Una Biblia manuscrita de la Cartuja de Portaceli en la Hispanic Society of America

Abstract

This article discusses the copy of the one-volume Bible which belonged to the library of the Carthusian monastery of Portaceli, near Valencia, and is now kept by the Hispanic Society of America (Ms. HC 397/344). Its interest is as much documentary as artistic: on the first folio page there is a sevceteenth century note saying that it was a gift from the schismatic pope Benedict XIII to Bonifacio Ferrer, general of the Carthusians and brother of St. Vincent. Both these men were important figures in the political panorama of the Crown of Aragon, and active patrons of art. Pedro de Luna (Benedict XIII) maintained an active scriptorium in the fortress of Peñíscola until 1413. The Portaceli Bible was separated from the holdings of the Carthusians shortly after the secularisation and public sale of the monastery's goods. It suffered the same fate as other original works from this monastery, the Valencian Bible and the second part of the Annals of the Portaceli Charterhouse (Ms. B1141), both of which are in the keeping of the Hispanic Society of America.