Rebranding San Millán: the Becerro Galicano as a rejection of the monastery's Navarrese heritage (1192–95)

Abstract

This article examines the context in which the Becerro Galicano of San Millán de la Cogolla was created in the late twelfth century. The first factor taken into account is the monastery's position on the frontier between the kingdoms of Castile and Navarre. Then the contents and structure of the cartulary are compared with those of its now lost predecessor, the Becerro Gótico, a comparison that reveals that the prime concern of the monastery by the late twelfth century was the defence of its possessions from the bishopric of Calahorra. Finally, events of the 1190s, above all a resurgent bishopric and endemic warfare in the Rioja region, conditioned the decision to compose a cartulary stressing the monastery's Castilian origins and subsequently seek its ratification by higher ecclesiastical authorities.