Redating the Arca Santa of Oviedo

Julie A. Harris

When Pelayo became bishop of Oviedo in 1101, it must have seemed that the mountains which had sheltered the city from Moslem incursions now isolated her from the rest of Reconquest Spain. Once the capital of Asturias, spearhead of Christian resistance to Islam, Oviedo's importance faded after King Ordono II transferred his residence to Leon in the early tenth century. As a consequence, little is known of the city in the eleventh century. During Pelayo's tenure (1101-30), two additional Spanish sites became prominent: Santiago de Compostela, reputed burial site of the Apostle James and, under Diego Gelmirez's focused leadership, an ecclesiastic and pilgrimage center; and Toledo, the reconquered capital of the Visigothic imperium, whose primacy and papal connections were firmly maintained by its Cluniac bishop Bernard.

Pelayo sought to restore Oviedo's prestige, forged during the reigns of King Alfonso II (791-842) and his successors, and to enhance her episcopal position. His method is familiar to students of the Middle Ages: the manipulation, interpolation, and outright creation of documents, in this case commemorating Oviedo's past in order to ensure her future. The resultant body of chronicles and documents, which historians call the Corpus Pelagianum, earned Pelayo the sobriquet "historiador-fabulador."(1) Despite widespread acknowledgment of Pelayo's fabrications, no one has yet numbered among them the Arca Santa - a magnificent glided silver casket housing a treasure trove of holy relics.(2)

I believe that the Arca Santa should be considered part of the Pelagian Corpus - like the Liber chronicorum, Pelayo's historical work, and the Liber testamentorum, a book he commissioned to preserve the most important donations made to the cathedral.(3) This hypothesis can be substantiated on art-historical grounds by the relatively mature Romanesque character of the Arca's figures. In short, no Spanish work of 1075, the widely accepted date for the reliquary, looks quite like it. Similarly, a particular iconographic feature of its decorative program, the unusual appearance of Saint Anne in two of the scenes, also supports a twelfth-century date. Although these issues of style and iconography will be addressed here, the primary focus will be on a historical context for the Arca Santa's manufacture, laying the groundwork for its redating to the early twelfth century. In this new context, growing devotion to the Arca Santa cult is central to the financial and ideological empowerment of Pelayo's diocese.

Description

The Arca Santa was severely damaged in an explosion of the Camara Santa of the cathedral of Oviedo in 1934. It survives today largely as a result of Manuel Gomez-Moreno's careful reconstruction.(4) There is still no comprehensive analysis of the shrine's stylistic and iconographic features, although it is generally recognized as an important monument of the Spanish Middle Ages.(5)

The Arca is a large black oak box with a flat lid, constructed without nails, and sheathed in glided silver. In form more like an altar than a shrine, it measures 28 3/4 by 46 1/8 by 36 5/8 inches (72 x 119 x 93 cm) [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED]. Three of the casket's four sides are decorated with figures in repousse, while its rear is reveted with a simple checkered pattern. The front panel is arranged like an altar frontal, depicting the Lord in Majesty in a mandorla carried by four angels and flanked by six Apostles in two arcaded rows of three [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2 OMITTED].(6) The entire decorative field is circumscribed by a Kufic border with a different Evangelist symbol inserted into each corner.

The panel on the left depicts scenes from the Infancy cycle arranged in two registers [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED]. These scenes can be read chronologically in a sequence which encompasses both registers in a counterclockwise manner. Depicted in order are the Annunciation, the Annunciation to the Shepherds, and the Visitation above, and the Nativity and the Flight into Egypt below. Separating the two registers is a banded inscription which encapsulates the narrative, stating: MARIA ET IOSEP POSUERUNT DOMINUM IN PRESEPIO ANIMALIU on the left and ANGELUS APARUIT IOSEP DICENS FUGE iN EGIPTUM ET ESTO [IBI] on the right.(7) In each scene, tituli name the characters.

This two-register format is also observed in the panel on the right [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 4 OMITTED]. Above, on the left, is the Savior standing in a mandorla which is supported by two angels. On the right, a cherub and seraph flank Michael the Archangel as he battles the dragon. Below, eight labeled Apostles stand in a variety of poses, with gestures and attitudes suggesting speech.(8) An inscribed band separates the two registers on this panel as well. It reads: ASCENDENS XPS IN ALTUM CAPTIVAM DUXIT CAPTIVITATE and MICAEL ARCANGELUS PUGNAVIT GUM DRACONE.(9) Of the original Kufic border only the top and right strips remain; the bottom and left strips are filled with the same checkered revetment that is found on the back of the casket.

The lid of the Arca is decorated in nielloed engraving rather than repousse [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 5 OMITTED]. An expanded Crucifixion is depicted here, complete with the crucified thieves, Mary, Saint John, censing angels, and roundels containing the sun and moon. A lengthy inscription surrounds the decorative field.

The Cult

Enhancing the Arca's design were numerous stories told of its creation, translation, and miraculous qualities. These stories, while luring the pious to Oviedo, enfolded them in a larger sacred narrative which resonated with images of the Ark of the Covenant and the True Cross.(10) Medieval references to or versions of the Arca Santa legend have surfaced thus far in ten sources dating from the eleventh through the fourteenth centuries.(11) According to a variant of the legend recorded around 1120 in Pelayo's Liber testamentorum, the reliquary was constructed by disciples of the Apostles in Jerusalem, where it remained until Chosroes captured the city in the early seventh century. From Jerusalem, the Arca went to Africa, where another invasion, that of the Moslems, forced its removal to the Visigothic capital, Toledo. It eventually made its way to Oviedo in the eight century, seeking refuge from the Saracens, who, according to the account, invaded the Peninsula as a result of sins committed by the last Visigothic kings.(12) In Oviedo the Arca fell under the protection of King Alfonso II "the Chaste," whose building commissions supplied it with a resting place in the Camara Santa or chapel of Saint Michael, now situated in the upper church of the cathedral of S. Salvador de Oviedo.(13)

Unlike most reliquaries of the period, the Arca Santa did not contain relics of only one saint. On the contrary, it held a collection comprising a number of specimens, the most significant being relics of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, such as wood from the True Cross, pieces of the Crown of Thorns and the sepulcher of Christ, bread from the Last Supper, and Mary's milk.(14) The Arca also contained parts of objects connected to Old Testament events, such as the rod of Moses which parted the Red Sea and the manna supplied from Heaven during the Exodus from Egypt. One interesting relic was a crystal ampulla of blood reputed to have flowed from an image of Christ after it had been pierced by Jews. The story attached to this relic has its origin in Byzantium where, as the legend of the Berytus icon, it is mentioned in the 787 Council of Nicaea.(15) Native cults were represented as well, as the Arca contained the garment given by the Virgin to Saint Ildefonsus of Toledo, and the reliquaries which later accompanied it in the Camara Santa possessed relics of Eulalia of Merida and Pelagius of Cordoba, among others. While the Arca Santa also contained relics of the Apostles and numerous other saints, the most distinctive objects in its collection reflect interest in the humanity of Christ, the Holy Family, and the Holy Land itself, which had become even stronger in the twelfth century.(16) The Camara Santa treasures demonstrate that Oviedo participated in the contemporary practice of assembling a large and diverse relic collection which contained many samples of Constantinopolitan or Palestinian origin. This phenomenon can be observed at several European centers in the early Middle Ages.(17)

