Acknowledgements

This work would not have been possible without the collaboration of various people from different organizations who supported this research and generously offered their assistance.

Thanks to the parish priests and to the monks and nuns of the monasteries who kindly granted access to the altarpieces in their custody. Thanks to the sacristans who waited patiently while we carried out our work, sometimes for several days.

We also thank the “servicio de onomástica de Euskaltzaindia” for its invaluable collaboration translating material into euskera. Thanks to everyone who published our work thereby enabling us to share the religious heritage of Biscay.

Finally, thanks to the “Departamento de Cultura y Política Lingüistica del Gobierno Vasco” [i]. Without this assistance, it would not have been possible to do this research.

[i] Department of linguistic culture and politics of the Basque Government

To all of them, our most sincere thanks. Eskerrik asko!