Cordova
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Cordova. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the capital of the province of Cordova, Spain. It is situated on the Guadalquivir about fifty miles above Seville. It is noted for the manufacture of leather goods and silverware. The city has an interesting history. It is the old Colonia Patricia of the Romans, a place of wealth and luxury. Seneca and Lucan were born here. The city is still surrounded by a mighty wall and massive towers. Part of the wall is Roman. In 572 Cordova was taken by the Goths. From 756 to 1051 it was the capital of Arabian Spain. Under the Moors the city walls were fifteen miles in extent, and the population is thought to have reached 1,000,000. The city was famous for Cordova leather. The Moors erected their chief mosque here. It is a magnificent structure. In plan it is nearly square. Eighteen rows of columns carry arcades, above which a second tier of arches carries the vaulting of the ceiling. In richness of decoration, mosaic, and sculpture, the work is said to surpass the Alhambra. The interior ranks the mosque, now a cathedral, among the vast structures of the world. A nearby cloister is known as the Court of Oranges. During the period of the Moorish occupancy Cordova was a center of Arabian learning, the most celebrated center of the arts and sciences in Europe. Algebra, alchemy, and other subjects spread into western Europe through Cordova. In 1236 the city was captured by Ferdinand III of Castile, but under Christian ownership it declined rapidly in splendor, learning, and prosperity. The present population is about 58,000. Areas once adorned with fountains and expensive buildings are now used for kitchen gardens.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an ancient Spanish city on the Gua Guadalquivir, in Andalusia, capital of a province of the same name. A part of the town is of Roman, a part of Moorish origin. The cathedral is a splendid building, originally a mosque, erected in the 8th century by King Abderahman. The city is well supplied with schools, hospitals, and other institutions. It has always carried on considerable trade; and under the Moors the leather exclusively manufactured there (cordovan) was exported in all directions. Cordova, which was founded by the Romans, became the capital of Arabian Spain and the center of Arabian splendor and science under the caliphs of the West. With the decay of the Moorish empire it fell into the hands of Ferdinand III. of Castile. The province includes the fertile and beautiful valley of the Guadalquivir and the mountains of Sierra Morena. Pop. about 75,000. COREA. See KOREA.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The stagnant provincial town of these accounts — 58,000 people in Aiton's 1910 entry, about 75,000 in Collier's 1921, with its old quarters given over to "kitchen gardens" — is now a city of roughly 325,000 and lives largely on tourism. The great mosque Aiton's admired was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, with the surrounding historic centre added in 1994; the nearby palace-city of Medina Azahara, barely excavated in 1910, was listed in 2018. Aiton's figure of a million inhabitants under the caliphs is no longer accepted — modern estimates run from about 100,000 to a few hundred thousand, still enormous for tenth-century Europe. The building is now usually called the Mosque-Cathedral, and its ownership and name have been the subject of public dispute in Spain since the 2000s, with the Catholic Church continuing to bar Muslim prayer inside.
Written for this edition, 2026.