ABSTRACT
Diego de Valdes' De dignitate regum regnorumque Hispaniae was published in 1602, two years after Cotton's 'Breif abstract' — though if its author was aware of Sir Robert Cotton's work he refrained from attempting anything resembling a point-by-point refutation. The Escorial ordo for the anointing and coronation of the king of Castile is also an illustrated ordo — and a work long overdue for full-scale facsimile treatment, one would have thought. The assistance of the articulated statue saved Alfonso XI from having his special Castilian sacrality compromised by churchmen. Cotton, by contrast, had plenty to say about Spain's deficiencies in comparison with England. The alleged 'precedencie' of a land 'first tainted with the heresie of Priscilianism, then with Gothish Arianism, and after defaced with Moorish Mahumetism' was soon disposed of. The extent of Cotton's enquiry was impressive.
