Alfonso X el Sabio. – El ‚Códice Rico‘ de las Cantigas de Santa Maria.

A monumental first edition of Alfonso X the Wise’s *Cantigas de Santa María*, featuring a complete, full-color reproduction of the “rich” codex T.I.1 from the library of the Monastery of El Escorial (Madrid)—the first half of Alfonso X the Wise’s magnum opus, begun around 1255. A seminal work of medieval European lyric poetry. The most beautifully illustrated codex of the entire Spanish Middle Ages. The most complete and original songbook of ancient Western folk music. The edition, sponsored by His Majesty King Juan Carlos I, is limited to 2,000 numbered copies and consists of two volumes, measuring 35 x 50 cm, bound in leather-covered boards, in the style created by the Flemish artist Pedro Bosch in the 16th century for the library at El Escorial. The first volume contains a complete facsimile, printed in eight colors—including gold—of Codex T.I.1 from the Royal Library of El Escorial, reproduced at its exact size, on 512 pages of parchment paper specially manufactured for this edition, featuring the text and music of 192 cantigas and 1,264 Gothic miniatures. The second volume, in the same 35 x 50 format and with identical binding, comprising 412 pages, contains the following four studies: A historical-codicological analysis, by Matilde López Serrano. Transcription of the text and a philological and literary study, by J. Filgueira Valverde. Study on the art of miniatures and their archaeological value, by J. Guerrero Lovillo. Musicological analysis of the Cantigas, by José María Llorens. his medieval songbook offers a glimpse into Spanish life more than 700 years ago. The 1,264 exquisite miniatures in the Escorial codex T.I.1 of the *Cantigas en loor de Santa María* by King Alfonso X the Wise, painted around 1280, apart from their undisputed artistic value, are of great archaeological and documentary interest, depicting the human landscape of 13th-century Spain (Jews, Moors, and Christians; clergy and laity; princes and commoners; warriors and artisans; ladies, oung men, the elderly, newborns), along with their domestic and social surroundings—furniture, clothing, headdresses, utensils, musical instruments, weapons, ornaments, modes of transportation, urban settings, interiors, shops, festivals, funerals, battle scenes, fortifications, churches, altars, games— in a series of vivid and expressive illustrations, full of movement and color. – Missing the two vynil, otherwise a fine copy.