CHAPTER TEN JERÓNIMO ROMÁN DE LA HIGUERA AND THE LEAD BOOKS OF SACROMONTE Mercedes García-Arenal and Fernando Rodríguez Mediano* 1 One of the sources cited by Father Román de la Higuera in his Histo- ria Eclesiástica de Toledo is La Historia verdadera del rey don Rodrigo, a work authored by the Morisco from Granada Miguel de Luna. 2 In this famous work of falsiication Luna claimed to have translated an ancient Arab chronicle housed in the Royal Library of El Escorial, which related a history of the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Luna’s history was in fact an absolute fantasy, not that this impeded it from becoming a popular success in both Spain and abroad. 3 As is well known, Miguel de Luna is also one of the protagonists in the “Turpiana Tower parchment” and “Lead Books of Sacramonte” falsiications, both forgeries executed in the city of Granada. Physician, translator and Arabic interpreter, Luna “translated” these texts in collaboration with the celebrated Alonso del Castillo, who, like Luna, was also a Morisco, physician and Arabic interpreter. 4 Supervised by the Archbishop of * Translated by Nicola Stapleton and Kevin Ingram. 1 his text forms part of the project of investigation “Los libros Plúmbeos del Sacromonte. Edición y estudio del texto árabe,” (HUM2004-02018/FILO), inanced by the Ministry of Education and Science, Spain. he authors are researchers at Spain’s Higher Council of Scientiic Investigations (CSIC). 2 Granada, René Rabut, 1592. Facsimile edition with introductory study by Luis Bernabé Pons, Granada, 2001. 3 here are two basic references on this work: Francisco Márquez Villanueva, “La voluntad de leyenda de Miguel de Luna” in El problema morisco (desde otras laderas), Madrid, 1991, pp. 45–97; and Luis F. Bernabé Pons, in the introductory study quoted above. A more recent addition is Mercedes García-Arenal and Fernando Rodríguez Mediano, “Médico, traductor, inventor: Miguel de Luna, cristiano arábigo de Granada,” Chronica Nova 36 (2006), pp. 187–231; and Mercedes García-Arenal and Fernando Rodríguez Mediano, “Miguel de Luna, cristiano arábigo de Granada,” in Manuel Barrios and Mercedes García-Arenal, ¿La historia inventada? Los libros plúmbeos y el legado sacromontano, Granada, 2008, pp. 83–136. 4 Darío Cabanelas, El morisco granadino Alonso del Castillo, Granada, 1965, re- published 1991 with a study by J. Martínez Ruiz. Bibliography on the Lead Books is extensive: all references, in addition to newer and more recent contributions to the subject can be found in the monographs coordinated by Mercedes García-Arenal in © 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands (ISBN: 978 90 04 17553 2)