A late medieval tribute to God the Creator: the geographical compendium in the Llibre vermell (Library of Montserrat, Barcelona, MS 1, ff. 68r–70r)

Abstract

The so-called Llibre vermell is a late medieval miscellaneous codex that contains theological and devotional texts thought to have been intended for the spiritual instruction of pilgrims traveling to the monastery of Montserrat, near Barcelona in Spain. It includes a geographical compendium (ff. 68r–70r) dating from c.1400. Devoted to the creation of the world, its folios are illustrated with a mappa mundi, an image of God embracing and blessing the universe, and depictions of monstrous races. Although the Llibre vermell is one of the Catalan medieval manuscripts to have aroused particular interest among scholars, its geographical compendium has barely been studied; and yet, as this article shows, it holds a unique place in the context of medieval art and cartography. Its text is here fully transcribed and translated for the first time, revealing the close relationship between the compendium’s words and pictures. An in-depth analysis of the map and its portrayal of the known universe shows that, despite the apparently schematic form of these diagrams, far from retaining the archaic characteristics of earlier works—as has previously been asserted—this medieval compendium is absolutely steeped in the tradition of nautical cartography developed in the Crown of Aragon in the late Middle Ages. As well as providing a detailed analysis of the compendium’s contents and setting the work in its historical context, this article also explores the possible ways in which a putative nautical model may have reached the Montserrat scriptorium.