* The unit of Castilian currency in the fifteenth century was the copper maravedi; 18.7 of these equaled an Aragonese sueldo; 34 made a silver real; 374 made a gold escudo or ducat. The fluctuations of currencies make it especially hazardous to suggest modern equivalents for these coins. But as the wage of a day laborer in fifteenth-century Spain was some six maravedis per day, we shall hardly exaggerate if we equate the maravedi with $.067 in the United States currency of 1954, the sueldo with $1.20, the real with $2.28, and the escudo with S25.00.21
* “The Catholic Sovereigns”—a title conferred upon Ferdinand and Isabella by Pope Alexander VI in 1404.
* Juan Antonio Llorente, a Spanish priest, was general secretary of the Inquisition from 1789 to 1801. In 1809 he was commissioned by Joseph Bonaparte to examine the archives of the Inquisition and write its history. He left Spain with the retreating French, and published his history of the Inquisition in Paris in 1817.
* Covering 125,000 square feet. St. Peter’s covers 230,000; the Mosque of Córdoba 160,000.
* Complutum (fruitful) was the old Latin name of Alcalá.