A UNIQUE AND IMPORTANT MUDÉJAR BINDING FROM THE KINGDOM OF CASTILLE Y LEÓN, SPAIN, REIGN OF ALFONSO X EL SABIO (1221-84 AD)

the front and back covers of the binding of leather-covered pasteboard with ensuite decoration of a central rectangular panel framed by a plain border in which the lion and castle of the arms of the kings of Castile y León alternate in the corners, the rectangular panel comprising a tooled design of interlacing strap-work issuing, at the points of intersection, eight-pointed stars, each again containing alternating stamped images of a castle and a lion, decorative infill of tooled elements such as rope motifs, endless knots, roundels of gold and gold dots, further outer border, outer frame consisting of a continuous band of four-pointed star-like elements alternating with what could be construed as stylized Kufic characters or Gothic letters with tooled infill of gold roundels and gold dots, a further plain outer border extending to the edges of the covers, flap with some vestiges of an original leather tie, carrying a section of the same design, Arabic calligraphy visible on the pasteboard (formed by sheets of paper pasted together), later date of 1299 inside front cover written in black ink

Ex-Collection Don Juan Lafora, Madrid 1934

Exposición de Encuadernaciones Españolas: Siglos XII al XIX, Madrid 1934.

Hueso Rolland, Francisco, Exposición de Encuadernaciones Españolas: Siglos XII al XIX, Lamina H, p.44, Catalogo no.7, Sociedad Española de Amigos del Arte, Madrid 1934.

In fair overal condition, losses to edges and spine, binding remains attached, remnants of gilding, some cracks and creasing, much of the tooling still strong, as viewed.
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This binding was first published in the great exhibition of Spanish bindings held in Madrid in 1934 (F. Hueso Rolland, Exposición de Encuadernaciones Españolas: Siglos XII al XIX, pp. 43-45, Lamina H, no 7, Madrid, Sociedad Española de Amigos del Arte, 1934).  It is one of six thirteenth-century Spanish Mudejár bindings known. The same exhibition featured a second example (Rolland 1934, plate 6, no.8, 35 by 25cm), in the Museo Arqueologico, Madrid, originally from the Monasterio de las Huelgas de Burgos. Of the four further examples, three were published in Henry Thomas, Early Spanish Bookbindings, XI-XV Centuries, London, 1939 (for 1936) as pl. XXIII (26.4 by 17.5 cm, Pope Gregory IX, Decretales), Biblioteca de San Isidoro, León; pl.XXIV (19 by 12cm De fide et spe et caritate), Museu Capitular, Segovia Cathedral; pl.XLVIII (22.2 by 15.1cm, Biblia Latina), Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid. The sixth and last of the group was published by C. Romero de Lecea, Ocho Siglos de Encuadernación Española, exhibition Catalogue, Madrid 1986, no.2 (19.2 by 12.7cm, Tractatus Teologicus), Museu Capitular, Segovia Cathedral.

The exceptional quality of Islamic bindings produced in Al-Andalus under the Almohads can be seen in an example now in the British Library, London: the famous binding dated 1256 AD from the mezquita of the Kutubiyya in Marrakech (Or. 13192) (see, J. Dodds, (ed.), Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain, New York 1992, p.123, also P. Ricard, Reliures Marocaines du XIIIe Siècle, Hesperis, XVII, II, 1933, pl.1, figs.1 to 7, pp.109-127). The British Library binding is made of brown (originally red) goatskin, with tooled decoration of an interlaced strap-work pattern generating eight-pointed stars at the points of intersection. The background is completely infilled with network ornamentation with small rosettes and roundels embossed in gold. 

This decorative scheme is closely paralleled in the present example. Indeed, it is in the markedly Islamic nature of the decoration, closely related to geometric patterns on the British Library and other Almohad specimens, that the uniqueness of this bookbinding lies. The other examples listed above are primarily based on Romanesque layouts. In one, the Islamic-inspired geometric interlace has been reduced to a peripheral position, while the others have altogether lost the Islamic repertoire.

The present example is further of considerable art historical significance as probably the earliest known example of tooling in gold made in Europe (none of the other five quoted examples feature gold tooling). At the time of the 1934 exhibition Francisco Hueso Rolland used the present example as evidence that gold tooling, as a technique, was transmitted from the Islamic world to Spain (i.e. the Almohads), and thence to the rest of Europe. Subsequent scholars have questioned this, but being unable to examine the present lot, since its whereabouts continued unknown to the academic world until now, have failed to reach a definite conclusion.

The guiding spirit behind this cultural upsurge was King Alfonso X of Castile y León known as el Sabio (the Learned), who reigned from 1252-84 AD, and whose coat of arms was the yellow castle of Castile quartered with the red lion of León (see the famous cope of Alfonso's father king Ferdinand III (1217-52 AD) in the Armeria del Palacio Real, Madrid, N9).

In a largely reChristianised Spain, Alfonso was able to devote himself to literary and scientific pursuits, assembling an important reference library and taking the important step of decreeing that Castilian should replace Latin as the official language of the country. Alfonso's collaborators included Christians, Jews and Muslims. In the light of his scholarly and enquiring nature, Alfonso X of Castile y León was almost certainly the royal patron indicated by the coat of arms stamped on this bookbinding. It thus offers eloquent testimony of an exchange between the cultural values of the recently conquered Almohads and the intellectual and artistic endeavours pursued at the court of a monarch who may rightly be compared to his near-contemporary in Sicily, Frederick II .