A Rediscovered Illuminated Manuscript of St. Ildefonsus's De Virginitate Beatae Mariae in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid

Abstract

In the fall of 1978 a lost illuminated manuscript of St. Ildefonsus's De Virginitate Beatae Mariae, once belonging to the Colección Lázaro Galdeano, was rediscovered in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid. Its miniatures are among the few surviving examples of Late Romanesque illumination in Spain, and a comparison of their style with miniatures in a Beatus Apocalypse Commentary manuscript (New York, Morgan Library, M. 429) completed in 1220 permits a dating of the codex to the early 13th century. Further comparisons with a contemporary illuminated version of the De Virginitate treatise strongly suggest a Toledan provenance. The miniatures illustrate episodes in the life of Ildefonsus, some based upon passages from the text of the treatise and others deriving from a "vita" attributed to an 8th-century Toledan bishop. The strong biographical emphasis of these scenes differs from earlier illuminated copies of the treatise such as the Parma Ildefonsus. All of the miniatures in the rediscovered De Virginitate involve the act of speaking or dialogue, and are examples of the eloquence frequently mentioned by Ildefonsus's medieval biographers. Further, contemporary interest in the author may have been inspired by the anti-heretical thrust of the De Virginitate text and its reflection of Christian attitudes toward Islam in the 12th and 13th centuries.