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Title

Silos Antiphonary

Generic classification
Manuscripts and illuminations
Object
Manuscript
Date
1081-1088
Century
Last quarter of the 11th c.
Cultural context / style
Roman-Gallican
Dimensions
13,18 x 9,64 in
Material
Parchment, Ink
Technique
Illumination
Iconography / Theme
Liturgia, Música
Provenance
Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos (Santo Domingo de Silos, Burgos, Spain)
Current location
The British Library (London, United Kingdom)
Inventory Number in Current Collection
Add MS 30850
Object history

The origin of the library of the monastery of San Sebastián de Silos, later called Santo Domingo de Silos, can be found in the reconstruction carried out by the Castilian Count Fernán González in the middle of the 10th century. In the year 954 the count donated numerous lands and possessions to the monastery, as well as some books relevant to the cult (Senra, 2002). However, the peak of the monastery took place with the abbot Domingo Manso, who had been a monk of San Millán de la Cogolla. In 1041 Fernando I put him in charge of San Sebastián de Silos and under his mandate the monastic complex grew considerably. The library increased thanks to the donations received and the productions of the scriptorium itself (Castro, 2020), reaching its peak at the end of the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth century (Sánchez Mariana, 1984; Boylan, 1992).

Precisely, this Antiphonary was one of the volumes that were made between 1081-1088 (Fernández de la Cuesta, 1985; Haggh, 2007). Although it was originally thought to be Mozarabic, the codex is Roman-Gallic (Férotin, 1897). The Silense library suffered great losses throughout its history, such as this copy. Rodrigo Echevarría, the last abbot of the monastery before the exclaustration of 1835, was in charge of jealously preserving the manuscripts that were still treasured at Silos. According to Besse (1897), he was a man of "uncommon prudence and firmness, combined with an extensive knowledge, a great knowledge of the world and noble and distinguished manners". There is no doubt that his decision to protect the manuscripts helped to prevent them from being dispersed at first. However, their fate changed when he was appointed bishop of Segovia. Echevarría had to leave the monastery, and from then on the codices fell into disrepair.

Anastasio Rodrigo y Yusto, archbishop of Burgos, was impressed when he visited the Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos. Its dilapidated state led him to appeal to the former monks of the abbey. It was at that moment that Sebastián Fernández, one of the exclaustrated monks and vicar of the church of San Martín (Madrid), intervened. Although he was responsible for protecting the manuscripts, he failed to appreciate their true value, which led him to contact a marquis in Madrid "plus ou moins authentique" who called himself Aunt Jesusa (Besse, 1897). Thus it was that in 1877 he sold 69 manuscripts for 16,000 pesetas, a figure that undoubtedly pleased the parish priest.

The Antifonario was among these codices sold in Madrid. A year later it appeared in number 17 of the Catalogue de libres rares parmi lesquels on remarque la Bible Mazarine premier livre imprimé par Gutenberg et des manuscrits du XIe au XVIIIe siècle rédigé par M. Bachelin-Deflorenne cited as follows:

Breviarium cum oficio propio S. P. Nri Dominici Silencis. Manuscrit du XIe siècle. Petit in-fol., reliure à ais de bois recouv. de peau de mouton.

Manuscript on velvet, très-précieux au double point of view of the music of neumes that fills the volume, and of the big letters ornées that ornent the heads of chapire. These letters, with a rich and varied ornamentation, are composed of interlacing and treillis whose extrémités are generally terminated by the heads of fantastic animals [...].

It is not surprising that the volume ended up in the hands of Antoine Bachelin-Deflorenne, since he was an antiquarian specializing in the sale of antique and rare books. Although his main store was located in Paris, at 10 Boulevard des Capucines, he had branches in London and Madrid. That is how he learned that Sebastian Fernandez was selling the Silensian manuscripts. The Antiphonary was offered for sale in Paris on June 1, 1878 at the Hotel des Commissaires-Priseurs (Paris) and was bought on the 15th by Bernard Quaritch (Fernández de la Cuesta, 1985), a German bookseller who had settled in London. He acquired the Antiphonary for 1,750 francs (Whitehill, 1976) for the British Museum. In the Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1876-1881 it is mentioned as follows:

Mozarabic Antiphonal for the year, with musical notation throughout. Latin. Vellum; ff. 241. In Visigothic characters, finely written, with large coloured initials of interlaced and other patterns. XIth cent. Quarto.

Finally, in 1973 the Antiphonary became part of the collection of the British Library (London), where it is still preserved today.

Description

An Antiphonary is a liturgical book that gathers antiphons to be sung throughout the year. This codex consists of 243 folios: 241 of parchment and 2 of paper. It is divided into XVIII booklets, although it is possible that originally there were some more, given that from folio 170 onwards it is abruptly cut. The Antiphonary follows the Gallo-Roman rite, but also has formulas of the Hispanic rite (Fernández de la Cuesta, 1985).

Locations
* The relative location of dealers, antique shops, art galleries, and collectors leads us to the places where they were based or had one of their main headquarters. However, this does not always indicate that every artwork that passed through their hands was physically located there. In the case of antique dealers and art merchants, their business often extended across multiple territories; sometimes they would purchase items at their origin and send them directly to clients. Similarly, some collectors owned multiple residences, sometimes in different countries, where they housed their collections. It is often difficult to determine exactly where a specific piece was kept during its time in their possession. Consequently, the main location of the dealer or collector is indicated. These factors should be considered when interpreting the map. Refer to the object's history in each case.
Bibliography
Citation:

Isabel Escalera Fernández, "Silos Antiphonary" in Nostra et Mundi. Cultural Heritage from Castile and Leon around the world, Fundación Castilla y León, 2025. https://inventario.nostraetmundi.com/en/work/398

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