel to Alcalá de Henares to meet with Ximénez, to whom he presented, in addition to some Indians (who joined the cardinal’s household, although they died a short time later), foodstuffs, hammocks and other objects belonging to the culture of those unfortunate souls. Vallejo says that: . . . of all the things he brought with him, what most amused and horrified his Most Revered Eminence was a chest or two of idols, comprising a varied typology of horrifying forms of the malign spirits; the eyes and teeth made from fish bones, and with bodies like little beads or skirts of jarazán for cavalrymen that we wear over here, and with cotton feet and ears, all made by their own hands; and in the form in which that malign company appeared before [the Indians], so they were represented: and it was a marvel of our father the Lord that, before they were baptized [these deities] had appeared to them an infinite number of times and they were their gods, but after becoming Christians and having received the water of baptism, they saw them no longer. The aforementioned idols brought by the aforementioned revered father Fr Francisco Ruiz from the aforementioned Indies, were ordered by his Most Revered Eminence to be placed and kept as mementos in the Colegio and its distinguished university of the noble town of Alcalá de Henares; and they are still there today.3 The author of the hagiography of the cardinal, Fr Pedro de Aranda Quintanilla, indicated in the middle of the seventeenth century that ‘some are still preserved today’ in the Colegio Mayor,4 although this testimony is not very reliable since it is a virtual transcript of the text of Vallejo. The idols are not recorded in the surviving university documents from Alcalá, although this does not mean they were not kept in the Colegio, since on other occasions some of the known possessions are also not recorded. In addition to constituting a mere gathering of curiosities, the assembling of these specimens from recently discovered regions probably had a symbolic meaning and was in all likelihood related to the study of religious artefacts not found in Christianity, at a university whose prime function was the theological training of a Hispanic clergy that was expected to participate in the spreading of the true religion. Once again it is Juan de Vallejo who tells us that the cardinal also took charge of supplying the relics required for the university church’s religious needs (Fig. 2). Noteworthy amongst these relics were those obtained thanks to the Minister General of the Order of St Francis, the Italian Egidio Delfini, who in 1505 was in Castile visiting the court and Ximénez in the context of his attempts to appeal to the monarchs for the reform and unification of the various factions of the order. These relics were above all Franciscan, and included an image of St Francis painted on canvas. Vallejo says: ‘it must be kept in the church of his distinguished Colegio and university in the noble town of Alcalá’.5 Subsequent, in the middle of the seventeenth century, Aranda Quintanilla explains that the relics brought from Italy included ‘the true portrait of our Father St Francis, which was copied from the very same original, in the chapel where the saintly corpse lies, which was opened with the permission of His Holiness, when [Delfini] went to reform of the house of Assisi’; he adds that ‘this painting is in our Colegio’.6 This image does not appear in the inventories of relics and assets of the Colegio and, therefore, the veracity of this information remains doubtful, although other relics from the same possible origin do appear as possessions of the university. Fig. 2. View largeDownload slide Interior of the main chapel of the church of the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso and University of Alcalá. Lithograph after a drawing by P. de la Escosura. From P. de la Escosura and G. Pérez Villaamil, España artística y monumental, vol. i (Paris, 1842). Fig. 2. View largeDownload slide Interior of the main chapel of the church of the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso and University of Alcalá. Lithograph after a drawing by P. de la Escosura. From P. de la Escosura and G. Pérez Villaamil, España artística y monumental, vol. i (Paris, 1842). A very brief inventory of the relics of the Colegio was drawn up in 1565. The anonymous author of the Anales Complutenses, a manuscript dating from around the middle of the seventeenth century, also refers to the university’s relics: specifically to an Ecce Homo attributed to St Lucas;7 a jawbone of Fr Giles, a companion of St Francis; a tooth of St Bonaventure; and other relics of St Leander of Seville, St Sebastian, St Blaise, St Christopher, the Abbot St Benedict and the holy martyrs Philinius, Martyrium and Alexander.8 An extensive record was made of the reliquary of the Colegio church in 1604, when these relics and several others were found, such as the head of one of the Eleven Thousand Virgins and two bronze medals of St Peter and St Paul – in all likelihood commemorative (perhaps papal) medals.9 Another very valuable relic was a gilt-silver cross containing a fragment of the ‘Lignum Crucis’. It was already present in St Ildephonsus in 1526, and is described in the reliquary inventory as comprising three smaller crosses, with relics of the True Cross, although in 1565 and 1604 one was missing, having been given ‘to the infantas’ (1565), or specifically (1604) to the Queen of Bohemia.10 Vicente de la Fuente, a student in Alcalá in its final years and later rector of the University of Madrid – the heir to Ximénez’s university – refers to the cross and relic of the ‘Lignum Crucis’ stating that it was given to Ximénez by Pope Leo X, and that, according to Porres, it was ‘the richest of its kind in Spain’.11 It is clear that the traditions of the university point to an Italian and papal origin for this important piece. However, some of the inventories of the church and Colegio reliquary suggest otherwise. In fact, a 1668 inventory of the reliquary maintains it was a donation of the cardinal to the Colegio. He had received it from Queen Isabella the Catholic, who had held it in her possession since it had been given to her by Cardinal González de Mendoza, the direct predecessor of Ximénez in the archbishopric of Toledo.12 Another important relic was the ara removed from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and kept by the Colegio. According to the first complete inventory of the reliquary (1604) it was obtained by Fr Gerónimo del Castillo in 1503, when his brother, Fr Mauro del Castillo, was the guardian of the Franciscan convent in Jerusalem. The relic was one of a group of five aras that were apparently destined for the Pope, the Catholic Monarchs, the King of Portugal and Ximénez (and one other recipient), as a diplomatic gift from the Sultan of Egypt on the occasion of an embassy. Indeed, one of the pieces came into the hands of Ximénez and, according to Gómez de Castro and Aranda Quintanilla, from then on he used it to celebrate mass. It is known that the cardinal bequeathed it in his will to the Cathedral of Toledo, but it ended up in the hands of the Colegio. It can be found there in the first known inventory of St Ildephonsus, and since then in all the records until 1799.13 Other objects were added to the ‘treasure’ or primary collection of the Colegio university, especially those that were said to have had their origin in the conquest of Oran, which were kept on various premises as military trophies and to commemorate the greatest battle of the university’s illustrious founder. Various sources attest to their existence and exhibition. The first of these is provided by the cardinal’s foremost biographer, Álvar Gómez de Castro, who describes the arrival of the prelate at the university after conquering the African city. According to this author, the cardinal brought with him, ‘books written in Arabic, on the topics of astrology and medicine to enrich his [university] library; locks and keys of the alcazaba and the gates of the city; lamps and basins from the mosques, which the Moors used for their ablutions; and Arabic trumpets, called añafiles. Many of these items were hung from the ceiling of the temple devoted to St Ildephonsus and in Alcalá still arouse the great interest of visitors today’.14 The añafiles were straight-necked Moorish trumpets about 80 cm long, used for the call to prayer in the mosques. Those in the Colegio of Alcalá could have come from Granada, or at least some of them, because when Ximénez explains his evangelical work in the city of the Alhambra in a letter to the canons of Toledo, he writes: from the day of Our Lady to now, they [the Moors] have not called out, and nothing has been heard in the great mosque of the city of Granada, or in the great mosque of the Albaicín, and having brought us the trumpets and añafiles used for the call to the zalá [prayer] and having converted those who did the calling, we receive those añafiles as if they had bestowed the keys upon us, and it shall be right to place those añafiles, which are large pieces of brass, on the altar of St Ildephonsus [the church of the University of Alcalá].15 Since its beginnings the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso had possessed a ‘weapons room’. A large quantity of weaponry was kept there and, according to some of the authors cited, might well have included arms handed over on their return from the conquest of Oran by the peasants recruited by the cardinal.16 Some of the particularly high-quality items are described as having come from the African city or from Granada. According to the 1526 inventory, they included ninety-three corselets, sixty-one helmets, forty-five halberds, forty-five blunderbusses, twenty-eight crossbows, five painted pavises, twelve bucklers, 237 pikes, and ‘four panniers replete with tools and iron and brass that the cardinal, in his heavenly glory, brought from Granada and Africa, which belonged to certain lamps that were constructed from it’, as well as ‘a perforated bell that came from a Moorish lamp’.17 It is known that the weaponry of the Colegio was not stored in the weapons room solely for commemorative reasons: it also formed a military safeguard for university’s academic and legal independence, since the university had its own jurisdiction and court. Vicente de la Fuente describes an occasion on which the students were stirred up, and ‘insisted on opening the armoury where the weaponry from the conquest of Oran was stored’,18 taking for granted its origin, and highlighting its implicit purpose or use. However, acquisitions ordered by successive rectors in 1517 and 1518 have also