Philip, it is fantastic to have you writing here again!!! Your entries always add profound dimension to these discussions
For example, while I do have the work by Ms Hoffmeyer, I had always pretty much subscribed to the perspective noted by Fernando, and actually did not realize that Toledo remained a most viable center in these times.
I suppose I should have realized that with these Solingen sword smiths who had gone to Toledo in these times to comingle with the smiths there, and taking Spanish versions of their own names (Enrique Coll/ Heinrich Koll) that this might be the case.
I thank you very much for pointing out this essential and important passage, which definitely puts these centers operating concurrently in the proper perspective.
Fernando, I can totally relate to your cat dilemma!
I used to have two who inevitably sprawled across the pages of books and notes I was working on as if I had put them there for that purpose. It always reminded me of Ernest Hemingway, who was constantly surrounded by his houseful of cats.
Interestingly, a man who was keenly fascinated by Spain and the Iberian Peninsula.