In addition to the inventory supplied by the Liber testamentorum, several other catalogues of the Arca Santa relics exist.(18) The oldest is an eleventh-century addition to a codex in Valenciennes which may have been based on a guide to the Camara Santa prepared and circulated by clerics in Oviedo.(19) Pelayo's own inventory, as it appears in the Liber testamentorum, seems to follow this French manuscript closely. Also, the Arca's lid contains an abbreviated list of its contents in the inscription that encircles the Crucifixion scene in four registers of repousse writing. The varied nature of the Arca's translation accounts and inventories suggests that legends about the shrine were circulating widely when Pelayo interpolated them into the Liber chronicorum and Liber testamentorum.

The Documentary Evidence

Art historians, eager for firm chronologies, have always connected the reliquary to a particular document in the cathedral archives of Oviedo. Document 72, dated March 14, 1075, describes the enumeration of the relics of the Arca Santa by the Leonese king Alfonso VI (1065-1109), when the reliquary was opened on March 13 in the presence of the king, his sister Urraca, and various bishops and abbots.(20) The Arca Santa has always been dated to 1075 because the same inscription on its lid that identifies the relics also names Alfonso and Urraca, and credits the king with the adornment of the shrine. But in fact, the inscriptions recorded by Ambrosio de Morales in the sixteenth century, and by C. M. Vigil and Emil Hubner in the nineteenth, do not include a date for Alfonso's donation.(21) It was Gomez-Moreno who, remembering Document 72, inserted the date 1075 into a damaged portion of the inscription when preparing his article on the casket's reconstruction.(22)

Bernard Reilly has recently questioned the authenticity of Document 72, which survives in a thirteenth-century copy, and considers it to be a product of the rivalry between Oviedo and Santiago for the growing pilgrimage trade.(23) Without speculating about when the document was originally written, Reilly bases his opinion on two observations: first, that its date is given in years rather than in the Spanish era, and second, that Alfonso VI's confirmation of the document is like confirmations used only in the twelfth century and later.

In this regard, it is interesting to note that Document 72 connects the reigning monarch with instituting a change from Mozarabic to Roman liturgical practices as if this has already taken place by the Lenten season of 1075.(24) While Alfonso VI was certainly influential on this score, and on others involving the opening of Spain to transpyrenean influence, most historians agree that the official liturgical reform did not occur until later and that Alfonso's early efforts in this direction were met with some resistance.(25) The anachronistic flavor of this portion of the account substantiates Reilly's claim that it was probably written some time in or after the twelfth century. If he is correct, it is possible that the dramatic opening and enumeration described in the document may never have occurred.

The Stylistic Evidence

Even if the activities described in Document 72 and the lid inscription were to be accepted, without the interpolated date, is it not possible that what Alfonso donated was simply the makings of a covering that would only be executed years later? Stylistic evidence supports this scenario, and suggests that the Arca Santa should be seen not as Spain's precocious witness to the Romanesque, but as belonging, rather, to the early twelfth century.

Unfortunately, those objects which might have provided the closest comparisons for the Arca are now recoverable through literary descriptions alone. The lost metalwork donations made by Alfonso VI to Sahagun and by Bishop Diego Gelmirez to Santiago de Compostela no longer survive but could have generated a more definitive chronology of the Spanish minor arts to accommodate the Arca Santa.(26)

In Oviedo, the only extant metalwork object that would have been contemporary with the Arca as traditionally dated is the Cajita of Bishop Arianus, a small Eucharistic container whose inscription naming Arianus dates it to 1073-92 [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 6 OMITTED].(27) The Cajita is made of gilded silver with a decorative scheme consisting of floriate scrolls bordered on three sides by engraved Kufesque script. Although Manzanares and Serafin Moralejo have attributed the Cajita to the same workshop as the Arca Santa, the former seems so deliberately patterned after Andalusian caskets as to weaken arguments of contemporaneity.(28) The Cajita's nonfigural decoration limits the comparison to epigraphic evidence, and because some scripts remained in use for a long time, the similarity of the caskets' Latin inscriptions alone cannot disprove a later dating of the Arca Santa.(29) The corrupt Arabic found on both works derives from access to Andalusian imports without the linguistic understanding that might designate a particular atelier, although Gomez-Moreno found the inscriptions on the Cajita to be less intelligible than those on the Arca.(30) Such borders are meant to suggest Eastern manufacture, which in the Arca's case complies with its legendary origin in Jerusalem.(31) This descriptive, as opposed to polemical, use of Islamic forms in Christian art is mirrored elsewhere and at different times in Spain, thus minimizing its significance here.(32)

Another object in the Camara Santa, however, the so-called Christ of Nicodemus, may be more helpful for dating purposes [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 7 OMITTED].(33) A comparison of its ivory corpus to the niello Christ on the Arca's lid reveals a shared figure type, with attenuated limbs, open hands, lax torso, and tilted, triangular head. Furthermore, conventions of hairstyle, costume, and anatomical delineation are also shared. The Romanesque character of this corpus has prompted art historians to date the crucifix, which lacks documentation, in the first half of the twelfth century. Their unanimity in placing the Christ of Nicodemus with other twelfth-century objects it resembles highlights the reluctance of those studying the Arca Santa to do likewise in the face of Document 72.

Outside of Oviedo, one would expect to find close similarities in another metalwork shrine commissioned by the same dynasty in Leon, the reliquary of Saint Isidore (ca. 1063). Yet this reliquary is clearly indebted to the Ottonian minor arts tradition, whether Hildesheim or a Rhenish center is seen as its ultimate place of origin [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 8 OMITTED].(34) The large heads, swelling bellies, and relatively static postures of the Leonese shrine are not matched on the Arca Santa, where figures are slighter and their movements more gracefully integrated. While the reliquary of Saint Isidore features heavy, almost tubular drapery, with folds running across the body, the Arca Santa's drapery is lighter, more complicated in design, and marked with repetitive pleats, V-folds, and fluttering hem-lines.