been established, many of which were made after the death of the cardinal, and which included a large number of swords, lances, halberds, crossbows, corselets, bucklers and blunderbusses, as well as ammunition.19 Some of the objects from Oran and Granada were hung in the church of St Ildephonsus; a large lamp, for example, is described in the section on brass objects of the 1526 inventory, as ‘a lamp with a large basin and four apples with a vane which is in front of the high altar.’20 This must be the famous perforated bronze lamp from the University of Alcalá preserved in the Museo Arqueológico Nacional in Madrid (Fig. 3), which numerous specialists have identified as originating in Granada.21 The piece probably came from the great mosque of the city, in which Ximénez deployed his controversial evangelization work. It is very plausible to suppose that other items came from Oran, as part of the medieval custom of amassing and displaying trophies taken from the enemy. Fig. 3. View largeDownload slide Lamp from Oran. From Museo Español de Antigüedades, vol. ii (Madrid, 1873). Fig. 3. View largeDownload slide Lamp from Oran. From Museo Español de Antigüedades, vol. ii (Madrid, 1873). Several inventories of the weapons room survive today, which show that the arms were preserved for a number of years. One of these dates back to 1532 and, in addition to the arms, includes ‘a brass lamp brought by the illustrious cardinal from Oran, in a dilapidated state’.22 The entry is crossed out, which suggests the item’s disappearance or, possibly, its removal to other premises. There were also seventy-three corselets (two of which were bought by a Dr Ciria from the bookseller Torres), sixty-one armlets, sixty-five helmets, twenty-eight crossbows with their goat’s foot levers, forty-seven blunderbusses and a half-culverin, thirty-five powder flasks, fourteen bucklers (almost all broken), five painted pavises, forty-three halberds, two complete suits of armour (bought from the aforementioned Torres), two brassards, 177 pikes, and an entire corselet with its helmet in a case, a coat of mail and other items. Also stored in the weapons room were various ephemeral architectural and decorative remains from public events held at the university, especially those used at receptions for the king or other important persons, and at academic events such as theatrical performances and poetry contests. For example, in 1565 there is, ‘A god Mars holding a lance’, and there are numerous parts of ephemeral monuments. Many of the arms were stored alongside these, but in a state of advanced neglect.23 The arms in the weapons room were inventoried until 1583, and from then on, all reference to their existence disappears, although it is known that some survived. That year, there were still sixty-one corselets, forty-six morions, sixteen halberds, twenty-one crossbows, twenty-six harquebuses, twenty-one pikes and several other items in bad condition, as well as the figure of the god Mars.24 The general inventory of the Colegio Mayor of San Ildefonso, drawn up on the occasion of the reform of the university by Juan de Ovando in 1565, includes an important reference not found in other documents. In the church in the section entitled, ‘Braziers and mass cruets, metal host boxes and candelabra’ there is ‘a cupola for the lamp from Oran’, and there are ‘five añafiles from Oran, some of which are in the church (one is missing)’.25 Subsequent to 1583, a lamp ‘in the manner of a chandelier’26 was found in one of the smaller chapels of the church. The following inventory of 1591 identifies the lamp as being the one ‘they say is from Oran’,27 as is the case in 1600.28 The seventeenth century and the beatification of Ximénez de Cisneros In October 1518, the polychroming of one of the most symbolic and representative pieces in the history of the University of Alcalá was completed – the marble portrait in profile of Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros himself.29 This piece (Fig. 4) was conserved with great respect and admiration as the vera imago of the prelate (although it was, in fact, modelled on a medal commemorating the arrival of the first scholars in 1508, and not on the cardinal himself). It was generally used to decorate the ephemeral monuments that the Colegio and university constructed in its church on the occasion of the annual commemoration of the death of their founder. The crack visible on the piece was the result of a fall from the monument while it was being put in position. In June 1632, the scholars had the crack repaired.30 Fig. 4. View largeDownload slide Felipe Bigarny, Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros, profile portrait in marble (c.1518). Patrimonio Histórico Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Fig. 4. View largeDownload slide Felipe Bigarny, Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros, profile portrait in marble (c.1518). Patrimonio Histórico Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The first time the marble portrait was recorded in the inventories of church of the Colegio was in 1526.31 Further mentions appear in 1538, 1565, 1566 and 1583 which, although brief, undoubtedly refer to the piece in question.32 In 1591 it was not recorded in the church’s inventory, since it had been moved to the reliquary and stored amongst the relics of the Colegio. By implication, therefore, it was no longer considered simply as the official image of the university’s founder: it had acquired a special religious significance. In 1597, the cardinal’s remains were removed from his tomb and moved to a raised position in the main chapel of the church of the Colegio. This constituted the first step in the process of his beatification, to which the Colegio and university was set to devote major economic and institutional resources throughout the seventeenth and part of the eighteenth century. The process gave rise to a clear change in mentality at the heart of the university as to how the figure of Ximénez was viewed: a true humanistic hero was now being venerated as a saint in an atmosphere suffused with piety and highly conditioned by the ideology of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. The first phase began officially in 1626, and continued until 1638.33 As mentioned above, an independent record was made of the reliquary of the university’s church for the first time in 1604. This was almost certainly the result of the arrival of a relic of a future saint, Thomas of Villanova, from Valencia, in that year. In fact, it appears in the inventory described in considerable detail. Its origin is clearly and accurately identified, registered alongside a portrait of the future saint, the man who had been one of the first scholars at San Ildefonso in 1508 and who subsequently became a friar of the order of St Augustine and Archbishop of Valencia. He was beatified in 1618 and canonized in 1658. The process of raising him to sainthood began in Valencia and, in 1604, the Colegio Mayor obtained one of the ribs from his body from the ecclesiastical authorities (who had opened his tomb), together with a painted copy of an official portrait that was in Valencia.34 The fact that one of the university’s first scholars was to be raised to the altars of the saints endowed it with a huge amount of social prestige and collective self-esteem. The 1604 inventory of the reliquary includes the marble portrait of Cardinal Ximénez, which was now considered to be a relic in the strictest sense.35 In 1638, a new inventory of the relics of the Colegio recorded, in addition to other items, ‘a white taffeta chasuble and an alb in which his eminence the Cardinal said mass’.36 It is not known whether these items really were originals, but the liturgical endowment of St Ildephonsus surely must be viewed as handed down from its founder and, therefore, could well have been used by the man himself. It is interesting to see how the number of relics of Ximénez increased as the beatification process and the university’s veneration of his person as a saint progressed. The contents of the reliquary remained the same until 1662, when a new and important item was added. This was a volume of manuscript works by St Thomas of Villanova, which was donated to the Colegio by the Duke of Medinaceli, an honorary scholar – so to speak – of San Ildefonso. The tome was richly adorned with panels of engraved silver depicting scenes of the life and miracles of the saint and the coat of arms of the ducal house.37 At the beginning of the seventeenth century, there were up to three standards in the university church: a standard with the royal arms in the middle of the temple,38 and another two black standards with red fringes and crosses at the centre that had already appeared there in 1583 and 1591, as well as the cardinal’s standard and galero ‘that are in the main chapel above the tomb of my lord the cardinal’,39 where it was placed from 1518.40 In the inventory of Ovando’s reform of 1565, in the section headed ‘Wood’ there is actually a reference to ‘some feet formed in the manner of a cross for the placement of the cardinal’s insignia in front of the tomb’.41 Two standards could be seen in the church in 1614, a purple taffeta standard with the arms of the cardinal and another yellow standard with the coat of arms of the Turk, ‘which were made for the festivities of Oran’, held at the university, at the least, since 1604.42 The yellow standard, from then on, was referred to as a ‘straw-coloured pennant with two scimitars’. Both were hung from the ceiling of the chapel. In 1614, according to the corresponding inventory, there was a chapel in the church devoted to Ximénez, to which various objects had been moved, including an ancient portable retable, but about which little more is known. The record of the lamp of Oran continued to appear along with, ‘two keys, one large and another small, which are hung above the grille two words - on to the vegetable garden in the sacristy, which they say are the ones from Oran’, and four old trumpets that were supposedly of the same origin, probably some of the añafiles mentioned above.43 There was also a large brass basin for washing, which was moved from the sacristy to the refectory.44 In 1616, the lamp, keys and trumpets appear as definitely having their origin in the capture of Oran,45 and they are described as such in subsequent inventories of the church, although the basin is missing from the first of these (1631, 1637, 1658, 1660, 1671, 1679 and 1687).46 From 1695 onwards, the basin found in the refectory from a little after 1614 is said to be part of the ‘lamp they say is Muhammed’s’.47 From 1712, the lamp of Oran