La Cava Bible

The La Cava Bible or Codex Cavensis (Cava de' Tirreni, Biblioteca statale del Monumento Nazionale Badia di Cava, Ms. memb. I) is a 9th-century Latin illuminated Bible, which was produced in Spain, probably in the Kingdom of Asturias during the reign of Alfonso II. The manuscript preserved at the abbey of La Trinità della Cava, near Cava de' Tirreni, contains 330 vellum folios which measure 320 by 260 mm.

The Bible was signed on folio 166v by a scribe named Danila. The location of the scriptorium in which Danila worked is not known. However the hand, textual variations, and orthography indicate that the manuscript was produced in Spain, during the early 9th century. It is unlikely that such a luxury manuscript could have been produced in the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula. This makes Asturias, which was the largest Christian kingdom of the time, the most probable source for codex. Additional evidence of an Asturian origin is provided by the decoration of the manuscript. The Cross which appears in four locations in the La Cava Bible, is the only explicitly Christian decoration in the manuscript. Although the form of the Crosses in the La Cava Bible do not appear in other surviving Asturian art, the Cross was emphasized in Asturian devotional art. For example, both Alfonso II and Alfonso III commissioned gold crosses, like the Victory Cross and the Cross of the Angels. "Cross of the Resurrection" was a prominent feature of murals at San Julián de los Prados, near Oviedo, Asturias.

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