The Museum of the Ways of the Gaudí Palace proposes a very special piece for this month of June. A magnificent facsimile of the Codex Calixtinus kept in the archives of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. On the 25th of each month, since 2021, a piece dedicated to the Santiago de Compostela phenomenon is presented on the occasion of the Jacobean Holy Year proclaimed on January 1, 2021 and extended until 2022 due to the health pandemic.
The facsimile was acquired by the museum in 1993. The Codex Calixtinus is one of the main medieval peninsular codices and an icon of the Jacobean tradition. Of anonymous authorship, it is the first known copy of the Liber Sacti Jacobi, in which a large number of books referring to the apostle St. James are compiled.
These texts are organized, in the codex, in five books and include liturgical texts referring to Santiago: masses, antiphons, hymns, miracles attributed to the apostle, narrations of the Traslatio and others in the purest style of medieval chivalry books. It also includes a Pilgrim’s Guide, which describes the route from France to Compostela, its stages and the Cathedral itself, attributed to Aimeryc Picaud, a French Benedictine monk.
It is a carefully elaborated codex, written in Carolinian script, with several illuminated capital letters and miniatures of Calixtus II, the apostle James and Charlemagne, among others.
Although its name comes from the attribution that is made as a compilation to the pontiff Calixtus II (1116-1124), the truth is that the texts come from various authors, being made in Compostela itself in the mid-twelfth century.
In Book V reference is made to places in the Diocese of Astorga such as Ponferrada or the river Sil, praising, for example, the good quality of its waters, a very important detail for pilgrims on their way to Santiago.
The facsimile is part of the collections of the Museum of the Ways in the Gaudí Palace, which has in the Provisorato room the monographic exhibition of pieces related to the Jacobean route. The Gaudí Palace is open every day from 10:00 to 14:00 in the mornings and from 16:00 to 20:00 in the afternoons.