appears on its own in the church.48 In 1627, when the process of beatification of Ximénez had already begun, a cavalcade was held in Alcalá in the manner of the university graduations. The event was a triumphant procession of a distinctly military nature, since the marvels or miracles attributed to Ximénez during the capture of Oran were essential elements on which the intention of raising him to the altars of the saints was based. It cannot therefore, have differed a great deal from the aforementioned festivities of Oran held from 1604 onwards. The scholars formed into infantry and cavalry companies with their standards, fired salvos with firearms, and paraded triumphal decorated carts. The standards were identified as coming from Oran, including the one that was said to have been taken there by the cardinal himself.49 Specifically, one of the participants carried the ‘general’s standard or insignia with which the most illustrious cardinal went to Oran’.50 As part of the change in how the figure of Ximénez was viewed at the university and Colegio Mayor, a retable-niche by way of a cabinet, devoted to the cardinal, was constructed and placed in the main chapel of the university church, in which a chest containing his remains and a painting depicting his person were placed (1626–33).51 In Rome, the process involved various portraits of Ximénez being presented to the Pope and other members of the Barberini family, as well as to cardinals and officials of the Curia.52 Beginning in 1649, a much more important phase in the beatification process of Ximénez commenced, promoted by the University of Alcalá and led by the main hagiographer of the cardinal, the Franciscan friar, Fr Pedro de Aranda Quintanilla. During this phase, a far more extensive propaganda machine was deployed, which included the publication of various books, and the commission of engravings (Fig. 5), paintings and sculptures of the prelate in Rome, with inevitable repercussions for the university itself. Noteworthy among these was the arrival of some of the images of Ximénez brought from Rome, especially the canvas portraying him at the capture of Oran – the most cherished and ever-present iconographic image (Fig. 6) – and the endowment of a genuine religious proto-museum devoted to the memory of the founder, all carefully planned by the above-mentioned Aranda Quintanilla.53 An altar was also fitted out in the church with a sculpture of St Thomas of Villanova dressed as a scholar, and a chapel was devoted to his memory in one of the dormitories of the halls of residence.54 Fig. 5. View largeDownload slide Francesco Negro, Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros baptizing the Moors of Granada. From Archetypo de Virtudes, Espexo de Prelados (Palermo, 1653). Fig. 5. View largeDownload slide Francesco Negro, Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros baptizing the Moors of Granada. From Archetypo de Virtudes, Espexo de Prelados (Palermo, 1653). Fig. 6. View largeDownload slide Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros praying before the battle of Oran (c.1655). Patrimonio Histórico Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Fig. 6. View largeDownload slide Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros praying before the battle of Oran (c.1655). Patrimonio Histórico Universidad Complutense de Madrid. In 1667, in the framework of the non cultu phase of the beatification process, the Bishop of Arcadia visited the Colegio and university to find evidence for and against the veneration of Ximénez. This provided a far more complete record of the possessions stored in the university buildings, especially as regards images of the founder and other pieces associated with him. It is now known that the silver cross with the ‘Lignum Crucis’ was in the reliquary. Also in the reliquary were the works of St Thomas of Villanova and the marble portrait of the founder, which is described in great detail, especially the cracks; the fact that they did not affect any part of the face was considered to be the result of a miracle. Also described are the liturgical ornaments thought to have been originally owned by the founder. The Bishop of Arcadia ordered that any objects associated with Ximénez be taken out of the reliquary and deposited in a room behind the church’s high altar. The mortal remains of Ximénez were placed in the interior of his tomb.55 A book containing letters signed by Ximénez appears for the first time in the documents in 1668. As it appears in the accounts of what was disbursed by Aranda Quintanilla on his return to Alcalá after his stay in Rome, the conclusion must be reached (and his work compiling documentary sources on the prelate supports this) that it was assembled and sent to be bound by Aranda Quintanilla himself. It is known that the letters were bound in wooden covers, and that the volume was lined with crimson velvet and decorated with silver clasps and corner pieces.56 In August 1677, in breach of the arrangements made by the Bishop of Arcadia, the remains of Ximénez were secretly removed from the tomb and taken to the chapel reputed to have been used by the cardinal to celebrate mass – although this was probably an invention – located behind the apse of the church, where they were concealed in the upper part of the wall,57 along with what would later constitute a veritable proto-museum of Ximénez, as mentioned above. In 1679 the cardinal’s standard with its galero, which was repaired that year, was located in his chapel, identified in the document as being the one that ‘our saintly cardinal took to Oran, which displays the galero itself and its tassels’. There were also other important pieces in the same place. There is an inventory of what was stored in the chapel of Cardinal Ximénez dated 1682, the first time such an individualized record was made. The place was described in the document as the ‘Chapel of our saintly Cardinal Cisneros [Ximénez], which is where he prayed and celebrated mass, as did St Thomas of Villanova’, and the record was described as being an inventory of items that had been placed in the chapel between 1675 and 1682, many of which formerly belonged to the sacristy and the reliquary. 1675 is probably the year in which this space was first converted into a kind of religious proto-museum devoted to the cardinal and founder, as mentioned above. Included among the relics, were some of those brought from Rome by Aranda Quintanilla and, for the first time, ‘a gold ring with a stone and in the base an image of Our Lady adorned with a surround of diamonds’ in a silver box, which was considered to have belonged to Ximénez, as shall be seen below. There were also prints or engravings, on paper, vellum or bronze, a sculpture of the Virgin with the Christ Child and a half-length image of the cardinal, said to be made of stone – although this is not strictly the case – as well as the flags of Oran in a box (the cardinal’s standard and galero, a flag of the king of Spain which is said to have been restored while preserving as far as possible the original, ‘which was from Oran’, and another two, one belonging to Ximénez and another said to have been captured from the Moors in the African city; its purchase in 1604 is not recalled). There is a section of the document centred specifically on ‘relics that are safeguarded of our saintly Cardinal Cisneros [Ximénez]’, which describes the amice and alb mentioned above, ‘with the making of the Franciscan brothers’, as well as some gilt silver mass cruets; a lectern with the arms of Queen Isabella the Catholic; a silver brooch with the arms of the cathedral of Toledo, which is said to have been worn by the cardinal on the cope when dressed as a pontiff; the book of autograph letters of the founder and the missal of ‘ancient edition’ said to be the one he used to say mass (to which a breviary would later be added). The items with their origin in the sacristy and reliquary include the relics Ximénez was said to have bequeathed to the Colegio, such as the cross containing the ‘Lignum Crucis’, as well as the book of works by St Thomas, and others, such as the marble portrait of the founder in profile. The inventory is signed by Aranda Quintanilla, who took charge of the custody of the objects, and highlights his involvement in supplying and staging their exhibition in the chapel. Indeed, this entailed a veritable treasure room or collection cabinet centred on the historical-religious glorification of Ximénez de Cisneros.58 However, it should be pointed out that a record had already been made of the silver lectern: in the first book of possessions of the university it is described as bearing the arms of the Catholic Monarchs,59 and the above-mentioned inventory of Ovando’s reform in 1565 already states that it was a ‘gilded silver lectern used by the Most Reverend Cardinal to celebrate mass, which weighed four marks and two ounces and two reals’.60 The 1703 inventory continues to refer to the chapel of Ximénez, which essentially contains the same objects, as is the case in 1706 and 1710, when they are sometimes described very precisely, and in 1712.61 It should be noted that the bust portrait sculpture of Ximénez had various companion pieces. One of these busts, conserved at the University Complutense of Madrid (Fig. 7), is made of clay or terracotta (not stone) and was commissioned and brought from Rome by Aranda Quintanilla.62 Again in 1744, the chapel of Ximénez contains the relics, images, flags and standard, the Ecce Homo – said to be the oratory the cardinal took with him on his travels – and the objects belonging to the founder, which includes the standard of Ximénez, ‘with the galero and tassels, the galero tattered due to its age’, the bust ‘of clay’ (subsequently referred to as plaster) and the marble portrait in profile.63 In the church, outside the chapel of Ximénez, the remains of four ancient bugles said to be from Oran are specified, as is the ‘the higher lamp of Muhammed, brought from Oran and made from pierced bronze cut with the burin, with rounded endings’.64 The 1755 inventory is very similar and, the following year, payments were made for repairs to the flags ‘from Oran’.65 Fig. 7. View largeDownload slide Bust portrait of Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros (c.1658). Patrimonio Histórico Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Fig. 7. View largeDownload slide Bust portrait of Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros (c.1658). Patrimonio Histórico Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The chapel associated with the cardinal seemingly disappears from the record between 1755 and 1761, and the inventory