Title

Sacramentary

Royal Scriptorium of Saint Isidore

Generic classification

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Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

This manuscript was produced in the scriptorium of San Isidoro de León, a place that produced important works such as the Beatus of Ferdinand I (National Library of Spain, Madrid) and the Etymologies of Saint Isidore (El Escorial Library in Madrid, Spain). Paleographic studies of the manuscript, as well as the dedicatio found at its beginning, have confirmed its provenance (Suárez, 2003).

It has been dated to around 1187, a time that coincided with the first documented rector of the Isidorian scriptorium, Santo Martino of León (Viñayo, 1988; Franco, 2010). Codex XII ( ca. 1162), currently preserved in the Archives of the Royal Collegiate Church of San Isidoro, was also produced during this period.

Very little is known about how the manuscript left León. The 15th-century binding bears the following inscription:“Reverendo Perez aapreste [sc. archpriest of the town of Villalpando, Canonicorum regularium].” Could this have been one of its owners? We do not know. From that point on, all trace of the volume is lost until December 19, 1919, when it was auctioned by Sotheby’s as lot 771. That same year, the British Museum (London) purchased the Sacramentary and added it to its catalog of acquisitions in 1933. Subsequently, in 1973, the manuscript was transferred to the British Library (London), where it is currently housed. 

Description

This Sacramentary consists of more than eighty folios. It is a liturgical book containing the ceremonies and prayers that were to be recited while celebrating Mass and administering the sacraments. The first six folios contain the liturgical calendar. A distinctive feature of this manuscript is that it includes the dies egri, or days of ill omen—twenty-four inauspicious days marked on the calendar: January 1 and 25, February 4 and 26, March 1 and 28, April 10 and 20, etc. (Suárez, 2003). It also includes three prayers dedicated to Saint Ildefonso and several miniatures, among which a scene of the Crucifixion and a Maiestas stand out.

Locations

• Last quarter of the XII^th c.

  monastery

  Royal Collegiate Church of San Isidoro of León, León (Spain)

• ca. 1919 - 1919

  auction house

  Sotheby's, Nueva York / Londres

• ca. 1919 - 1973

  museum

  The British Museum, London (United Kingdom)

• 1973 - present

  study center

  The British Library, London (United Kingdom)