The Sacromonte lead book corpus was not necessarily complete or all handed in.

Evidence

Any discrepancy between the total given in this passage quoted from Alonso and figures that may occur elsewhere arises from two circumstances: first, Alonso points out that there are mentions of three other treatises: a History of Saint James written by Tesif´on, a second part to the book De fundamento Ecclesiae, and The Transit of Our Lady by Saint Cecilius. It is uncertain whether these were simply never written, or written and somehow never picked up during the excavations, or perhaps picked up surreptitiously but never handed in by someone who might have hoped to sell what he had found (Alonso 1979, 114). I would add that in Granada there are still rumors—that I am in no position to substantiate—of “plomos” (lead tablets) at present in private hands. It is not entirely unlikely that when the bulk of the discoveries were carried off for evaluation in Madrid and then Rome, some items may have been kept back, out of local piety or for whatever other reason. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1739

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: whether lead tablets really remain in private hands in Granada, and what happened to the items never handed in during the Sacromonte excavation.
• FICTION: A forgery/hoard plot where some treasure tablets were kept back privately is a natural story engine.