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Recent Entries

The  Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Leonardo Torriani (1588)
Soundscape on a galleon bound for the Indies (1573)

Eugenio Salazar de Alarcón, governor of the islands of Tenerife and La Palma, in a …

Feb. 23, 2026
Portolan Chart of the Mediterranean. Mateo Prunes (1563)
From Tripoli to Venice, fourteenth stage of Francisco Guerrero's journey to Jerusalem (1588–1589)

On 14 November 1588, Francisco Guerrero, accompanied by his pupil Francisco Sánchez, five pilgrims and …

Feb. 19, 2026
Altar of San Juan Bautista. Anonymous (c. 1390)
Foundations and endowments of the altar of San Juan Bautista (c. 1390) and La Anunciación (c. 1463) in Córdoba Cathedral

The devotional, liturgical and funerary space of the old altar of Saint John the Baptist …

Feb. 16, 2026
Cathedral of Tarazona. Photo: Alfonso de Vicente.
Documents about Tomás Luis de Victoria in the cathedral of Tarazona (1591-1601)

An inventory from 1591 lists four printed books by Victoria, in addition to a handwritten …

Feb. 12, 2026

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Procession of blood and disciplines during Lent in Seville (1285)

Juan Ruiz Jiménez
March 26, 2018

A brief piece of news from an apostolic brief by Pope Martin V, in 1285, brings us closer to the first penitential brotherhood that we know of in Seville. It …

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Inventory of the musical instruments and books for the wind players of the cathedral of Granada (1657)

Juan Ruiz Jiménez
March 22, 2018

The inventory of the “goods” of the Granada cathedral, carried out in 1657, provides us with a list of the instruments and minstrels’ books that the cathedral had on that …

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Zambreros (Moorish ensemble) in the Alhambra (1501)

Juan Ruiz Jiménez
March 6, 2018

 On 19 April 1501, during one of her stays in Granada, Queen Isabella the Catholic ordered a payment of four doubloons of gold to a group of "newly converted instrumentalist", …

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