Thursday, July 07, 2011

Codex Calixtinus stolen from Santiago de Compostela

In what is being called the ‘robbery of the century’, a priceless 12th-century manuscript has been stolen from the Santiago de Compostela. The Codex Calixtinus, which contains a kind of travel guide to the famous pilgrimage way of Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, was found missing from the cathedral’s archives on Tuesday. It is believed that the manuscript may have been removed on Sunday, but the theft went unnoticed for days.

On Tuesday afternoon an archivist found the safe which held the Codex unlocked (with the key still in the locking mechanism) and the manuscript missing. Church staff spent hours looking for the manuscript before calling in the local police at 10pm that evening. Dozens of police experts have since been examining the cathedral for any evidence and reviewing the video from five security cameras. Unfortunately, none of the video cameras was trained onto the area where the safe was kept.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net