Nor is it possible to find stylistic parallels for the Arca Santa in those ivory carvings associated with the 1063 donation of Ferdinand and Sancha to S. Isidoro in Leon.(35) These pieces, whose figures are characterized by inlaid eyes, overlarge hands and feet, and looping draperies, mark a transition between the Mozarabic and Romanesque styles in Leonese art.(36) The twelve-year time span between these Leonese works and the Arca Santa, if dated to 1075, does not adequately account for the stylislic gulf that separates them. Even the ivories of the reliquary of Saint Aemilianus at S. Millan de la Cogolla, which may date as late at 1076, do not show the same degree of stylistic maturity.(37) At this Navarrese site in the Rioja region, it is not until creation of the reliquary of Saint Felices, which is dated in conjunction with the 1090 translation of the saint, that one sees a developed reflection of Romanesque style.(38) Furthermore, the Saint Felices ivories present a Languedocian variant of Romanesque which is absent on the Arca Santa.

Moralejo has recently suggested that parallels for some of the Arca's figures and drapery patterns can be found in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts of the early eleventh century. Even if he is correct about a connection between these manuscripts and the Arca Santa, where such figures appear in a Romanesque mode, their date cannot determine that of the reliquary because such portable sources could have arrived in Spain at any time.(39) If manuscripts are to be included in discussions of the Arca's style, however, Pelayo's own Liber testamentorum provides the most compelling evidence for its redating to the early twelfth century [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 9 OMITTED].(40) Even Gomez-Moreno, who accepted a 1075 date for the Arca, acknowledged similarities between the niello engravings on its lid and the illuminations in this manuscript.(41) It has recently been suggested that the Liber testamentorum was produced at the monastery of SS. Facundo y Primitivo in Sahagun rather than in Oviedo.(42) Regardless of its origin, however, the Liber testamentorum illuminations demonstrate the Romanesque character of Pelayo's patronage.

The Figure of Saint Anne

An iconographic argument for a later redating of the reliquary rests on the unusual appearance of Saint Anne in two of its Infancy cycle scenes [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED]. In the Annunciation, a haloed female figure appears in an arcade to the right of the Archangel Gabriel. Her identity is certain, as the titulus engulfing her head clearly reads ANNA.(43) The same labeled figure reappears on the lower register, following the donkey, in the scene depicting the Flight into Egypt.

Anne's appearance in any guise in Western art of this period is unusual.(44) Although the saint had been venerated in Byzantium since late antiquity, her feast day was not generally accepted in the West until the fourteenth century. When she is depicted - for example in the early medieval frescoes of S. Maria Antiqua in Rome - Eastern influences are responsible.(45) Although the preoccupation with Christ's extended family which is a notable feature of later medieval devotion appears first in the twelfth century, it was not until the Gothic period, and particularly after 1204 when Anne's relics were brought from Constantinople by Crusaders, that images of the Virgin's mother would become relatively common in the West.

In Oviedo, Pelayo himself seems to have been interested in Christ's ancestry. Ambrosio de Morales, who examined the cathedral library in the sixteenth century, saw there a book with Pelayo's inscription which began with "many genealogies of the Scripture until Our Lady and Saint Anne."(46) This manuscript was largely a collection of historical texts referred to as the "Itacius" after the first author in the sampling.(47) Pelayo's own history, the Liber chronicorum, was mined from this collection and survives in several later copies. Unfortunately, the original manuscript was lost and with it a possible link between Pelayo's library and the Arca's unusual iconography.

Interestingly, Anne appears in the frescoes of the Panteon de los Reyes of S. Isidoro in Leon in exactly the same scenes as on the Arca Santa.(48) In light of the archaeological findings responsible for the Panteon's redating, an earlier context for the frescoes has been advanced.(49) In this new chronology, a date in the 1120s - similar to that suggested here for the Arca Santa - would not be unreasonable.(50) Anne's distinctive appearance in two neighboring, politically unified, and contemporary artistic centers presupposes a shared source. Such a source could easily have been known by Pelayo, who was himself of Leonese origin.

The traditional literary source for Anne is the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James. In the West, this biographical material is repeated in the Pseudo-Matthew.(51) Although both texts relate events from the conception of Mary to her own motherhood, Anne does not figure in the narrative once Mary is presented to the Temple at age three. There is no mention of Anne's appearance at the Annunciation to Mary or on the Flight into Egypt, the two scenes in which she is depicted on the Arca Santa and at S. Isidoro.

On the reliquary, the only possible textual reference to events in the Apocrypha occurs in the Flight into Egypt where Anne, who trails the laden donkey, holds a flowering sprig in her hand. While this attribute may refer to the laurel tree under which she lamented her barrenness, it is more likely the rod which Joseph presented to the Temple elders in advance of his betrothal to Mary.(52)

Anne's inclusion in the Annunciation and Flight into Egypt scenes on the Arca Santa and in the frescoes of S. Isidoro's Panteon isolates these cycles from other surviving texts or images in which she does not appear. Similarly, none of the numerous illustrated Protoevangelium or Pseudo-Matthew cycles studied by Jacqueline Lafontaine-Dosogne feature the Annunciation to Mary or the Flight into Egypt.(53) Instead, they illustrate such scenes as the Annunciation to Anne, the Annunciation to Joachim, the Meeting at the Golden Gate, the Nativity of Mary, and the Presentation of Mary to the Temple. The earliest-known Western reflection of the apocryphal narrative, the Hereford Troper of ca. 1050, follows this pattern, as does the twelfth-century Winchester Psalter.(54) In truth, the images on the Arca Santa and in the Panteon cannot be dependent on the Pseudo-Matthew at all. They are better seen as the result of deliberate efforts to insinuate Anne into traditional Infancy-cycle iconography.

One possible explanation for Anne's appearance in the Infancy cycle is a contemporary controversy in England regarding celebration of the feast of the Conception of Mary. Although this feast was observed at several Anglo-Saxon monastic centers in the eleventh century, it was suppressed by the Norman Lanfranc, who removed it from the Canterbury calendar.(55) Efforts to renew the observance of the feastwere undertaken in the 1120s by Osbert of Clare at Westminster, Abbot Anselm at Bury St. Edmunds, and Eadmer at Canterbury.(56) Owing in some measure to their efforts, the feast of the Conception of Mary was generally authorized in England by Archbishop William of Corbeil in 1129.(57)

The insertion of Anne into the Arca's Infancy cycle may well have seemed defensible at a time when the importance of the saint and the validity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary were being debated. By including Mary's mother in the Annunciation, the creator of the cycle conflated the conception of Mary by Anne with Mary's conception of Christ. Likewise in the Flight into Egypt, where Anne replaces the usual servant boy, the flowering rod indicates Joseph's rightful place as the Virgin's husband. The reworked cycle presents a complete and immaculate lineage for Christ. It seems more likely that such partisan iconography was connected to the twelfth-century controversies over Saint Anne and the Immaculate Conception of Mary vather than to England's pre-Conquest observance of Anne's feasts.

