Biblioteca Santa Cruz (Valladolid)
The Biblioteca Santa Cruz (Library of the Holy Cross) in Valladolid , the capital of the province of the same name in the Spanish autonomous region of Castile and León , is housed in the Palacio de Santa Cruz . It was originally the library of the Colegio Mayor Santa Cruz , which was founded in 1483 by Cardinal Pedro González de Mendoza as a college for the students of the University of Valladolid and built between 1486 and 1492.
Library room
Above the bookcases you can see the coat of arms of the House of Mendoza, usually with the inscription Ave Maria Gracia Plena (Hail Mary, full of grace). The large painting at the front of the room depicts the founder of the college and its library, Cardinal Pedro González de Mendoza on horseback. To his right, two angels hovering holding the Jerusalem cross, to his left you can see the coat of arms of the Kardenal. The painting was made in 1705 by the Valladolid painter Manuel Petí Vander .
Library room, painting by Cardinal Pedro González de Mendoza
Library room
Bookcases with the coat of arms of Cardinal Pedro González de Mendoza
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The wood-carved door leaves at the entrance to the library hall are decorated with reliefs. A figure is shown with a model of a church in his hand and a bishop with a miter and crosier , who presents an open book with three arrows protruding from it. One relief shows a bird-like creature with a crown around its neck. Another relief shows the coat of arms of Cardinal Pedro González de Mendoza. Fig leaves can be seen on the escutcheon, above the Jerusalem cross , to which the college was dedicated.
bishop
Coat of arms of Cardinal Pedro González de Mendoz
Figure with church model
Book inventory
The Santa Cruz Library houses all the works of the University Library of Valladolid published before 1835. The books that Cardinal Mendoza made available to the library initially formed the basis. Over time, the inventory was expanded through donations and purchases. At the beginning of the 19th century the library had around 13,000 volumes. Today's holdings include a further 11,000 volumes from the Valladolid University Library. These include the works from the Jesuit colleges that were dissolved in 1767 . Other works came from monasteries, which were closed in 1836 during the disamortization under Juan Álvarez Mendizábal .
Manuscripts
The library sees itself primarily as a place for research into manuscripts, incunabula and early prints. It has 521 manuscripts, of which the Beatus of Valcavado , a copy of the Commentary on the Revelation of St. John from 970, named after the monk Beatus of Liébana , is the oldest and most valuable. The parchment manuscript with 87 colored miniatures is written in Visigoth script .
Beatus von Valcavado, the four horsemen of the apocalyptic
Beatus of Valcavado, the seven angels with the seven last plagues
Beatus of Valcavado, plague of locusts
Incunabula and early prints
The early prints include 355 works, around 200 are incunabula . The oldest printed work was printed in Rome in 1471. The library has a copy of the calendar of Regiomontanus from Königsberg in Bavaria , which was printed in 1476 by Erhard Ratdolt in Venice. It is the first book with a title page on which the names of the author, the printer and his colleagues (Bernhard Maler (Pictor) and Peter Löslein or Lösslein) and the year of publication are given. The copy of the fasciculus temporum of from Laer originating Kartäusermönchs Werner Rolevinck was printed in Seville in 1480 and is considered the first provided with pictures book, which was made in Spain.
Title page of the Regiomontanus calendar, copy from the University Library in Vienna
Fasciculus temporum , page from a copy published in Cologne in 1483
Rarities
Particularly rare editions from the first half of the 16th century are La Crónica de Juan II by Fernán Pérez de Guzmán , published in Logroño in 1517, and El Arte de Navegar by Pedro de Medina, printed in Valladolid in 1545. The first edition of La Jerusalén conquistada by Lope de Vega was printed in Madrid in 1609 by Juan de la Cuesta, who was best known as the publisher of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes .
Web links
- Biblioteca Santa Cruz ( Memento of February 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 41 ° 39 ′ 5.6 " N , 4 ° 43 ′ 12.5" W.