HISTORY
Nothing is known about its history until it reached the State Public Library in Burgos in times of the Disentailment, in 1870.
It is estimated that originally it consisted of three volumes although only the first one, that corresponds to the New Testament, has been preserved. Other two fragments of a page of this bible have recently been found
, that supposedly belong to the third volume, sewn to another biblical codex of the Monasterio de Las Huelgas.
Regarding its origin, there is no doubt that it comes from some scriptorium in Castile, San Pedro de Cardeña, according to most of the specialists, although the paleograph, Manuel Zabalza who has recently finished a large and valuable piece of research, considers it was originated in the Monasterio de Las Huelgas.
DESCRIPTION
We find ouselves in front of a manuscript that overflows spontaneity, with what we may consider as expressionist touches that present a very purist Romanesque style while keeping many reflections of the Hispanic spirit, with many of its figures in elongated canon and other shorter ones, all of them of great beauty. The author shows a great aesthetic sensitivity and harmony of composition, combining sometimes different scenes on the same page.
In the Bible of Burgos we find both, decorations in Nordic style, with intertwined elements, roleos, naked human figures and images of animals with clothings with parallel pleats of clear Hispanic descent, although sometimes including figures with clear Romanesque traits, with lines of harmonic fluency even modelled in chiaroscuro that seem to announce the coming of the Gothic painting.
It shows to be so comparable with the best European Romanesque of the last stage that, due to an error in the photographic reproduction of page 12v
that was being studied by some experts, that the word "lang" that means "take" in German appeared on the head of the snake, for what it was thought it was a manuscrpt of German origin.
Later, when it could be compared with the original codex they realised it was an error and the theory was discarded.
Of unquestionable quality, it includes a complex cycle of fall and redemption based on the texts of St. Agustine and on the Old-New Testament typology. Within that cycle the miniature "Expulsion from Paradise" on page 12v is considered as one of the most interesting in all European art of those times. According to Professor Yarza "it is the most exceptional among all Castillian biblical scenes in Romanesque art and represents an unicum in European Romanesque miniature".
Also of an exceptional beauty is his miniature on the Epiphany of the Kings, included in one of the first pages of the Genalogy of Christ. It is surprising the utilization on this same page of horse-shoe arches considering the advanced date this bible was made.
It is written in Carolingian lettertype, of great quality, in red and black colours
depending on the kind of paragraph it is dealing with. There are also remarkable the magnificent sets of capital lettertypes that include fantastic imaginery decorating forms and letters as well as the different sets of capital letters with very differentiated features, some of them very complex and beautiful.
In summary, the Romanesque Bible of Burgos, despite the fact that just the first of all three volumes it consisted of has reached our days, is one of the most interesting manuscripts of the last period of what we have considered to be High Medieval Spanish Miniature, since although for its syle and datation it belongs to the last stage of Romanesque art and announces the transition into the Gothic art, for its spirit, clearly Spanish, it undoubtedly connects with all previous Spanish miniature.
BIBLIOGRPHY
Historia de España de Menéndez Pidal: Tomos VI y VII*
SUMMA ARTIS: Tomos VIII y XXII
Arte y Arquitectura española 500/1250: Joaquín Yarza
La Biblia románica de la Biblioteca Provincial de Burgos: Yarza, Joaquín, Archivo Español de Arte (AEA), (161)
Biblia Románica de Burgos