of the church of the Colegio for the latter year no longer mentions it. However, the document includes the main items associated with Ximénez and St Thomas, among others seen before. The disappearance could be directly related to the failure of the beatification process for Ximénez in Rome. The appearance of a joint entry in the inventory for the following is interesting: ‘The cupola of the lamp from Oran, and other breastplates, backplates, muskets and other items from the battle of Oran [in the church], and in the sacristy there are some keys, manacles and trumpets’, also souvenirs of the conquest.66 The other above-mentioned proto-museum was the oratory of St Thomas set up in one of the rooms of the scholars. It had a permanently lit lamp and, as described in inventories such as that drawn up in 1712, a large painting of the saint on the altar (probably dressed as a scholar), another of him robed as a bishop in prayer before a crucifix on a side wall, and another of Ximénez and St Thomas, ‘when he was awarded the scholarship’ on the other wall, in addition to the portrait of another scholar. In 1744 the paintings were no longer recorded in the same place, but in 1751 the oratory still existed, since payment was made to install new windows.67 The Real Universidad de Alcalá and the Colegio Mayor In 1776, the government of Charles III reformed the Spanish universities in order to free them from the power of the colegios mayores, which over time had developed into institutions distanced from the advancement of modern knowledge that used their corporate power to reserve for their scholars the best positions in the church and state. The most important measure in Alcalá was the emancipation of the university, which was made Real – Royal – from the control of the Colegio Mayor. The Real University, located in the former Colegio Máximo of the Society of Jesus (expelled in 1767), a building that was remodelled and extended for its new function, was brought up to date by the enlightened reforms of the times, now in control of San Ildefonso (as was not previously the case) and the scholarly purse strings.68 In 1777 a general inventory was drawn up of the assets owned by the Colegio Mayor of San Ildefonso as an independent body with no power over the university.69 The inventory includes, in the refectory, a ‘plate of a large lamp’, no more details of which are given, but which was the one said to be ‘Muhammed’s’. The church preserved the cardinal’s standard; the cross of the ‘Lignum Crucis’; the works by St Thomas of Villanova; his relic alongside many others; the mass cruets; and the lectern of Ximénez; as well as his alb and amice; the ‘cupola of the Oran bell’; and the weapons and other items associated with the African city, among many other objects recorded previously. However, several things – such as the Ecce Homo – had disappeared, while some others had been moved. The marble profile of Ximénez was hanging from the door of the library. In 1769–70, the learned secretary of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Antonio Ponz, on visiting the Colegio Mayor of San Ildefonso, took pause to describe the medallion of Ximénez located in the sacristy on the date of his visit, describing its rendition in marble and stating, ‘it is a jewel truly worthy of a museum, and of being freed from the jurisdiction of sacristans’, noting the crack on the piece and adding in a note to the 1787 edition of his work, that it had been moved to the ‘library of the Colegio’.70 In 1778, Sir John Talbot Dillon echoed the fact that ‘The medallion of the cardinal has been removed from the tomb into the library’,71 and this was confirmed in 1786 by Joseph Townsend,72 and in 1793 by the Italian Antonio Conca.73 In 1777, other mementos of the cardinal were preserved in the library, in a newly fitted out space referred as the ‘post-library’ or ‘Coin Collection, Museum of Natural History and Cabinet of Antiquities’. This space occupied a quarter of the area of the library and had been fitted out and furnished in 1770 (although its construction had been initiated in 1764)74 with its extension towards the adjoining minor Franciscan Colegio of St Peter and St Paul. It had spacious assemblages of architectural-style bookcases and drawers, access ladders, corbels, banisters and glass doors. The Coin Collection and Museum is known to have had a surface area of 50 square varas (1 vara = 0.83 m) and a new floor.75 The same year a silversmith was paid to clean the silver and copper coins in the collection. The rector required his services once again ‘on the arrival of the new coin collections, which he had ordered to be brought from Madrid’.76 The work of fitting out and setting up the Coin Collection, Museum and Cabinet was agreed upon on the occasion of an especially important event in relation to this paper. A former scholar of San Ildefonso and dean of the cathedral of Toledo, Juan Antonio de las Infantas, had on his death bequeathed to the Colegio a magnificent numismatic collection, among other things, which he had built up over his career. When Antonio Ponz described the library in 1770, he took time to explain how the cabinets were being prepared to house ‘the Museum’ that the dean had left to the Colegio.77 It is well known that various persons who attended the Colegio Mayor of Alcalá developed an interest in collecting ancient coins. These included Enrique Flórez, a scholar at San Ildefonso, professor of theology at the university and author of the famed España Sagrada and Medallas de las colonias, municipios y pueblos antiguos de España;78 the librarian Felipe Fernández Vallejo, who would become Archbishop of Santiago; the rector Luis de los Ríos; and the aforementioned Infantas. Flórez refers to the collection of the latter in his work on numismatics, and in its third volume he cites the bequest to the Colegio.79 Fernández Vallejo appears to have taken charge of classifying the coin collection.80 The coins from the Infantas collection and those brought from Madrid – the Colegio additionally may have had some of its own – were arranged in cabinets, shelves and drawers in the coin collection room or post-library classified in labelled boxes. There were coins of the Aragonese kings; Roman, Hebrew, Arabic, ‘triumphal’, ‘colonial’, Italian and English coins; coins of various Roman emperors; French, Portuguese, Punic an papal coins, etc. Most were of copper, but others were of gold, silver, bronze, lead and even wood. In total, there were 13,125 items.81 Further boxes contained other kinds of objects, such as cameos and antiquities, ‘for the authentication of history’, as noted in the inventories. On the upper shelves ‘above the corridors’ there were twenty-four pieces in ceramic, bronze and other materials with gilt cards marked with the word ‘Antiquities’, as well as two rings and small loose stones. Another cabinet housed objects from the church and sacristy, which were now considered as part of the history of the Colegio Mayor itself, rather than relics. A box or small chest lined with crimson velvet and with metal corner-pieces contained, in a small silver box, the gold ring with diamonds (two were missing) hung on a gold chain with ‘a stone in the middle, of a skin-like colour with a figurative face resembling Mary Most Holy’, which was considered to have belonged to Ximénez. The ring was alongside the book of letters and other manuscript or printed papers of the cardinal and founder ‘some written in his own hand’, which was ‘bound in boards, with crimson velvet, silver clasps and corner-pieces, and which has 185 usable sheets’.82 However, there are also ‘five weapons of war, and two keys, said to be from Oran’ (Fig. 8), as well as ‘two hobbles also said to belong to the donkey or mule owned by’ the cardinal. The cabinet or museum had other cabinets with labels such as ‘Animals’, ‘Miscellanea’, ‘Stones’, ‘Minerals’, ‘Petrifactions’, ‘Plants’ and ‘Shells’, with a wide variety of specimens, although not in great abundance. Fig. 8. View largeDownload slide Keys of Oran. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. Photograph: Ángel Martínez Levas. Fig. 8. View largeDownload slide Keys of Oran. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. Photograph: Ángel Martínez Levas. Despite being absent from previous inventories (unless they were the manacles cited above), the hobbles of Ximénez’s donkey (Fig. 9) were known to be in the Colegio, and were interpreted as such already in 1601 when they were included in a sermon delivered in the university church which, as was the custom, appeared in print. The text, which constantly refers to the founder and his virtues, discusses the humility of Ximénez: ‘and his carriages and palanquins? What do you think they were? A sad and poor little donkey, whose blessed hobbles are kept by this Colegio almost as if they were relics’.83 In 1604, Eugenio de Robles again mentions this object, and Aranda Quintanilla also refers to it, when he says, ‘not only did they venerate his venerable person as a saint, but also all of his things as relics, to such an extent, that from the death of this servant of God to this day, the hobbles of the little donkey he rode as an archbishop and cardinal have been kept in the sacristy of this saintly house, as relics, and jewels of his humility.’84 Fig. 9. View largeDownload slide Hobbles of the donkey of Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. Photograph: Ángel Martínez Levas. Fig. 9. View largeDownload slide Hobbles of the donkey of Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. Photograph: Ángel Martínez Levas. The museum of the Real University As mentioned above, the Real University was established in the former Jesuit college of Alcalá. The building was fitted out and greatly extended, according to the plans of the architect Ventura Rodríguez.85 The extension, around two large courtyards, included a magnificent staircase, lecture rooms, library, faculty room and other chambers, as well as a ‘Museum Room’, which attests to the enlightened spirit in which the new Universidad Real de Alcalá had been created. By all accounts, this museum room would be located to the west, close to the library, while the faculty room was in all likelihood placed, symmetrically, to the east.86 Nothing else is known about this ‘Museum Room’, which might never have been used for this purpose. However, certain objects of interest to this paper were added to the library of the Real University, which can be found in the 1798 inventory, when the royal institution was about to move into the building of the former and now defunct Colegio Mayor. The library had a glass showcase containing various anatomical