General description of the manuscripts

This codex with its 429 pages of 455 x 235 mm, written in Visigothic typeface to two columns, and its 82 miniatures, contains a vast compilation of texts on canonical and civil law, including a complete collection of the Spanish conciles, the canons of all general conciles, a selection of other canons and the pontiffs’ decrees until St. Gregory the Great, contemporary of St. Isidore. It also contains the Fuero Juzgo, that is the civil code used in Spain since the Goths until the 13th century.

It includes a decription of the Route of Santiago commissioned by Callixtus II (1119-1124) to the French monk Aimerico Picaud. The existing copy in Santiago was developed a few years later under the auspices of the bishop Gelmirez and includes in its five books, besides the “Pilgrim’s Guide”, the transfer of the body of the apostle Santiago, a wide range of information related to the cult of Santiago, like a missal for great solemnities, a set of homilies, an antiphonary, the account of some miracles and several stories related to Charlemagne.

Elaborated for Sancho Garcés, the Second under the direction of Sisebut, abbot of Pamplona, includes part of the history of Orosio, the history of the Goths by St. Isidore, the copy of the Epitome Ovetensis, the most ancient version of the chronicles developed a century earlier in Oviedo, according to Sánchez Albornoz, and it contains the final history of the Visigothic kingdom and of the Asturian monarchy, besides a set of texts on the history of Navarra, including genealogies of the Pyrenean Christian kingdoms along the 9th and 10th centuries.

Although to a great extent it is a copy of the Albeldense Codex, it is considered as one of the most important manuscripts from the scriptorium of St. Millán de la Cogolla. As with the original of the monastery of Albelda, it contains a complete collection of the Spanish conciles and the canons o all general conciles, as well as the Fuero Juzgo and a short history of the beginnings of the kingdom of Navarra.

It is formed by a huge dictionary encyclopaedia with over 20.000 terms to which other pages from other texts were added to. Although it containss very few miniatures, that use to be very simple and non coloured, it includes a complete set of capital letters beautifully decorated with stripes of solid colours, traceries, termination with floral motifs and schematic figures of animals, in a style that was usually employed in other codex of St. Millán de la Cogolla during the second half of the 10th century.