MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police are investigating the disappearance of the Codex Calixtinus, a valuable 12th century manuscript, from the Santiago de Compostela cathedral in northwestern region of Galicia, a spokesman said Thursday.
The manuscript is a collection of sermons and liturgical texts and served as a guide for the historical Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, which dates back to the Middle Ages.
The elaborately illustrated document disappeared from a safe deposit box in the cathedral last week.
Its suspected theft, only reported to police Wednesday, is considered a major loss for Spain's cultural and religious heritage.
A horrible loss.
Z
Upton Sinclair said: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
Indeed, it would even be hard to sell it *illegally*. High-profile easily-identifiable items like this are hard to sell on the black market since the authorities and any ethical collector will be watching for it. Very easy to get busted. Things like that are usually stolen "to order", with the thief being paid by a collector who wants that specific object. That seems to have been what happened in the Baghdad Museum - the first group of thieves seem to have been professionals with a "shopping list". And if that's the case with this codex, we probably won't see it again for a long time.
LU2.ḫalluptišunu
"Why are there no trees in the Holy Land? Because every pilgrim has a piece of the True Cross." - Medieval proverb
ushumgal wrote: Things like that are usually stolen "to order", with the thief being paid by a collector who wants that specific object. .... if that's the case with this codex, we probably won't see it again for a long time.
True and sad. but at least it should be safe, as unpalatable as it sounds. Perhaps in 30-40 years it will surface...
Glaukos the Athenian
Squire to Sir Guy Lestrange
Benedictus dominus Deus meus, qui docet manus meas ad proelium, et digitos meos ad bellum.
It was most likely stolen for a collectors privet stock. It will be squirreled away for a long time. I would love to see the Vatican's privet stock....
Thor-
Duke Thorstenn the WrongHand
Trimaris.
"A fully equipped duke costs as much to keep up as two Dreadnoughts, and dukes are just as great a terror -- and they last longer."
David Lloyd George