objects, such as a ‘statue representing a man of a standard size with the skin or integumentary system removed to reveal the abdomen, chest and brain, but with small pieces that can cover these cavities and, at the same time, represent their various parts, so that the abdomen can be covered with a small piece containing the intestines; the chest with two (one on top of the other), the inner one containing the lungs and the outer one the intercostal muscles, and the brain with another two pieces containing the pia mater and dura mater membranes, the innermost and outermost membranes of the cranium’. Other anatomical pieces included a life-sized heart, ‘divisible into two halves, and adorned with its large atrial vessels and coronary vessels’; a ‘medullary substance separated from the cranium’; ‘a medulla spinalis that represents the source of the thirty pairs of nerves according to the latest observations and anatomical opinions’; ‘a ramification of the entire vena cava from its contact with the heart to the extremities of the body’; ‘a uterus . . . with its cervix’ containing a foetus; another represented the intestines, etc.87 Vicente de la Fuente states that when the university was moved to the building of the former Colegio Mayor, the library was also moved and added to the Colegio library, and alongside the books cites ‘statues, figures and furniture’, which undoubtedly includes the anatomical pieces,88 to which he refers further as described below. Real Universidad de Alcalá in the Colegio Mayor, and its move to Madrid In 1798, after the government had ordered the abolition of the Colegio Mayor, the university was established in its building. It remained there – with a brief interruption – until 1836, when the liberal governments, as part of the reform of the Spanish education system, decided to create the University of Madrid by making use of the assets and professorships of the University of Alcalá.89 At the beginning of the Peninsular War against Napoleon, in 1808, the university’s Cabinet and Coin Collection was looted to disastrous effect. In 1810, André-François Miot accompanied King Joseph Bonaparte to Alcalá; on their visit to the university the theft of the library’s rich coin collection is confirmed. Reference is also made to the fact that the church of St Ildephonsus preserved ‘the Turkish standards taken from Oran when it was conquered by Cardinal Ximénez, and the bronze crown of one of the minarets of the African city’.90 Vicente de la Fuente also refers to the looting of the coin collection in 1808, and adds that in 1834 ‘all that was left were empty shelves and a box of indistinct copper coins; the only thing that reached Madrid, which was given to me when I took charge of the Library, in 1845’.91 The testimony of Vicente de la Fuente, who was a student at the university in its final years and then a lecturer and rector in Madrid, provides a first-hand account of the appearance of the library. He writes: the library of the university was composed of four rooms including the private rooms: the first, which is the largest, had a wooden bookcase divided into two parts, with enough space between them to make it easier to reach the books higher up . . . There was also a room used for the catalogue; and the other two were private: there was a magnificent wax skeleton in one made with such skill and precision that it was justly admired by all intelligent men. In the same room, there were various ancient pieces of armour scattered about; a matchlock harquebus, a crossbow and a helmet, which were commonly said to belong to Ximénez, although this is not credible given their state of disrepair and neglect. Another small adjoining room contained somewhat more decently various of the founder’s donations; of note among these was his crimson taffeta standard, which fluttered alongside the standard of Castile over the walls of Mazalquivir and Oran . . . Also preserved in the same room were the keys of Oran, which the conquistador gave to the Colegio Mayor, and several letters written in his hand, in a crimson velvet box. There were also some small bronze idols, an enormous flute, a collection of samples of the best Spanish marble, and two large cabinets used for a coin collection, although there were very few coins since the Peninsular War, when the large quantity of silver left by the Colegio Mayor on its abolition disappeared. Facing the door there was a bust of Ximénez, which greatly resembled the original.92 In a note on the coin collection he states that, ‘it consisted of two large and rich high-quality wooden showcases, with highly wrought compartments, which were never brought to Madrid, I do not know why’.93 The University of Alcalá ceased to exist as such in 1836, when the University of Madrid was created, established in various locations until it was definitively housed in the former Jesuit Convento del Noviciado in the city. At different times, various objects and items of furniture from Alcalá were moved to the new university, including the cross of the ‘Lignum Crucis’; various chalices; the lectern of Ximénez; an incense burner and several ecclesiastical ornaments, in addition to pieces from the university library.94 The penury of the new institution led to the sale of various of the items brought from the university church, such as the cross-reliquary, chalices, lectern and others, which was decided upon and carried out in October 1840.95 Vicente de la Fuente states that: the ignominious act was committed . . . of selling the few treasures that were brought from Alcalá, including the magnificent Lignum Crucis set in gold and rock crystal and given by Leo X to Cardinal Cisneros [Ximénez]. The relic was saved by the librarian Bodega, and was delivered to me as his interim successor in the position of librarian. The Marquess of San Gregorio gave it to Queen Isabella, when the one in the royal chapel was stolen, and there it is preserved.96 Various pieces from Alcalá could still be found at that time in the University of Madrid, sometimes included in the inventories of the new institution – especially those of most interest to this paper, in the library.97 These are some of the arms, statues, coins and objects associated with Ximénez found in the library of Alcalá, the book of works by St Thomas of Villanova, the lamp ‘from Oran’ and other items, as well as paintings and sculptures, including the marble portrait of the cardinal. According to the testimony of Fuente, ‘the irons of the halberds were brought from Alcalá with the flags, and were fitted with any kind of pole in order to be added to the trophy that (together with flags and other weapons, all of which were very decrepit) had been set up in a room of the Library in Madrid’.98 And he added elsewhere that the flags ‘were positioned in 1848 in the Library, to create a military trophy, together with two incomplete suits of armour, two broken halberds without poles, a matchlock harquebus and a broken and incomplete crossbow, which were repaired as well as possible, after the harquebusier Eusebio Zuluaga had cleaned them and replaced certain parts of the suits of armour, when the rector was Pedro Sabau’ and the librarian was Fuente himself, in 1845.99 On 26 August 1856, the university library was robbed and the engraved silver covers of the works by the saintly scholar, a chalice and the ring of Cardinal Ximénez disappeared100 Fortunately, the covers had been cleaned by Zuluaga on the occasion of the cleaning and repair of the arms and, on the same occasion, he made reproductions of the covers – the only remaining testimony of their appearance – which Fuente would later publish (Fig. 10).101 The theft set alarm-bells ringing amongst the authorities, who obliged the academic institution to hand over most of the objects associated with Ximénez to the recently founded Museo Arqueológico Nacional of Madrid in 1868, but this did not include the marble portrait. On 25 February 1868, the Director-General of Education of the Government of Spain received a letter requiring that he order the university to hand over the material in question. The director-general gave the order to the rector of the university and he passed it on to the librarian, who was charged with drawing up various receipts and an inventory, a number of copies of which are preserved today.102 Fig. 10. View largeDownload slide Engraving of the silver covers of the Works of Saint Thomas of Villanova. From Museo Español de Antigüedades, vol. v (Madrid, 1875). Fig. 10. View largeDownload slide Engraving of the silver covers of the Works of Saint Thomas of Villanova. From Museo Español de Antigüedades, vol. v (Madrid, 1875). On 16 March 1868, the inventory was drawn up and the museum was given an alb (Fig. 11); an amice with the cardinal’s coat of arms embroidered on it ‘and the monogram of the name of Jesus Christ’ (Fig. 12); and a purificator, all stored in a somewhat mistreated crimson velvet box with silver corner pieces. Also included alongside these pieces are a white marble ara, of unknown origin – probably the one from the Holy Sepulchre; a carved cane said to have belonged to the cardinal, which was in the niche of St Didacus until the secularization of the Franciscan convent of Alcalá de Henares; the crimson taffeta standard with quarterings of the escutcheon of Ximénez, which was placed in a frame because of its advanced state of deterioration, with a gilt wooden cross, tassels and cardinal’s crimson satin ‘small galero’ hung from the standard (Figs 13 and 14);103 three very decrepit flags, one bearing very narrow white stripes, another divided into four white and blue quarters, and the other striped yellow and white, which were said to have been carried by the soldiers of the cardinal during the conquest of Oran, and which he had deposited in Alcalá after discharging the troops on their return; two incomplete iron suits of armour (Fig. 15); two iron halberds; a matchlock harquebus;104 a crossbow (Fig. 16), which is missing some parts; the keys to the alcazaba of Oran, one thick and large, and the other very small and thin (Figs 8 and 14);105 a somewhat mistreated Moorish bronze lamp, which (according to the inventory) was deposited by the cardinal in the University of Alcalá (Fig. 3); an alboque, a very large Moorish musical instrument (Fig. 14); the hobbles of the small donkey the cardinal rode on his travels (Fig. 9); a bronze incense burner (Fig. 14); a small bronze horse; a very large brass oil lamp from the rector’s quarters of the Colegio Mayor of San Ildefonso in Alcalá; some badly preserved drums, which were those used by the University of Alcalá at its processions and other events; a moth-eaten four-pointed biretta, made of black wool, used at the University of Alcalá during the award of bachelor’s and licentiate degrees; an 1860 standard (not therefore, associated with the University of Alcalá); and 1,092 coins made from various materials and with various historical origins, from the Alcalá medal collection.106 Fig. 11. View largeDownload slide Alb of Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. Photograph: Ángel Martínez Levas. Fig. 11. View largeDownload slide Alb of Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. Photograph: Ángel Martínez Levas. Fig. 12. View largeDownload slide Amice of Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. Photograph: Ángel Martínez Levas. Fig. 12. View largeDownload slide Amice of Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. Photograph: Ángel Martínez Levas. Fig. 13. View largeDownload slide Cross, galero and tassels of Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros standard. