Cantigas de Santa María de don Alfonso el Sabio, Códice Rico, page 6

The Cantigas de Santa María, composed at the Court of King Alfonso X in the second half of the 13th century, constitute a vast poetic repertory in medieval Galician. The 420 compositions include 353 narratives of miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary - one of the largest such collections - as well as a large number of devotional and liturgical poems, almost all set to music, and many illustrated by miniatures divided into smaller panels.

Four contemporary manuscripts survive: To-Codex (the Toledo MS, now in the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid), T-Codex (the Códice rico, in the Escorial Library), E-Codex (the Códice de los músicos, also in the Escorial) and F-Codex (the Florence MS, in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence). They represent at least three different compilations or stages in the elaboration of the Cantigas Project. The F-Codex is the second volume of the Codice Rico, left in an incomplete and possibly disordered state.

The picture shows page 6, the codex's unfinished and partly damaged title page. It contains a miniature and text with a decorative initial and a stave below it. The left part of the miniature depicts the Virgin and Child and two angels opening the gates of Heaven, while on the right, King Alfonso shows the scene to a crowd.

View the miniature

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 2 minutes): Alfonso el Sabio: Cantiga