Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/511

483 REVIEW OF THEIR ADMINISTRATION. 483 which shed such lustre over the Spanish school at chapter the close of the century. ^^^ A still more decided '— impulse was given to letters. More printing presses were probably at work in Spain in the infancy of the art, than at the present day.^^ Ancient semi- naries were remodelled ; new ones were created. Barcelona, Salamanca, and Alcala, whose cloistered solitudes are now the grave, rather than the nurse- ry of science, then swarmed with thousands of dis- ciples, who, under the generous patronage of the government, found letters the surest path to prefer- ment. ^^^ Even the lighter branches of literature felt the revolutionary spirit of the times, and, after yielding the last fruits of the ancient system, dis- IS"! The most eminent sculptors were, for the most part, foreign- ers ; — as Miguel Florentin, Pedro Torregiano, Felipe de BorgoHa, — chiefly from Italy, where the art was advancing rapidly to perfection in the school of Michael Angelo. The most successful architectural achievement was the cathedral of Granada, by Diego de Siloe. Pe- draza, Antiguedad de Granada, fol. 82. — Mem. de la Acad, de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16. 135 At least so says Clemencin, a competent judge. " Desde los mismos principios de su estable- cimiento fue mas comun la impren- ta en Espaiia que lo es al cabo de trescientos ailos dentro ya del siglo decimonono." Elogio de Dofia Is- abel, Mem. de la Acad, de Hist., tom. vi. 136 Ante, Introduction, Sect. 2; Part I., Chapter 19 ; Part II., Chap- ter 21. — The " Pragmaticas del Reyno " comprises various ordi- nances, defining the privileges of Salamanca and Valladolid, the manner of conferring degrees, and of election to the chairs of the uni- versities, so as to obviate any undue influence or corruption. (Fol. 14- 21.) "Porque," says the liberal language of the last law, " los estudios generales donde las cien- cias se leen y aprenden elFuerijan las leyes y fazen a los nuestros subditos y naturales sabidores y honrrados y acrecientan virtudes : y porque en el dar y assignar de las catedras salariadas deue auer loda libertad porque scan dadas a per- sonas sabidores y cientes." (Tara- cona, October 5th, 1495.) If one would see the totally different prin- ciples on which such elections have been conducted in modern times, let him read Doblado's Letters from Spain, pp. 103 - 107. The univer- sity of Barcelona was suppressed in the beginning of the last centu- ry. Laborde has taken a brief sur- vey of the present dilapidated con- dition of the others, at least as it was in 1830, since which it can scarcely have mended. Itineraire, torn. vi. p. 144, et seq.