Russia Delivers Digital Copy of Valuable Medieval Manuscript Stolen in 1835 to Cantabria | Culture

In 1835, the Convent of San Salvador de Oña (Oña, Burgos) was the target of Spanish confiscation. His Benedictine monks were expelled; the magnificent Gothic building founded in 1011 by the Count of Castilla Sancho García, now abandoned; and its spectacular medieval library, completely ransacked. In this way, manuscripts, files, books and incunabula reached every part of the world where they were treasured by collectors. That was the case with the call Will of Conde Gundesindo O parchment of Fistoles, an 11th-century document in Visigoth script that ended up on the shelves of the Archives of the Institute of History in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Today, thanks to researchers Máximo Gutiérrez and Iván Gastañaga, a digitized 3D copy is kept in the Historical Archives of Cantabria. It describes part of the early medieval history of northern Burgos and Cantabria, a history that has so far only been attested by more or less erroneous copies or transcriptions.

The power of the monasteries in the eleventh century was immense. The legal texts they monopolized registered the ownership of churches, fields or entire cities. It is documented that an error in the preparation of a document, whether intentional or unintentional, can alter the rights in an asset or legacy. For this reason, the ducal will contained the original copies of three other wills from the years 811, 816 and 820, which documented the possessions and rights of the ducal family. These were lost, but not the parchment kept in the Castilian monastery. Máximo Gutiérrez explains it: “The will is of great importance for the paleography and understanding of the Spanish Middle Ages. After its disappearance in 1835, only a few copies could be consulted, many with errors or black pudding. [comentarios personales] its publishers.

Between 1835 and 1866, the year in which the National Historical Archive was founded, Spanish heritage was plundered for the second time since the War of Independence. Thousands of files of inestimable value were destroyed, left the country or ended up in private collections. Among them the will mentioned above, which fortunately suffered a better fate than a 9th-century Bible, also belonging to the monastery of Burgos, the pages of which were burned to “fried sausages” by a notary from Oña.

Following the abandonment of Spanish monasteries and churches due to successive confiscations, the hundred-year-old documents were mainly bought by French and German dealers, who in turn sold them on to major European and North American collectors. And so it was in the case of Testament, which came into the hands of a Russian bibliographer named Nicolai Petrovich Lijachiev, who acquired it on one of his regular summer trips to Europe. Nothing was heard from him again.

It was only in 1982 that the professor of medieval history Emilio Sáez, thanks to his contacts with academics from the East, found it in the archives of the Saint Petersburg Institute of History. Sáez discovered that the Russian institution had “a Spanish documentary fund” unrecorded in Spain, with texts beginning in the 11th century and ending in the 19th century: from pieces from the Municipal Archives of Salamanca to manuscripts by Fernando IV by Alfonso XI or autograph letters from various queens. A total of 463 documents. The professor transcribed some of them, including, in his opinion, the most important one, the count’s legacy, since the Soviet authorities would not allow him to make a copy.

In 1988, the medievalist died in a traffic accident, and so it was his son Carlos who completed and published a book containing everything the researcher had gathered from documents preserved in the then USSR. For this reason, Gutiérrez and Gastañaga decided to resume the work of Sáez, as technology had made remarkable advances over the past few decades. A year ago, after complicated negotiations, they managed to persuade the Russian authorities to make a copy of the text, which was officially handed over to the Cantabrian archives today, Wednesday. “It has enormous symbolic value,” says Gutiérrez, “because it reminds us that we have not been able to defend our heritage.” But it also has its positive side, because thanks to people who have cherished it, it persists even if it is in a foreign land.”

Eventually Lijachiev set up his own museum at home with everything he bought in the main European capitals at the end of the 19th century. When the October Revolution came, his valuable library was nationalized and, although he was appointed director, purged and sent to Siberia in the 1930s. He died in 1936 and is now a reference in the academic world.

“Oña’s entire fabulous library was saved in the smallest part. Even the rule book, which actually ended up in the National Historical Archives, although according to Sáez it was lost in 1936 during the civil war,” Gutiérrez recalls. “The second third of the 19th century was a shattering time for national heritage. The tradition of looting began, involving many and very important people. “Powerful people of the present, who saw no problem with everything leaving the country to do good business,” the researcher concludes.

Emilio Saez (1917-1988, Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia), whose profile is included in the list of eminent persons of the Royal Academy of History, has achieved national and international recognition and has participated in numerous congresses and scientific meetings around the world. Today, the Casa de Cultura de Caravaca is named in his honor. No one remembers who stole the priceless book from a monastery in Burgos.