The interest in Saint Anne was certainly imported into Spain, since there is no evidence that the Visigothic liturgy accepted the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.(58) Furthermore, reception of the cult was probably a twelfth-century phenomenon, as a survey of known Iberian ecclesiastic and monastic dedications yields only one to the saint in the period preceding general Western recognition of her cult.(59) Finally, the presence of Anne's relics within the Arca itself, mentioned in the lid inscription but absent in the other catalogues, provides additional support for redating the Arca to the twelfth century.

The Historical Setting

The Arca's traditional date of 1075 was based on a connection made between its damaged inscription and events described in a now-questioned document. Given Pelayo's propensity for rewriting history and his close association with his sponsor Alfonso VI, the inscription should perhaps be seen as a commemorative rather than a descriptive notice. A cult's legitimacy was strengthened by royal sponsorship and involvement in its material manifestations - be they reliquaries, churches, or manuscripts. Pelayo, faithful servant throughout Alfonso's life, appended his own history of the monarch's reign to the earlier Sampiro Chronicle when compiling the Liber chronicorum. Likewise, he interpolated a narration of the Arca's arrival and reception in sections of the chronicle dealing with Oviedo's apogee under King Alfonso the Chaste.

By inserting these additions into his moralized and largely ecclesiastical history, Pelayo legitimized Oviedo's claims to metropolitan status. At the same time, since the narrative blamed Visigothic failings for causing the Moslem invasion, Bernard's aspirations for Toledo - the Visigoth former capital - could be minimized. Legend, therefore, gained the force of history.

Oviedo's claims for metropolitan status were advanced in the Liber testamentorum as well; the book's largely falsified documents include those from the Council of 821 and an epistle reputedly ratified by Pope John VIII in the late ninth century.(60) Oviedo's main opponent - the metropolitan of Braga - claimed that the Oviedo bishopric was merely a continuation of the see of Britonia, a Galician diocese dependent on Braga and destroyed by the Moslems.(61) To counter these charges, Pelayo fabricated another history in which a fantastic diocese called "Lucus Asturum," created by the Vandals, was translated to Oviedo in the eighth century. This is only one of many jurisdictional disputes being contested in the texts of the Corpus Pelagianum.

When the Corpus was being compiled, around 1120, the metropolitan rights of Moslem-controlled Merida had been transferred temporarily to Santiago de Compostela.(62) Diego Gelmirez also received the authority of legate over the provinces of Merida-Compostela and Braga.(63) In 1121, Oviedo lost the exemption granted her by Paschal II in 1105, and was once more a suffragan of Bernard of Toledo.(64) In 1122, the situation was reversed when Pelayo received an exemption from Calixtus II.(65)

One cannot be certain when pilgrims began coming to Oviedo in considerable numbers to see the Arca Santa. According to both the Historia Silense and the Historia Najerense, the Leonese king Fernando I, who died in 1065, donated gold and silver to the church of S. Salvador.(66) Neither account makes specific mention of the Arca Santa. In the late eleventh century, as stated above, a northern French monastery possessed an inventory of the contents of the shrine, but gave no description of its appearance other than to state, incorrectly, that it was made of cedar. A letter of 1090 from the bishop of Astorga to Ida of Boulogne, in response to a request for relics of the Virgin's hair, suggests that the Arca Santa collection was known, if imperfectly, in other regions of France.(67)

In 1093, Garcia Gutierrez rounded a hospital for pilgrims in Oviedo, but these pilgrims could also have been there for other relics, such as those of Pelagius, an Asturian martyr whose remains were translated to Oviedo in the tenth century.(68) By 1100, when the major Romanesque sites on the pilgrimage roads were well under way, a colony of "Franci" was present in Oviedo and there was also a pilgrims' hospital known as "de francisco." This indicates that pilgrim traffic from the "camino frances" to Santiago was stopping in Oviedo.(69)

Along with its narration of the Arca's transfer from Jerusalem, the Historia Silense recounts a legend concerning Alfonso II and the Cross of the Angels, also present in Oviedo's treasury.(70) This chronicle illustrates how unified contemporary and historical Oviedo had become in the popular imagination. Mindful of the power implicit in relic possession, Pelayo fostered this unity in the Corpus. If he did not know Gelmirez's Historia Compostellana, which may not yet have been compiled, he had certainly heard of the "furta sacra" perpetrated in several of Braga's rural churches in 1102, heard how the tomb of the Apostle was found miraculously in a field, and heard, as well, that Santiago's head had been brought from Jerusalem to Compostela by Urraca in 1116.(71) In short, Pelayo had no lack of competitive, contemporary, and nearby models for his sponsorship program.(72)

By the early twelfth century, Pelayo was blessed with a cult already growing in popularity, but we cannot be certain just what form the Arca Santa took at this date.

Conclusion

In her struggles with rival bishoprics, most pronounced in the second and third decades of the twelfth century, Oviedo needed another basis for ecclesiastical status and privilege. The Arca Santa, a cult of apostolic origins like that of Saint James, could fill this role. A patron's apostolicity was strong grounds for metropolitan status; one may look to Ademar of Chabannes's efforts on behalf of Saint Martial of Limoges for recognition of this fact.(73) According to tradition, the Arca Santa had been fashioned by disciples of the Apostles and contained relics of the Apostles themselves. Furthermore, owing to the circumstances of its arrival in Oviedo, which Pelayo repeated in his account, the relic collection substantiated a moralized history in which Oviedo was chosen by God to protect the relics and, by extension, to defend Christianity. Finally, in practical terms, a splendid presentation of the relics would divert pilgrims on their way to Santiago, pilgrims who could be counted on to bring essential revenues to the city.

Over five years ago, John Williams suggested that I take a look at the Arca Santa of Oviedo and reconsider its dating; for this, and countless other efforts he has made on my behalf, I offer him thanks. The Arca was my topic for Thomas Bisson's 1990 NEH Summer Seminar entitled "Power and Society in Medieval Europe." I am grateful to Professor Bisson for his seminar, to the NEH for sponsoring my participation, and to Elmer Clark for a 1993 Kalamazoo session based on our investigations which included an abbreviated version of this paper. At various stages of my work the following individuals provided assistance: Dwayne Carpenter, Sandra Hindman, Charles Little, Daniel Sheerin, Nancy Troy, Karl Werckmeister, and Kenneth Wolf. Special mention must be made of my husband Bruce Bergelson, who baby-sat so that I could write.