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. Fig. 13. View largeDownload slide Cross, galero and tassels of Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros standard. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. Fig. 14. View largeDownload slide Engraving of the Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros standard, keys of Oran and other items belonging to University of Madrid. From Historia de la Villa y Corte de Madrid, vol. i (Madrid, 1860). Fig. 14. View largeDownload slide Engraving of the Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros standard, keys of Oran and other items belonging to University of Madrid. From Historia de la Villa y Corte de Madrid, vol. i (Madrid, 1860). Fig. 15. View largeDownload slide Suit of armour. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. Photograph: Ángel Martínez Levas. Fig. 15. View largeDownload slide Suit of armour. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. Photograph: Ángel Martínez Levas. Fig. 16. View largeDownload slide Crossbow. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. Photograph: Ángel Martínez Levas. Fig. 16. View largeDownload slide Crossbow. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. Photograph: Ángel Martínez Levas. Interestingly, a subsequent inventory supplied to Manuel de Assas, the curator of the museum in the Classical and European Antiquities section, and the report attached to the pieces given by the museum director to the Director-General of Public Education on 17 March, both provide a more nuanced version of the inventory drawn up by the university. Indeed, they indicate that the standard said to belong to Ximénez, ‘shows every sign of having been made at a later date, perhaps by the University of Alcalá for a festivity commemorating its founder’; ‘the three flags that are supposedly those carried by the cardinal’s soldiers during the conquest of Oran, preserve no more than the very slightest remains of the ancient flags inscribed on these modern ones, without it being any longer possible to appreciate even their primitive colours, since such tiny remnants do not permit it’; and with respect to the lamp from Oran, which in the inventory is called Moorish, ‘it is not, but rather Arabian, as evidenced by its authentic Arabic workmanship and inscriptions, the translation of which I published opportunely in the History of the City and Court of Madrid’ (Fig. 14), among other details.107 Conclusion The Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso and University of Alcalá, as a major cultural institution in the Hispanic world of the early modern era, is an outstanding example in the understanding of the evolution of collecting in Spain. Moreover, as a university, the study of its treasures, collections and museums is most interesting, especially given the role of universities in this field of study, and in the Spanish case there is still much investigation to be carried out. Three broad periods can be identified in the development of those collections and museums of the University of Alcalá, each corresponding to contemporary cultural trends. From a late medieval perspective, although already linked to the Christian humanism that brought about the foundation and early development of the Academia Complutensis, the first phase is marked by idols from the Indies, relics and trophies obtained by Cardinal Ximénez; as founder, he wished to bequeath ensembles of symbolic objects, among the most relevant of his historical, political, cultural and religious role. Those items were received at the university as part of the liturgical endowment, but also as memorials of the cardinal himself, regardless of their possible daily use, until the last quarter of the sixteenth century. The second period, the Counter-Reformation phase, originated at the end of that century and developed during the 1600s. This was the era of Ximénez’s process of beatification, which marked within the university a new trend in the consideration of the collections and their display, including their expansion with new symbolical objects relating to the person of the cardinal and the history of the university itself – as in the case of St Thomas of Villanova. The creation of spaces dedicated to those individuals, with a display of symbolic objects as a proto-museum, is very significant in this regard. The third phase is linked to the opening of the Enlightenment and a new cultural system. The formation of museums in the strict sense, their connection with university studies and commemoration of the history of the institution itself are a reflection of this period. Unfortunately, circumstances prevented further development, although the most important objects related to Ximénez and the history of the university continued to play a relevant role when the University of Alcalá was dissolved and the University of Madrid – the germ of the current Universidad Complutense – was created from its remains. Footnotes 1 There is an extensive bibliography on Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros. Among the most recent (with prior references) are: J. García Oro, El Cardenal Cisneros. Vida y empresas (Madrid, 1992). J. García Oro, La cruzada del Cardenal Cisneros (Madrid, 1992); J. García Oro, Cisneros: un cardenal reformista en el trono de España (Madrid, 2005); J. Pérez, Cisneros, el cardenal de España (Madrid, 2014). 2 The historiography of the University of Alcalá is extensive, including the most important matters on this topic: see A. Alvar Ezquerra (ed.), Historia de la Universidad de Alcalá (Alcalá de Henares, 2010). 3 J. de Vallejo, Memorial de la vida de Fray Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros (Madrid, 1913), pp. 45–6. R. González-Ramos, ‘Las reliquias de la iglesia de S. Ildefonso. Religión, adoración y arte en la Universidad de Alcalá’, in Actas delviEncuentro de Historiadores del Valle del Henares, ed. M. Marchamalo (Alcalá de Henares, 1998), p. 644. 4 P. de Aranda Quintanilla, Archetypo de virtudes, espejo de prelados, el venerable padre, y siervo de Dios F. Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros (Palermo, 1653), p. 134. See also E. de Robles, Compendio de la vida y hazañas del cardenal D. Fr. Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros y del oficio de la missa muzárabe (Toledo, 1604), p. 120, in which he states they were preserved at the university. 5 Vallejo, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 75–7. R. González-Ramos, La Universidad de Alcalá de Henares y las artes. El patronazgo artístico de un centro del saber. Siglosxvi-xix (Alcalá de Henares, 2007), p. 62 6 Aranda Quintanilla, op. cit. (note 4), p. 32. 7 It does not appear in the first book of possessions, but it does in the 1526 inventory: Archivo Histórico Nacional (Madrid). Sección Universidades (hereafter ahn, Universidades). Libro 1092, fol. 14r, ‘images that were not found entered in the inventory of the church’. 8 Annales Complutenses. Sucesión de tiempos desde los primeros fundadores griegos hasta estos nuestros que corren (Alcalá de Henares, 1990), pp. 379–80. 9 ahn, Universidades, Libro 684, fol. 172r. 10 María de Austria, daughter of Charles V and wife of the emperor Maximilian II. González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 3), p. 649. M. E. Muñoz Santos, Las artes decorativas en Alcalá de Henares: la platería y rejería en la capilla de San Ildefonso y Magistral-Catedral. Ss.xv-xvii-xviii (Madrid, 1995), pp. 554–9. 11 V. de la Fuente, Historia Universidades, Colegios y demás establecimientos de enseñanza en España (Madrid, 1884–89), vol. iii, p. 121. Quotes F. I. de Porres, Iusta poética zelebrada por la Universidad de Alcalà Colegio Mayor de S. Ildefonso, en el nacimiento del Príncipe de las Españas (Alcalá de Henares, 1658), p. 92. 12 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), p. 378. See in relation to the queen and daughter of Charles V and her relations with the university, gift of the ‘Lignum’ and letter of gratitude: Muñoz Santos, op. cit. (note 10), vol. ii, p. 557. In the first inventory of St Ildephonsus, the first book of possessions, there is a chiselled silver-gilt cross weighing 8 marks and 2 ounces (66 ounces), which appears to correspond to the ‘Lignum’ cross, although the latter, at its sale in 1840, weighed 58 ounces. This entry states, ‘that his lordship had bought in Burgos from the queen’s chamber in the month of February of the year fifteen hundred and eight’. ahn, Universidades, Libro 1090, fol. 24r. However, in the 1526 inventory, this cross does not correspond to another that was in the reliquary and contained the ‘Lignum Crucis’. ahn, Universidades, Libro 1092, fol. 19v. 13 A. Gómez de Castro, De rebus gestis a Francisco Ximenio Cisnerio, archiepiscopo toletano, libri octo (Alcalá de Henares, 1569), fols. 47–8 (Spanish edn, Madrid, 1984, p. 140). Anales, op. cit. (note 8), p. 380. González Ramos, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 645–7. C. Fernández, La biblioteca de la Universidad Complutense, (1508–1836) (Madrid, 2017), p. 476. The ara came with paperwork explaining its origin and the people involved. 14 Gómez de Castro, op. cit. (note 13), fol. 120 (Spanish edn., p. 305). In 1604, Eugenio de Robles, in his biography of the cardinal (op. cit. (note 4), p. 121), while reviewing the things the Colegio preserved in relation to the memory of its founder tells us that there were ‘some spoils from the mosques of Oran, the keys that were handed to him when he won, some of the standards and weapons of war’. We know that the Alcalá de Henares library housed sixty-five Arabic manuscripts. As regards the Arabic books, which were doubtless collected for educational purposes in that language in order to train missionaries, as part of the messianic vision of Cisneros, see: V. de la Fuente, ‘Formación y vicisitudes de la Biblioteca Complutense’, Boletín-Revista de la Universidad de Madrid 2 no. 2 (1870), pp. 1191–9. Fernández, op. cit. (note 13), p. 128. E. Fernández González, ‘La Biblioteca de la Universidad de Alcalá’, in Historia de la biblioteca de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, ed. C. Gállego and J. A. Méndez (Madrid, 2007), pp. 25, 36–7. G. Sánchez Doncel, Presencia de España en Orán, 1509–1792 (Toledo, 1991), p. 155. 