Calixtinus has gone missing

Arose this morning to receive the dreadful intelligence that the 12th-c. manuscript Codex Calixtinus has been stolen from the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. This ms. is valuable for a whole lot of reasons, including the remarkable  folios that contain some of the earliest transcriptions of polyphonic music. I wonder what in the world the thieves are expecting to do with it, and I hope that the cathedral staff has had it professionally digitized, in which case it should be made available online so we can all enjoy it.

Beneath the picture of Charlemagne's army, who look suspiciously like Crusaders, we see the great man Hisself and some friends tippy-toeing off to Santiago on a red carpet. The architectural drawing suggests that architects had gotten away from Roman-style red-tile roofing by the 11th century.



Photo WikiCommons Fitxategi:Codex Calixtinus (Liber Sancti Jacobi) F162v siglo XII.

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