Treasures and collections in the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso and University of Alcalá

The Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso and University of Alcalá was an important cultural institution in the Hispanic world of the early modern era. Founded by Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros (1436–1517), it assembled an important group of symbolic objects, amongst them trophies, relics, images and mirabilia. The beatification of the founder led not only to a corresponding increase in the numbers of those objects, seen as relics, but also to their display in particular places, with the creation of a number of proto-museums. With the coming of the Enlightenment, a number of veritable museums were formed, with consequent changes in the values attributed to the symbolic items. From that time until the creation in 1836 of the University of Madrid, by making use of the assets and professorships of the University of Alcalá, the remaining symbolic objects were considered primarily as illustrating the history of the institution.

Art · Art history · Enlightenment · Humanities · Institution · Social science · Sociology · The Symbolic · Theology · Visual arts · Historical Art and Architecture Studies · Historical Studies of Medieval Iberia · Medieval and Early Modern Iberia · Philosophy · Psychology