1. For an introduction to Pelayo's life and to the Corpus Pelagianum, see Sanchez Alonso; A. C. Floriano Cumbreno, Estudios de historia de Asturias: El teritorio y la monarquia en la Alta Edad Media asturiana, Oviedo, 1962; S. A. Garcia Larragueta, "Sancta Ovetensis": La Catedral de Oviedo, centro de vida urbana y rural en los siglos XI a XIII, Madrid, 1962; and Fernandez Conde, 1971 and 1972. I have been unable to consult the following thesis, E. Fernandez Vallina, "Pelayo de Oviedo: Su obra y tecnica de elaboracion literaria," University of Salamanca, 1973. For Pelayo's position in Spanish historiography, see Fernandez Conde, "La obra del obispo Ovetense D. Pelayo en la historiografia espanola," Boletin del Instituto de Estudios Asturianos, XXV, 1971, 249-91. The bishop's reputation as an unabashed forger of documents was most recently confirmed by P. Linehan, History and the Historians of Medieval Spain, Oxford, 1993, esp. 78: "Pelayo was a giant amongst falsifiers in an age which provided him with keen competition and ample opportunity."

2. For an introduction to the Arca Santa, see Gomez-Moreno, 1945; Manzanares, 20-28; and J. A. Harris in MMA, 259-60.

3. For the Liber chronicorum, see Sanchez Alonso. For the Liber testamentorum, see Fernandez Conde, 1971; Oviedo, 355-57. J. W. Williams in MMA, 295-96; and J. Yarza, "El opispo Pelayo de Oviedo y el 'Liber Testamentorum,'" Actum Luce, XVIII, 1989, 61-81.

4. See Gomez-Moreno, 1945. For his reconstruction, Gomez-Moreno relied on Vigil's study of the inscription on the lid made before the Camara Santa explosion; see Vigil, entries A 17-19, and pls. A IV-VI. Manzanares reproduces a dramatic photograph of the Arca Santa after the explosion; Manzanares, fig. 26.

5. In addition to bibliography cited above, the Arca Santa appears in the following survey books: J. Yarza, Arte y arquitectura en Espana, 550-1250, Madrid, 1985, 210; P. de Palol and M. Hirmer, Early Medieval Art in Spain, New York, 1967, 90-92, 152, 174, 479; and P. Lasko, Ars Sacra, 800-1200, Harmondsworth, 1972, 152-53. It has been discussed more substantially by: Gomez-Moreno, 1934, 22, 28-30; A. Vinayo, L'Ancien Royaume de Leon romane, La-Pierre-qui-vire, 1972, 195-97; S. Moralejo, "Les Arts somptuaires hispaniques aux environs de 1100," Les Cahiers de Saint-Michel de Cuxa, XII, 1982, 288-89; idem, "Le origini del programma iconografico dei portali nel Romanico spagnolo," Atti del Convegno Wiligelmo e Lanfranco nell'Europa romanica, Modena, 1989, 38 and n. 22; and Manzanares, 20-28. Most recently, the reliquary was discussed in MMA, 34-35 (J. D. Dodds), 178-79 (S. Moralejo); and by R. Platero and A. Hevia, in Oviedo, 248-50.

6. Two of the Apostles are modern; Gomez-Moreno, 1934, 29. John Williams believes this iconography may have been inspired by a textile altar frontal donated by Alfonso III to Oviedo Cathedral in 908 and since lost; Williams, "The 'Moralia in Iob' of 945: Some Iconographic Sources," Archivo Espanol de Arqueologia, XLV-XLVII, 1972-74, 233, n. 41.

7. "Mary and Joseph put the Lord in the animals' manger," and "An angel appeared to Joseph saying, 'Flee into Egypt, and be [there].'"

8. The presence of only eight of the Customary twelve Apostles on the reliquary, in addition to other evidence of trimming and remounting of the silver sheets, may suggest a reconstruction of the Arca prior to that undertaken by Gomez-Moreno. Unfortunately, there are no extant documents which refer to such a reconstruction, nor are there descriptions of the Arca Santa in any form other than its present one.

9. "Ascending on high, Christ led the captive from captivity," and "Michael the Archangel fought with the dragon."

10. For references to the Ark of the Covenant, see Moralejo, 1989 (as in n. 5); and idem, MMA, 178. According to Moralejo, Pelayo stressed connections between the Arca Santa legend and Old Testament narrative, referring in one instance to Alfonso II as "another Solomon" when he built the Camara Santa. Perhaps the absence of nails in the Arca's construction was intended to refer to Solomon's erection of the Temple in Jerusalem: "there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building" (AV 1 Kings 6:7). Manzanares, 20, describes the Arca's unusual manufacture.

11. The sources are: Valenciennes 99, the Letter of Bishop Osmond of Astorga to Ida of Boulogne, the Liber testamentorum, the Liber chronicorum, the Historia Silense, Oviedo Cathedral Archives Document 72, Lucas of Tuy's Chronicon mundi, Jimenez de Rada's De rebus Hispanie, Cambrai 804, and a Life of Saint Toribio. Valenciennes 99 was originally published by D. de Bruyne, "Le Plus Ancien Catalogue des reliques d'Oviedo," Analecta Bollandiana, XLV, 1927, 93-95; see also Fernandez Conde, 1972, 160-62; and B. de Gaiffier, "Relations religieuses de l'Espagne avec le nord de la France: Transferts de reliques (VIII-XII siecle)," in Recherches d'hagiographie latine, Brussels, 1971, 7-30. For the Letter of Bishop Osmond, see B. de Gaiffier, "Sainte Ide de Boulogne de l'Espagne: A propos de reliques mariales," Analecta Bollandiana, LXXXVI, 1968, 67-81. For the Liber testamentorum account, see Garcia Larragueta, 511-15; and Fernandez Conde, 1971, 111-18, where it is analyzed in great detail. Pelayo's Liber chronicorum was published by Sanchez Alonso. J. Prelog, Die Chronik Alfons' III: Untersuchung und kritische Edition der vier Redaktionem, Frankfurt, 1980, reproduces Redaction C, which contains Pelayo's additions. For the Historia Silense, see Perez de Urbel and Ruiz-Zorrilla, 138-39. For Oviedo Cathedral Document 72, see Garcia Larragueta, 214-19. Lucas of Tuy's Chronicon Mundi is most easily accessible in J. Puyol, ed., Cronica de Espana, Madrid, 1926, 281. Jimenez de Rada follows Pelayo closely; see J. Fernandez Valverde, Roderici Ximenii de Rada: Historia de Rebus Hispanie sive Historia Gothica, Corpus Christianorum, LXXII, Turnholt, 1987, 118-19, 125. Cambrai 804 was originally published by Charles Kohler, "Translation de reliques de Jerusalem a Oviedo," Revue de l'Orient latin, V, 1897, 6-21; it also appears in Fernandez Conde, 1972, 162-78. An alternative tradition for the Arca's translation is presented by the 14th-century Life of Saint Toribio, Madrid Bibl. Nac. MS 780: see J. K. Walsh and B. Bussell Thompson, "La leyenda medieval de Santo Toribio y su arca santa," Pliegos Hispanicos, IV, 1987; and E. Fernandez Gonzalez, "Estructura y simoblismo de la capilla palatina y otros lugares de peregrinacion: Los ejemplos asturianos de la Camara Santa y las ermitas de Monsacro," in Ruiz de la Pena, 342, and n. 35.

