• Includes original illustrations
• The book has been proof-read and corrected for spelling and grammatical errors
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The reign of Ferdinand and Isabella represented the most brilliant epoch of Spanish history. It was a dawn flushed with victorious achievement, full of golden promise, a period of high enthusiasm. For not only had a new continent been discovered, but there were opening up new worlds of intellectual enterprise. History, drama, and painting claimed attention. Pulgar, the father of Castilian history; Cota, whose dramas were a foretaste of Lope de Vega's and Calderon's, and Rincon, the first native painter of note, were prominent amid the throng of courtiers that gathered in the presence chamber of Isabella.

The enchanting beauty of the Alhambra and the palaces, gardens and fountains of Granada had helped to fire the imagination of the conquerors to emulate the arts and learning of the vanquished. Especially during this reign was progress made in the art of architecture. The queen herself set the example of building monasteries and churches and endowing them as centers of learning and of sumptuous worship. Even Ferdinand, the Spanish counterpart in craft, as well as the contemporary, of Henry VII of England, though too parsimonious and immersed in state intrigues to bestow much thought on the arts, recognized the advantage of their cultivation, and approved, if he did not much aid, the magnificent patronage of his queen.