15 Biblioteca Nacional de España, ms 13020, fol. 96r. See Fernández, op. cit. (note 13), p. 475. 16 There is an insistence on the origin of the weapons: they are said to have been left behind by troops of the archbishopric on their return from the conquest of Oran - hence (among other reasons) the absence of swords: V. de la Fuente, ‘Formación y vicisitudes de la Biblioteca Complutense’, Boletín-Revista de la Universidad de Madrid 2 no. 1 (1870), p. 726, and Fuente, op. cit. (note 14), p. 1201. 17 ahn, Universidades, Libro 1092, fol. 66r. See P. Gayangos and V. de la Fuente, Cartas del Cardenal Don Fray Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros dirigidas a Don Diego López de Ayala (Madrid, 1867), pp. 249–50. Fuente, op. cit. (note 16), pp. 724–5. González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 95–6. The lamp preserved to this day is completed, as was common in these cases, with a bell. 18 Fuente, op. cit. (note 11), vol. ii, p. 115. See also: Fuente, op. cit. (note 16), p. 726. 19 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), p. 96. 20 ahn, Universidades, Libro 1092, fol. 9v. Alongside it there is a description of a ‘a large brass basin on three lions of acorns [sic] with large handles and another four small lions on the handles all made from Moorish brass’, and ‘another basin which is in the wash basin’ of the sacristy. 21 R. Amador de los Ríos, ‘Lámpara de Abú-Abdil-Láh Mohámmad III de Granada apellidada vulgarmente Lámpara de Orán y custodiada hoy en el Museo Arqueológico Nacional’, Museo Español de Antigüedades 2 (1873), pp. 464–85. E. Kühnel, ‘Maurische Kunst’, Die Kunst des Ostens 9 (1924), p. 73. L. Torres Balbás, Arte almohade, arte nazarí, arte mudéjar. Ars Hispaniae (Madrid, 1949), vol. iv, p. 299. J. D. Dodds (ed.), The Arts of Islam (London, 1976), p. 168. J. Dodds (ed.), Al Andalus. Las artes islámicas en España (Madrid, 1992), pp. 272–7. J. Zozaya, ‘Lámpara’, in Arte islámico en Granada. Propuesta para un museo de la Alhambra, ed. M. Casamar (Granada, 1995), p. 434. A. Fernández Puertas, ‘Tipología de lámparas de bronce de al-Andalus y el Magreb’, Miscelánea de Estudios árabes y Hebraicos. Sección árabe-Islam 48 (1999), pp. 379–92. 22 ahn, Universidades, Libro 1092, fol. 66v; Fuente, op. cit. (note 16), pp. 725–6. Gayangos and Fuente op. cit. (note 17), p. 250. 23 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), p. 173. 24 ahn, Universidades, Libro 681, fol. 104r and 104v. 25 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 171–2. 26 Ibid., p. 215. 27 ahn, Universidades, Libro 684, fol. 145v. 28 Ibid., fol. 164v. 29 As regards this masterwork of the Spanish Renaissance, see M. A. Castillo, ‘El cardenal Cisneros’, in Artificia Complutensia (Madrid, 1989), pp. 20–3; M. A. Castillo, ‘El cardenal Cisneros’, in Una Hora de España. vii Centenario de la Universidad Complutense, ed. J. J. Martín González (Madrid, 1994), p. 96, with further references. 30 Fuente, op. cit. (note 11), vol. iii, p. 30. González Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), p. 319. 31 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), p. 92. 32 Ibid., pp. 102, 171, 212, 216. In 1583: ahn, Universidades, Libro 684, fol. 120v. 33 J. M. Pou, ‘Proceso de beatificación del Cardenal Cisneros’ Archivo Ibero-Americano17 no. 49 (1922), pp. 5–28. L. Fernández de Retana Cisneros y su siglo. Estudio histórico de la vida y actuación pública del Cardenal D. Fr. Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros (Madrid, 1930), vol. ii, pp. 524–38. R. Rodríguez-Moñino, El Cardenal Cisneros y la España del sigloxvii(Valencia, 1978), pp. 74–89. González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 232, 304–14. 34 Ibid., pp. 288–91 35 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 647–52. González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 297–8. 36 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), p. 320. 37 V. de la Fuente, ‘Cubiertas de plata de las obras originales de Santo Tomás de Villanueva’, Museo Español de Antigüedades 4 (1875), pp. 159–66. González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), p. 353. 38 ‘A crimson taffeta standard with his majesty’s coat of arms in the middle of the church’ appears in 1583 and 1591. ahn, Universidades, Libro 684, fol. 123r (1583) and 145r (1591). 39 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), p. 296. The black and red standards with crosses, appear ‘tattered’ in 1671. 40 Payments for the making the flag or insignia of the cardinal, in March 1518: ahn, Universidades, Libro 745, fols. 258v, 372v, 374r and 374v. 41 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 171–2. 42 Ibid., pp. 284, 296. 43 ahn, Universidades, Libro 684, fol. 186v. 44 Ibid., fol. 187r. 45 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), p. 297. 46 Ibid., pp. 318–20, 352–3, 389–91. 47 Ibid., p. 397. It was probably the one previously seen in the weapons room, and it is likely that it is the one missing from the Oran lamp, which is cited in the church as ‘without basin’. In 1772 it was in the refectory, ‘rotting on the floor’. González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), p. 450. 48 Ibid., p. 406. 49 P. de las Heras, Paseo triunfal (a modo de Víctor) en que los Cavalleros estudiantes . . . aclamaron la santidad, virtudes, maravillas, prodigios y milagros del . . . Cardenal don Fr. Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros . . . (Alcalá de Henares, 1627). J. Simón Díaz, Relaciones breves de actos públicos realizados en Madrid de 1541 a 1650 (Madrid, 1982), pp. 363–6. I. Alastrué, Alcalá de Henares y sus fiestas públicas (1503–1675) (Alcalá de Henares, 1990), pp. 295–304. 50 Fuente, op. cit. (note 11), vol. iii, p. 32. There is also mention of an imperial standard, which is the same one as ‘the one with which the illustrious captain general of the Emperor, Charles V, won and reduced the city of Oran for the crown of Castile’, although Fuente indicates in a note that it does not coincide, since the conquest of Oran did not take place in the time of Charles V. 51 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 307–11. Converted into the one of St Thomas of Villanova from 1667. 52 Aranda Quintanilla, op. cit. (note 4), Archivo Complutense, p. 118. R. González-Ramos, ‘El mecenazgo artístico de la Universidad de Alcalá en la Roma del Barroco’, Madrid. Revista de Arte, Geografía e Historia 5 (2002), pp. 250–1. 53 Ibid., pp. 256–76. González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 327–340. As regards the canonization process of Cisneros, see: Pou, op. cit. (note 33), pp. 5–28. Fernández de Retana, op. cit. (note 33), vol. ii, pp. 528–9. Rodríguez-Moñino, op. cit. (note 33). 54 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 343–46. 55 Ibid., pp. 378–81. 56 Ibid., p. 385. See Fuente and Gayangos, op. cit. (note 17), pp. xxiii-xxix. 57 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), p. 385. 58 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 652–7. González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 392–4. 59 ahn, Universidades, Libro 1090, fol. 29r. 60 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 171–2. 61 Ibid., pp. 406–9 62 González Ramos, op. cit. (note 52), pp. 282–4. 63 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 437, 441–3. 64 Ibid., p. 443. 65 Ibid., p. 445. 66 Ibid., p. 448. 67 Ibid., pp. 409–10. 68 The reform of the universities in the reign of Charles III, in: Fuente, op. cit. (note 11), vol. iv, pp. 88–91, 106, 245–8. A. Jiménez, Historia de la Universidad española (Madrid, 1971), pp. 271–9 and 282–9. M. Peset and J. L. Peset, La Universidad española (Siglosxviiiyxix). Despotismo ilustrado y revolución liberal (Madrid, 1974), pp. 52–64, 107–13, 333–49; A. Álvarez de Morales, La Ilustración y la Reforma de la Universidad en la España del Sigloxviii (Madrid, 1988). G. M. Addy, ‘Alcalá before the Reform. The decadence of Spanish University’ American Historical Review 48 (1968), p. 561. A. Álvarez de Morales, Estudios de Historia de la Universidad española (Madrid, 1993), pp. 29–37, 89–117. L. M. Gutiérrez Torrecilla, ‘La reforma borbónica en la Universidad de Alcalá: cambios institucionales y académicos’, in Historia de la Universidad de Alcalá, ed. A. Alvar Ezquerra (Alcalá de Henares, 2010), pp. 459–88. 69 González-Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 479–80. 70 A. Ponz, Viaje de España (Madrid, 1787), vol. i, p. 294; 1st. edn of 1772. See D. Crespo Delgado, Un viaje para la ilustración: el ‘Viaje de España’ (1772–1794) de Antonio Ponz (Madrid, 2012), p. 197. 71 J. T. Dillon, Travels Through Spain with a view to Illustrate the Natural History and Physical Geography of that Kingdom (London, 1780), p. 15. P. L. Ballesteros Torres, Alcalá de Henares vista por los viajeros extranjeros (siglosxvi-xix) (Alcalá de Henares, 1989), p. 88. 72 Ballesteros Torres, op. cit. (note 71), p. 91. 73 A. Conca, Descrizione Odeporica della Spagna (Parma, 1793), vol. i, p. 349. Ballesteros Torres, op. cit. (note 71), p. 96. 74 A. Uribe, Colegio y colegiales de San Pedro y San Pablo de Alcalá (ss. xvi-xix) (Madrid, 1981), pp. 463–4. M. Vallejo Girvés, ‘El gabinete numismático del Colegio de San Ildefonso de Alcalá’, in Historia de la Universidad de Alcalá, ed. A. Alvar Ezquerra (Alcalá de Henares, 2010), p. 688. 75 ahn, Universidades, Libro 160, fols. 293r-294r. 76 Ibid., fol. 302r. 77 Ponz, op. cit. (note 70), p. 295. 78 E. Flórez, Medallas de las colonias, municipios y pueblos antiguos de España. Colección de las que se hallan en diversos autores, y de otras nunca publicadas, con explicación y dibujo de cada una de ellas (Madrid, 1757–73). 79 F. Méndez, Noticias sobre la vida, escritos y viajes del Rvmo. Padre Maestro Fray Enrique Flórez (Madrid, 1780), p. 21. L. M. Gutiérrez Torrecilla, Catálogo biográfico de colegiales y capellanes del Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso de la Universidad de Alcalá (1508–1786) (Alcalá de Henares, 1992), p. 56. Vallejo Girvés, op. cit (note 74), p. 687–8. 80 Fuente, op. cit. (note 11), vol. iv, p. 64. 