[Gocamino] Theft of Codex Calixtinus

[E. O. Pederson]

Whatever its status and history as the first European travel guide, loss of the Codex is a cultural tragedy. One of the most important extant collections of medieval music, the Codex Calixtinus is a key document for students of musicology. Other materials contained in the stolen document are equally important for scholars in various fields of medieval studies. This theft is at least on a par with the theft of a first folio of Shakespeare from Durham University (see the fascinating display currently on view at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC) or the art works taken from the Gardiner Museum in Boston as one of the great crimes against the human patrimony committed against an institution devoted to preservation of that heritage.

One must hope the Codex Calixtinus is returned to the cathedral archive quickly and undamaged, and that it is not broken into pages then sold to unscrupulous dealers who in turn sell them to unethical collectors in a vast and, one hears hideously lucrative, illicit market for purloined works of art. Once in that market, documents tend to disappear forever. Should the document be irretrievably lost, there are at least good quality reproductions for scholars and pilgrims to see, though those can never convey the thrill of examining the original nor contain the possibility of discovery some new scholarly examination may uncover. Meanwhile the Cathedral needs to evaluate its security precautions, for its archive and treasury contain numerous other itmes of potentially great value in the illicit art market.

E. O. Pederson