12. An account of the Arca's journeys appears in the Liber testamentorum, fols. 1v-2r; see Fernandez Conde, 1971, 112-18.

13. See Fernandez Gonzalez (as in n. 11), 335-98, for the most recent treatment of the Camara Santa.

14. For the latest discussion of the Arca Santa cult, see S. Suarez Beltran, "Los origenes y la expansion del culto a las reliquias de San Salvador de Oviedo," in Ruiz de la Pena, 33-55.

15. Robin Cormack, Writing in Gold, New York, 1985, 131.

16. For growing contemporary interest in Jerusalem and in relics of the True Cross, see A. Frolow, La Relique de la Vraie Croix: Recherches sur le developpement d'un culte, Paris, 1961.

17. One particularly early effort to assemble a relic collection was made by Charlemagne at Aachen; see L. Falkenstein, Karl der Grosse und die Enstehenung des Aachener Marienstifes, Paderborn, 1981, 88-94. The 242 relics in Reading Cathedral in England, a collection assembled between 1120 and 1190, were quite similar to those of Oviedo; see D. Bethell, "The Making of a Twelfth-Century Relic Collection," in G. J. Cuming and D. Baker, eds., Popular Belief and Practice: Papers Read at the Ninth Summer Meeting and the Tenth Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society, Cambridge, 1972, 61-72. Similar relics also belonged to St.-Denis. According to Haymo's account of 1053, the abbey possessed several important relics of the Passion, and in the 12th century its treasures increased tremendously under the patronage of Abbot Suger; see D. Gaborit-Chopin, Le Tresor de Saint-Denis, Paris, 1991, 18.

18. The inventory in the Liber testamentorum accompanies the narrative of the Arca's translation and journeys; see Fernandez Conde, 1971, 115-17. The full text of the Liber testamentorum account is published by Garcia Larragueta, 5l1-15.

19. The Valenciennes inventory is discussed by J. Uria Riu in Vazquez de Parga et al., Las peregrinaciones a Santiago de Compostela, Madrid, 1948-49, 3 vols., II, 458-59; and Fernandez Conde, 1971, 115-17. Fernandez Conde sees both the Liber testamentorum inventory and the Valenciennes co dex inventory as dependent on a common source - a guide to the Arca Santa prepared by Ovetense clerics. Uria Riu, on the other hand, believes that the Valenciennes codex inventory was Pelayo's source. For this and later versions of the inventory, see de Gaiffier, 1971 (as in n. 11), 7-30.

20. For Document 72, see Garcia Larragueta, 214.

21. Morales, 71-72; Emil Hubner, Inscriptiones Hispaniae Christianae, 1871, 82-83; and Vigil, 15.

22. Gomez-Moreno, 1945, 129, reconstructed part of the inscription as follows: "His omnibus egregius rex Adefonsus humili devocione / preditus fecit hoc recept[aculum pignoribus(?) Sanctoru]m penitus [insignitum exte]rius adornatum non / vilibus [artis operi]bus per quod post vit[am eius merea]tur [con]sorcium illorum in celestibus [sanctorum aulis(?) et suis a]diuvari pr[ecibu]s / Hec quidem s[alutif]era [ac veneranda mu]nera novit om[nis provincia in] he / ra sine dubio MC atqu[e XIII pe]r manus et industriam clericorum et presulum qui propter / hco [sic] conven[imus cum di]ct [o Adefon]so principe cum germana letissime Ur / [raca dicta nom]ine quibus redem[t]or omnium con[c]edat indulgen[ciam et suorum pecc]atoru[m veniam]" (emphasis mine). Morales, 72, reads the words emphasized: "Novit omnis provincia in tetra sine duvio." After stating that the casket then lacks a piece of silver inscription almost a palm in length, he resumes with, "Manus et industria /." The words in question and their immediate context are recorded by Hubner (as in n. 21), 82, as: "Hec quidem s[aluti] et r[e.............nera novit om[nis provincia / in terra sin[e d]ubi[o]? mg atq[u]e ideo s... ? /"; and by Vigil, 15, as: "Hec quidem s.......erm.................ne ranov......tom...................he / r.....sin.........ubio magat.....ab di deo s.......inus et industria m clericorum et presulum qui prop..........."

23. B. F. Reilly, "The Chancery of Alfonso VI," in idem, ed. Santiago, St. Denis, and St. Peter, New York, 1985, 7 n. 40; idem, The Kingdom of Leon: Castilla under King Alfonso VI (1065-1109), Princeton, N.J., 1988, 85; and idem, The Contest of Christian and Muslim Spain, 1031-1157, Cambridge, Mass., 1992, 258. R. A. Fletcher, The Quest for El Cid, New York, 1990, 210, believes that the document, although not authentic, was based on genuine materials.

24. "Memoratus ergo imperator Deo adherens seque ille tota devotione comitens monuit secum episcopos prefatos ac cedernos qui intra curiam aule regie versabantur ac totum reliquum uulgus ieiunio plus solito quadragesimali tempore corpora affligi et sacrificiis et orationibus intentis clericos tholetanos illic habitantibus esse precepit et reliquos romanum ritum tenentibus ortatur Dominum precibus flagitare ut ille qui olim de celo descendere et hominibus se palpabilem prebere voluit ipse eis dignaretur manifestare propter nimiam suam caritatem quam dilexit nos easque tam diucius hominibus se nota intra predicta archa detinebantur" (Garcia Larragueta, 215; emphasis mine).

25.$Most religious centers complied after the Council of Burgos met in 1080; J. F. O'Callaghan, "The Integration of Christian Spain into Europe: The Rome of Alfonso VI of Leon-Castile," in B. F. Reilly, ed. (as in n. 23), 101-20.

26. Morales's description of the Tabula Argentea of Santiago suggests some similarities to the Arca Santa, in particular the fact that its decorative program included twelve Apostles under arcades arranged in two superimposed registers; see S. Moralejo, "'Ars Sacra' et la sculpture romane monumentale: Le Tresor et le chantier de Compostelle," Cahiers de Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa, XI, 1980, 205.

27. See Gomez-Moreno, 1934, 30; Manzanares, 28-29; and Oviedo, 344.

28. Manzanares, 28-29; and Moralejo, 1982 (as in n. 5), 289.

29. There is also the possibility that a deliberately archaizing script may have been chosen for the Arca Santa.

30. Gomez-Moreno, 1934, 30.

31. R. Ettinghausen, "Muslim Decorative Arts and Painting - Their Nature and Impact on the Medieval West," in Islam and the Medieval West, ed. S. Ferber, exh. cat., Binghamton, N.Y., 1975, 14, states that Kufic suggests the ancient script of the New Testament period.

