Codex Vigilanus

The Crónica Albeldense ( Chronicle of Albelda, Latin: Chronicon Albeldense ) is a chronicle in the Kingdom of Asturias in the king Alfonso III court. ( 866-910 ) was written.

Formation

The author is unknown. It was suggested earlier, the author was a clergyman named Toledans Dulcidius, which is mentioned at the end of the chronicle, but the research of this view strayed. According to the current state of research is to be assumed that he was a clergyman, of the royal court of Oviedo in the area of King Alfonso III. lived. Maybe he has spent some time in the city of Leon, in the circumstances he knew his way around well.

The original version of this work only extends to the year 881, in which it was completed; later the chronicler added two longer sections over the years 882 and 883. In November 883 he finished the most recent version.

Content

The work begins with a brief summary of the geography of the world and then returns a list of spatial data for the Iberian Peninsula and their provinces, cities and rivers and an overview of the chronology of world history since Adam. Subsequently, the history of the Roman Empire from Romulus to the Byzantine Emperor Tiberius II ( 698-705 ) is treated. It follows the story of the Visigoths, starting with King Athanaric, and in particular the Western Goth on the Iberian Peninsula to King Roderich ( 710-711 ), which went under the Empire. The conclusion is the story of the Kingdom of Asturias, Pelayo ( 718-737 ) to the present the author. The representation with increasing proximity to the time of the chronicler is always greater detail. At the same time, the style of converts; the older history is combined with dry words, the deeds of Alfonso III. describes the chronicler as a knowledgeable contemporary detail and vivid. He glorified this ruler whose military success he referred to as " holy victory," thus anticipating the later usual interpretation of the struggle against the Muslims as a holy war.

Historical context and source value

King Alfonso III. showed a strong interest in history. It was his intention to turn his kingdom as the rightful renewal of destroyed by the Muslim invasion of Western Goth ( " Neogotismus "). Served this purpose, three resulting in his court histories: obtained in two editors. " Chronicle of Alfonso III ," was involved in the drafting of the king himself, the Crónica Albeldense and ended in April, 883 " Prophetic History ". These three chronicles are summarized from the research, the term " cycle of Alfonso III. ". In the Crónica Albeldense and the Chronicle of Alfonso III. was partially evaluated the same news material, as can be seen from formal and thematic similarities.

The chronicles of the cycle is based, in which the downfall of the Western Goth is interpreted as divine punishment for the sinfulness of the last Visigothic kings and the military successes of the Asturian kings appear as a reward for their piety a tradition. In order to convince the reader of this view of history, startled the Asturian author also against deliberate falsification of history not return. However, modern historians consider the " cycle of Alfonso III. " With great appreciation, because it is the only chronicle sources across the era of the Kingdom of Asturias ( 718-910 ); without them would be about the beginnings of the Reconquista almost nothing is known. Even for the late Visigoth offer the Asturian chronicles valuable, albeit tendentious information.

Handwritten Tradition

The Crónica Albeldense is ( codices ) narrated in four medieval manuscripts of origin of the two oldest and most important, the "Codex Aemilianensis " and the "Codex Albeldensis ", from the 10th century. The most complete version in Codex Aemilianensis, a copy of the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, which is now preserved in the library of the Real Academia de la Historia in Madrid.

The manuscript from Albelda

The name Albeldense received the chronicle of the transcript from the monastery of San Martín de Albelda in Albelda de Iregua, La Rioja, copied and lists of kings continued until the year 976 by ​​the monk Vigila (Spanish Vigilán ). The full modern name is Codex conciliorum Albeldensis seu Vigilanus.

The manuscript comprises 429 large-format pages ( 455 x 325 mm), which are described in columns Visigothic script. This for that time luxury manuscript was completed in 976 by ​​the monk Vigila and his assistants Sarracino and García. Vigila mentioned his colleagues in a final note, they also appear with him in addition to other people in one of the best miniatures.

The manuscript is a unique compilation of canon and civil law, and invaluable source of knowledge about the Visigothic and Asturian and Galician over the Kingdom. It contains a collection of conciliar documents and a list of general councils as well as a selection of canons and decretals of the popes to Gregory the Great, a contemporary of Isidore of Seville. Furthermore, there is a collection of laws, the (then under the name Liber iudiciorum ) to modern times was valid ( since the 13th century Castilian translation as Fuero Juzgo ). From the Visigoth era Other texts are historical and liturgical character, like the Vida de Mahoma ( biography of the Prophet Mohammed from a Christian perspective ), the Crónica Albeldense and a Calendario in which appear the first time the Arabic numerals 1 to 9 in a European document.

In addition, 82 miniatures found in vibrant colors: partly full-page Cityscapes ( eg Toledo) or portraits of important personalities. Although they are a work of Spanish monks, these works still not geared Visigothic or Mozarabic models, but in the works of the Carolingian miniaturist.

The Codex came through a donation by the Conde de Buendía to Philip II and is today one of the jewels of the library of the former monastery residence El Escorial.

The monastery of San Martín de Albelda was in the 10th century under the rule of kings Pamplona one of the cultural centers of the country, more important than the also famous monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla. It had an active and well-organized scriptorium, where monks copied the necessary for the fair and the spiritual life of books, but also legal texts. The reputation of the monastery reached beyond the country's borders, mid-10th century, visited the French bishop of Puy Godeschalk on his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and was copy a treatise of St. Ildefonso about the virginity of Mary.

Text output

• Yves Bonnaz (ed.): Chroniques asturiennes. Editions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Paris, 1987, ISBN 2-222-03516-3 (contains the Latin text with French translation and a detailed commentary French ).
• Juan Gil Fernández ( eds.): Crónicas Asturianas. Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, 1985, ISBN - 84 600-4405 -X ( Universidad de Oviedo. Publicaciones del Departamento de Historia Medieval 11), ( Latin text and Spanish translation ).