Update on the Archives

So this has been a useful week in the Archivo Capitulares. I have found at least three or four documents that are patently useful, and maybe a dozen others which may be useful. I found a heretofore unpublished document written by Per Abbas, who is in all likelihood the composer of the famous Cantar de Mio Cid. While that is certainly interesting, I am not sure it is important. It has been established by other historians that this guy lived in Toledo in the first quarter of the thirteenth century, when the Cantar was composed. While it would be nice to compare the handwriting of Per Abbas to the manuscript of the poem, such is impossible-- the poem survives only in a fourteenth century copy. However, it is interesting to note that the dictator of the document referred to Per Abbas as "beloved by God", an unusual benediction which might indicate that he was special... like special because he just wrote Spain's national epic.

More pertinent to my purposes, I found this today: a charter from King Fernando III from 1218, confirming his grandfather's gifts to the Church of Toledo in thanks for the Archbishop's work at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. The name of the the battle is right in the dead center of the document, ten lines down from the top. I took this picture, for which I owe the Archivo two bucks.