32. My interpretation of the Arca's border differs from that of Dodds, MMA, 34-35, who sees it in terms of Christian conflict with Islam. Two examples where Islamic forms are used descriptively to mean "Eastern" are: the Glencairn Casket (see C. T. Little, in MMA, no. 69), with borders derived from Kufic embracing scenes of the life of Solomon; and the Morgan Beatus (see J. W. Williams, Early Spanish Manuscript Illumination, New York, 1977, 78-79, pl. 20), with Islamic stepped crenellations in the image of the Heavenly Jerusalem.

33. For the Christ of Nicodemus, see Manzanares, 29-30; and Oviedo, 308.

34. For the reliquary of Saint Isidore, see M. Gomez-Moreno, "El arca de las reliquias de San Isidoro," Archivo espanol de arte y arqueologia, VIII, 1932, 205-12; J. W. Williams, "Tours and the Medieval Art of Spain," Florilegium in Honorem Carl Nordenfalk Octogenarii Contextum, Stockholm, 1987, 205; and idem, in MMA, 239-44, with complete bibliography.

35. For the document of donation, see P. Blanco Lozano, Coleccion diplomatica de Fernando I (1037-1065), Leon, 1987, doc. 66, 169-72.

36. Key monuments in this group are: the Reliquary of Saint Pelagius in Leon, the Cross of Ferdinand and Sancha and the Beatitudes Casket in Madrid, and the Traditio Legis plaque in Paris. See MMA, nos. 109, 111, 117, and 112 respectively, with complete bibliographies.

37. For the reliquary of Saint Aemilianus, see J. A. Harris, "The Arca of San Millan de la Cogolla and its Ivories," Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1989; idem, "Culto y narrativa en los marfiles de San Millan de la Cogolla, Boletin de Museo Arqueo logico Nacional, IX, 1991, 69-86; and idem, in MMA, 260-66, with complete bibliography.

38. For the reliquary of Saint Felices, see S. Moralejo, "Une Sculpture du style de Bernard Gilduin a Jaca," Bulletin Monumental, CXXXI, 1973, 14-16; and J. A. Harris, in MMA, 267, with complete bibliography.

39. Moralejo, 1982 (as in n. 5), 289. The author compares an Apostle figure in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 198, a Worcester manuscript of the second quarter of the 11th century, to an Apostle figure on the Arca's right panel. Less successful, in my opinion, is his comparison of angel figures on the Arca's lid to those on fol. 69 of London, Brit. Lib. Add. 17739, a Norman Gospel of the late 11th century.

40. See n. 3.

41. Gomez-Moreno, 1934, 22. The niellos of the Reliquary Diptych of Bishop Gundisalvo Menendez, also from Oviedo, have been dated to the early 12th century on the basis of comparison to other dated Spanish examples of this technique; see C. T. Little, in MMA, 270. It may well be that figural niello was not done in Spain as early as 1075.

42. J. W. Williams, in MMA, 295-97. In this connection, it is interesting to consider fol. 1v of the manuscript [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 9 OMITTED], which depicts Alfonso II kneeling in front of a monumental composition featuring the enthroned Christ surrounded by symbols of the Evangelists and flanked by the Apostles. Because this iconography also appears on the Arca Santa, the miniature must refer to Alfonso's sponsorship of the Camara Santa. Its compositional variance, however, should counter the notion that the miniaturist copied the reliquary directly. It is more likely that, after having been given a verbal account of the appearance of the shrine, the artist looked to a similar commission extant at Sahagun - an altar frontal donated by Alfonso VI.

43. In Byzantine depictions of the Annunciation and Visitation additional figures, though not Anne, are sometimes present. See R. Deshman, "Servants of the Mother of God in Byzantine and Medieval Art," Word and Image, V, 1989, 33-70.

44. For the iconography of Saint Anne, see J. Lafontaine-Dosogne, Iconographie de l'Enfance de la Vierge dans l'empire byzantin et en Occident, 2 vols., Brussels, 1964-65; idem, "Iconography of the Cycle of the Life of the Virgin," in P. Underwood, ed., The Kariye Djami, Princeton, N.J., 1975, IV, 161-94; and idem, "Iconographie comparee du cycle de l'Enfance de la Vierge a Byzance et en Occident, de la fin du IX au debut du XIII s.," Cahiers du Civilisation Medievale, XXXII, 1989, 291-303. See also Lexikon der Christlichen Ikonographie, v, Rome, 1973, cols. 168-84.

45. For the frescoes, see J. Nordhagen, The Frescoes of John VII (A.D. 705-707) in S. Maria Antiqua in Rome, Acta ad Archaeologiam et Artium Historiam Pertinentia, III, Rome, 1968.

46. J. Perez de Urbel, "Pelayo de Oviedo y Sampiro de Astorga," Hispania, II, 1951, 387-412.

47. Sanchez Alonso, 12.

48. J. W. Williams, "Leon: The Iconography of the Capital," in Cultures of Power: Lordship, Status, and Process in Twelfth-Century Europe, ed. T. N. Bisson, Philadelphia, forthcoming; A. Vinayo Gonzalez, Pintura romanica: Panteon Real de San Isidoro - Leon, Leon, 1971, figs. 7, 15; and J. Wettstein, La Fresque romane: La Route de Saint-Jacques, de Tours a Leon, II, Geneva, 1978, 109-26.

49. J. W. Williams, "San Isidoro in Leon: Evidence for a New History," Art Bulletin, LV, 1973, 180-83.

50. J. Wettstein believes that the frescoes were completed during the lifetime of Urraca (d. 1101). Her early dating, however, rests in part on the similarity between the Panteon's biblical scenes and those on the Arca as traditionally dated; Wettstein (as in n. 48), 122, 124. A date in the second decade of the 12th century was recently advanced by J. W. Williams, in MMA, 252.

51. M. R. James, The Apocryphal New Testament, Oxford, 1963, 38-49 (Protoevangelium of James), 70-79 (Pseudo-Matthew).

52. See the Protoevangelium of James, chaps. 3 (laurel tree), 9 (rod); James (as in n. 51), 39, 42. According to the narrative, Joseph's rod was distinguished from those of the other suitors when a dove flew from it and landed on his head. The flowering rod which replaces the dove in many illustrated cycles of the Virgin's childhood after the 11th century is said to have appeared under the influence of Aaron's flowering rod (Num. 17); see Lafontaine-Dosogne, 1975 (as in n. 44), 185.

53. For the artistic monuments from the 4th century through the Romanesque period, see Lafontaine-Dosogne, 1964-65 (as in n. 44), II, 22-26.

54. M. Clayton, The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Anglo-Saxon England, Cambridge, 1990, 172-77. For the Hereford Troper (Brit. Lib. Cotton, Caligula A.XIV), see E. Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, 900-1066, London, 1976, pl. 294. The miniature, which accompanies the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin, illustrates the Annunciation of Mary's birth to Joachim and Joachim and Anna with the child Mary. Fol. 8 of the Winchester Psalter (Brit. Lib. Cotton, Nero C.IV) illustrates the Annunciation to Anne, the Meeting at the Golden Gate, the Nativity of Mary, and the Presentation to the Temple; see Lexikon der Christlichen Iconographie (as in n. 44), v, col. 182; and F. Wormald, The Winchester Psalter, London, 1973. The calendar of the Psalter marks Dec. 8 as the feast of the Conception of Mary. For the most recent and extensive treatment of the Psalter, see Haney, 36-46.

55. A. C. Baugh, "Osbert of Clare, the Sarum Breviary, and the Middle English Saint Anne in Rime Royal," Speculum, VII, 1932, 106-13; Barlow, 195; and Haney, 37-38.

56. Baugh (as in n. 55), 107; Barlow, 195; and Haney, 38-42.

57. Barlow, 195.

58. A. Pascual, "La Inmaculada Concepcion de la liturgia visigotica," Liturgia, IX, 1954, 174-82.

59. Q. Aldea Vaquero et al., Diccionario de historia eclesiastica de Espana, 4 vols., Madrid, 1972-75, III, 1712. The monastery is S. Ana de Villasana in the region of Burgos.

60. For Pelayo's use of false documents in order to support efforts on behalf of Oviedo, see E. Benito Ruano and F. Fernandez Conde, Historia de Asturias - alta edad media, Vitoria, 1979, 266-70; D. Mansilla, "La supuesta metropoli de Oviedo," Hispania Sacra, VIII, 1955, 259-74; and A. C. Floriano Cumbreno, "En torno a las bulas del Papa Juan VIII en la catedral de Oviedo," Archivum, XII, 1962, 120-24.

61. This is discussed in detail by Mansilla (as in n. 60).

62. Fletcher, 199.

63. Ibid.

64. R. A. Fletcher, The Episcopate in the Kingdom of Leon in the Twelfth Century, Oxford, 1978, 72-73.

65. Ibid.

66. "Colebat, pre ceteris sacris et venerabilibus locis, ecclesiam Sancti Salvatoris Ovetensis, quam multo auro et argento dotavit"; Perez de Urbel and Gonzalez Ruiz-Zorilla, 205. Essentially the same sentence appears in the Cronica Najerense; A. Ubieto Arteta, ed., Cronica Najerense, Valencia, 1960, 107. For more on Ferdinand's involvement with Oviedo, see Suarez Beltran (as in n. 14), 39-40.

67. De Gaiffier, 1968 (as in n. 11).

68. For the hospital, see Aldea Vaquero et al., (as in n. 59), 1853. For Pelagius, see A. Vinayo, "Reinas e infantas de Leon, abadesas y monjas del Monasterio de San Pelayo y San Isidoro," Semana de historia del monacato, Cantabro - Astur - Leones, Oviedo, 1982, 123-33; and F. J. Fernandez Conde, "Origenes del Monasterio de San Pelayo," in ibid., 99-112. Pelagius was martyred in Cordoba in 925; his relics were brought to Leon in 966 and were translated to Oviedo several years later.

69. Vazquez de Parga et al. (as in n. 19), II, 459-60. For the pilgrimage to Oviedo in the later Middle Ages, see J. I. Ruiz de la Pena et al., Las peregrinaciones a San Salvador de Oviedo en la edad media, Oviedo, 1990. The author, however, uncritically repeats Pelayo's version of the Arca and the cult's early history.

70. Perez de Urbel and Ruiz-Zorrilla, 138-39, 139-40. For the Cross, see A. Arbeiter, in MMA, no. 72.

71. All of these events are conveyed in the Historia Compostellana. The dramatic account of the Bracarense relics' arrival in Santiago de Compostela is translated in Fletcher, 172-73.

72. Cults appeared or were enriched at numerous Spanish centers in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. Places in close proximity to the road to Santiago were particularly active; S. Isidoro in Leon, S. Millan de la Cogolla, and S. Maria de Najera all produced expensive reliquary caskets at this time.

73. For Ademar's efforts to transform the 3rd-century Martial into an Apostle, see D. Callahan, "The Sermons of Ademar of Chabannes and the Cult of St. Martial of Limoges," Revue Benedictine, LXXXVI, 1976, 251-95.

Frequently Cited Sources

Barlow, F., The English Church, 1066-1154, London/New York, 1979.

Fernandez Conde, F. J., 1971, El Libro de los testamentos de la catedral de Oviedo, Rome.

-----, 1972, La Iglesia de Asturias en la alta edad media, Oviedo.

Fletcher, R. A., Saint James's Catapult: The Life and Times of Diego Gelmirez of Santiago de Compostela, Oxford, 1984.

Garcia Larragueta, S. A., Coleccion de documentos de la catedral de Oviedo, Oviedo, 1962.

Gomez-Moreno, M., 1934, El Arte romanico espanol, Madrid.

-----, 1945, "El Arca Santa de Oviedo documentada," Archivo Espanol de Arte y Arqueologia, XVIII, 125-36.

Haney, K. E., The Winchester Psalter: An Iconographic Study, Leicester, 1986.

Manzanares, J., Las joyas de la Camara Santa, Oviedo, 1972.

MMA The Metropolitan Museum of Art, exh. cat., The Art of Medieval Spain, A.D. 500-1200, New York, 1993.

Morales, A., de, Viage de Ambrosio de Morales por orden del rey D. Phelipe II, Madrid, 1965.

Oviedo Cathedral of Oviedo, exh. cat., Origenes, Arte y Cultura en Asturias, siglos VII-XV, Oviedo, 1993.

Perez de Urbel, J., and Ruiz-Zorilla, A., Historia Silense: Edicion critica e introduccion, Madrid, 1959.

Ruiz de la Pena Solar, J. I., ed., Las peregrinaciones a Santiago de Compostela y San Salvador de Oviedo en la Edad Media, Oviedo, 1993.

Sanchez Alonso, B., ed., Cronica del Obispo Don Pelayo, Madrid, 1924.

Vigil, C. M., Asturias monumental, epigrafica y diplomatica, 2 vols., Oviedo, 1887.

Julie A. Harris, who received her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1989, is a lecturer at Northwestern University. She has published on medieval Spanish ivory carving, and its relationship to liturgy, pilgrimage, and the Reconquest. She is currently preparing a study of Reconquest attitudes toward booty [216 Golf Terrace, Wilmette, Ill. 60091].

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