81 As regards the Alcalá coin collection, see M. Vallejo Girvés, ‘El inventario del año 1777 del monetario del Colegio de San Ildefonso de la Universidad de Alcalá (ahn. Libro 1080. Sección Universidades)’, Numisma 59 no. 253 (2009), pp. 117–26. M. Vallejo Girvés, op. cit. (note 74), pp. 683–95. 82 ahn, Universidades, Libro 1080, fols. 227v-230v. González Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), p. 483–4. 83 R. Díez, Sermón de la edificación del templo y Colegio de la Insigne Universidad de Alcalá, echa por el Ilustrissimo Cardenal de Toledo don Fray Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros (Alcalá de Henares, 1601), fol. 224 r. 84 Aranda Quintanilla, op. cit. (note 4), p. 363. Robles, op. cit. (note 4), p. 121. 85 V. Tovar Martín, ‘Ventura Rodríguez y su proyecto de nueva universidad en Alcalá de Henares’, Academia. Boletín de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando 54 (1982), pp. 185–238. V. Tovar Martín, ‘El Colegio Máximo Complutense y sus edificios’. in La Compañía de Jesús en Alcalá de Henares (1546–1989) (Alcalá de Henares, 1989), pp. 25–32. V. Tovar Martín, ‘Aportaciones artísticas singulares en el marco ‘Histórico’ de Alcalá de Henares’, in La Universidad de Alcalá (Madrid, 1990), vol. ii, pp. 230–37. C. Román Pastor, Arquitectura Conventual de Alcalá de Henares (Alcalá de Henares, 1994), pp. 224–49. V. Tovar Martín, ‘Ventura Rodríguez: restauración y renovación de espacios universitarios de Alcalá’, in Una Hora de España. vii Centenario de la Universidad Complutense, ed. J. J. Martín González (Madrid, 1994), pp. 36–48. L. M. de Diego, La expulsión de los Jesuitas de Alcalá de Henares en 1767 y vicisitudes de sus propiedades hasta su regreso en 1827 (Alcalá de Henares, 1997), pp. 135–66. González Ramos, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 457–67. 86 Tovar Martín, op. cit. [1982] (note 85), p. 200. 87 ahn, Universidades, Libro 1094, pp. 1–2. 88 Fuente, op. cit. (note 11), vol. iv, p. 247. Reference is made to a wax skeleton which would be moved from the private room in the Alcalá library to the College of Medicine in Madrid. J. D. Calleja, Bosquejo histórico de los Colegios seculares de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (Madrid, 1900), p. 64. 89 Peset and Peset, op. cit. (note 68). M. T. Lahuerta, Liberales y universitarios. La Universidad de Alcalá en el traslado a Madrid (1820–1837) (Alcalá de Henares-Madrid, 1986). A Rodríguez Fierro, Universidad y poder político: la Universidad de Madrid (1836–1845) (Madrid, 1986). T. Alonso García, Entre el decreto y la realidad: la Universidad Literaria de Madrid en la década moderada (1845–1850) (Madrid, 1986). E. Hernández Sandoica and J. L. Peset, Universidad, poder académico y cambio social (Alcalá de Henares, 1508-Madrid, 1874) (Madrid, 1993). 90 Ballesteros Torres, op. cit. (note 71), p. 104. 91 Fuente, op. cit. (note 11), vol. iv, p. 64. 92 V. de la Fuente, ‘La Universidad de Alcalá de Henares’, Semanario Pintoresco Español 22 (1840), pp. 171–2. See also R. Amador de los Ríos, ‘La Universidad de Alcalá en la guerra de la Independencia, La España Moderna 129 (1899), pp. 33, 37. 93 Fuente, op. cit. (note 11), vol. iv, p. 64. Repeated, with almost exactly the same words, by Pascual Madoz: The library was ‘composed of four rooms, including the two private rooms, the first of which is larger; it had a bookcase divided into two parts, with enough space between the two to make it easier to reach the books placed higher up; . . . another room would be the catalogue, and the other two were the private rooms. In one of these there was a magnificent skeleton made from wax . . . with mastery and precision, and various pieces of ancient armour . . . and some arms; in the adjoining room there were various donations of the founder, the most notable of which were the crimson taffeta standard which fluttered alongside the standard of Castile above the walls of Mazalquivir and Oran; the keys of this city, presented to the conquering cardinal; some small bronze idols, an extraordinarily grandiose flute, a collection of samples of the best Spanish marble, two large cabinets used for a coin collection, various letters written in his own hand in a crimson velvet box, a marble medallion with a portrait of the aforementioned cardinal of a great likeness . . . items [that] are preserved in the university of Madrid, as belonging to it’. P. Madoz, Diccionario geográfico-estadístico-histórico de España y sus posesiones de ultramar (Madrid, 1848), vol. i, p. 628. 94 ahn, Universidades, Leg. 750. 95 J. de Entrambasaguas, La Universidad Central (Madrid, 1972), p. 33. Rodríguez Fierro, op. cit. (note 89), p. 269 and doc. iv of the documentary appendix. 96 Fuente, op. cit., (note 16), p. 1202. Fuente, op. cit. (note 11), vol. iv, p. 412. Indeed, he adds that ‘this rich artistic and historic jewel was destroyed and disposed of during the first Carlist War, and only the relic and the small interior cross in which it was placed survived. These were given as a gift to Queen Isabella II to replace the Lignum Crucis, which was stolen in 1858 in the Royal Chapel’, in Fuente, op. cit. (note 11), vol. iii, p. 121. 97 Alonso García, op. cit. (note 89), p. 176 et seq. The armour includes two helmets, which disappeared before 1868, after which they are no longer included in the documents. As regards the inventories of historical effects, see also: Fernández, op. cit. (note 13), pp. 411–45. 98 Fuente, op. cit. (note 16), p. 725. 99 Fuente, op. cit. (note 14), p. 1202. When discussing the inventories of the weapons room of the Colegio at the beginning of the sixteenth century, Gayangos and Fuente (op. cit. (note 17), p. 249) state that ‘Out of these objects the only ones preserved are two incomplete suits of armour, an arquebus or matchlock blunderbuss, two broken halberd irons with the poles arbitrarily repaired at a much later date, and a broken crossbow. The inventory says nothing of the three flags and the standard of Cisneros, which were carried at the university processions and are today preserved alongside the arms cited in the library of the Universidad Central.’ See also Fuente, op. cit. (note 37), p. 160. 100 Fuente, op. cit. (note 37), p 160. Entrambasaguas, op. cit. (note 95), pp. 51–3. As regards the ring of Cisneros and the outlandish story of its origin, disappearance when given to Joseph Bonaparte, replacement with a fake, and the reappearance of the original delivered to the Cathedral of Toledo, see: V. de la Fuente, ‘El anillo del Cardenal Cisneros’, La Cruzadai (1867), pp. 37–8, 158–60, 161–4. Also in the newspaper El Tajo 28, 14 July 1867, pp. 109–110. 101 Fuente, op. cit. (note 37), pp. 159–66. See Biblioteca Histórica Complutense ‘Marqués de Valdecilla’, ms 429 (16). Also, Fernández, op. cit. (note 13), pp. 426–45. 102 Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Madrid). Archivo. 1868/103-b-ix-1. See also Fernández, op. cit. (note 13), pp. 456–8; cited in Entrambasaguas, op. cit. (note 95), p. 53. 103 Fuente, op. cit. (note 14), p. 1201: ‘According to tradition, Cardinal Cisneros collected them and deposited them in his university, after having disarmed the peasants, who accompanied him to the conquest of Oran. There are three of them, completely patched up; the main one and the biggest is made from a deep red material and has quite thin white stripes; another is divided into four parts, two white and two blue, and the other is striped red and white. The cardinal’s standard is made from a crimson taffeta material with a design of quarterings, which was his escutcheon; on it, and at the foot of the archbishop’s insignia which finished off the standard, there is a cardinal’s galero of smooth crimson, from which the cardinal’s tassels hang on both sides of the standard.’ The latter piece is now at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, although it has suffered major alterations: A. Martínez Ripoll, ‘Estandarte cisneriano del Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso y Universidad Complutense’, in Una Hora de España.viiCentenario de la Universidad Complutense, ed. J. J. Martín González (Madrid, 1994), p. 111. 104 M. R. Marco Rodríguez, Catálogo de las armas de fuego (Madrid, 1980), p. 11. 105 Cited in J. Amador de los Ríos, Noticia histórica de la solemne regia apertura de la Universidad Central en el curso académico de 1855 a 1856 (Madrid, 1856). Exhibited at the International Exhibition in Barcelona in 1929: Catálogo histórico y bibliográfico de la Exposición internacional de Barcelona, 1929–1930 (Madrid, 1933), vol. ii, pp. 39–41. 106 Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Madrid). Archivo. 1868/103-b-ix-1, fols. 9r-10r. There are also copies of the inventory of the deposit in the Archivo General de la Administración (Alcalá de Henares). caja aga 6718. Legajo 6559, ‘Adquisiciones del Estado’. Also in: Biblioteca de la Universidad Complutense. Secretaría. Inventory of the archaeological objects handed to the Director of the Museo Arqueológico, 16 March 1868. See, as regards this document, Fernández, op. cit. (note 13), pp. 449–453, and as regards the inventory of the Museo Arqueológico, pp. 458–462. 107 Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Madrid). Archivo. 1868/103-b-ix-1, fol. 13r. Fernández, op. cit. (note 13), pp. 463–4. It appears cited in Noticia histórico-descriptiva del Museo Arqueológico Nacional. (Madrid, 1876), p. 107: ‘Grandiose bronze lamp, with Arabic chiselled ornamentation and inscriptions – In the Granada style – From the Universidad Central – Monograph of D. Rodrigo Amador de los Ríos, in tome iii of the cited work (Museo Español de Antigüedades).’ The quote corresponds to Amador de los Ríos, op. cit. (note 21), pp. 464–85. It is reproduced in J. Amador de los Ríos and J. D. de la Rada y Delgado, Historia de la Villa y Corte de Madrid (Madrid, 1860), vol. i, p. 265. Fernández, op. cit. (note 13), pp. 505–8, discusses some trumpets preserved in the Biblioteca Histórica Complutense de Madrid (Marqués de Valdecilla), of an unknown date, which were given to the rector Gustavo Villapalos (1990s). She assumed they were from the graduation ceremonies, and had nothing to do with the aforementioned añafiles. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)
TI - Treasures and collections in the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso and University of Alcalá: trophies, ‘spolia sancta’ and museum
JF - Journal of the History of Collections
DO - 10.1093/jhc/fhy011
DA - 2019-03-09
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/treasures-and-collections-in-the-colegio-mayor-de-san-ildefonso-and-ejEA7WRhCa
SP - 111
VL - 31
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -