Vindel Parchment

This 13th century manuscript was discovered by coincidence in 1913/14. Pedro Vindel, an antiquarian in Madrid, discovered that it was being used as a cover for a copy of De Officiis by Cicero (106-43 BC). It is one of the most important discoveries in the history of the Galician-Portuguese troubadour tradition. The so-called Vindel Parchment contains seven love songs written by Martin Codax, a travelling singer in 13th century Galicia associated with the court of Alfonso X the Wise (1221-84), and is the only record for six of them. It is also the only manuscript containing the so-called Cantigas de amigo – a genre of medieval lyric poetry specific to northwestern Iberia in a female voice – with musical notation. Taking the form of either monologues or dialogues with their girlfriends, sisters, mother, or boyfriend, the short and cheeky lyrics tell of their longings and laments, and are filled with illusions to nature –they are also strongly erotic. The manuscript was created in an unknown but well-staffed scriptorium and is adorned with blue and red initials. Until the emergence of this document, the Cantigas de Santa María, dedicated to religious subjects by Alfonso X the Wise, was the only known Galician-Portuguese cantigas. Later, the Sharrer Parchment (turn of the 12th to 13th century) was discovered along with seven cantigas of troubadour poetry by King Denis of Portugal (1261-1325), called the Poet King, but fall within the genre of Cantigas de amor. The Vindel Parchment was acquired in 1977 by the New York Morgan Library, where, after a journey as random as the protests of the protagonist in the verses themselves, it is still preserved today.