Regla de la P[a]sio[n]: Manuscript rules for the Confraternity of the Holy Cross of La Horcajada, Spain

Manuscript on parchment (380 x 270 mm). [1]8. Complete. Contents: ff. 1r-4v: Regla, in Spanish, in 30 numbered sections (inconsistent numbering on ff. 3v-4v), in a rounded script in brown ink (the first page slightly larger), up to 27 lines. F. 1r:? incipit, first four lines in large lettering, with very large calligraphic initial: En el no[m]bre de dios todo poderoso padre y hijo y espiritu sa[n]cto tres personas y una esencia. Section 30 (f. 4v) added in a slightly later hand. The word Cruz symbolized by a red Maltese cross. Text on ff. 2r-2v underlined in red. Calligraphic initials, some with marginal extensions in brown, purple or red. Marginal drawings of prickly foliage, some in the shapes of fantastic animals. Later marginal notes opposite many sections. Ff. 5r-5v: [Heading:] Este es traslado de un testimonio, followed by two notarial subscriptions on f. 5v, one partially in cursive, signed and dated ?vila, 11 May 1527, the other in italic (partly faded), including the date 1615. F. 6r: A cerca de la procession de la Resurrection. After an introductory portion in a small round early 16th-century hand in brown ink, the text continues from f. 4v with sections 32-37 of the Regla, of which sections 33-37 are in a later sixteenth-century hand; these sections ruled through with light diagonal lines. Signatures or notes in lower margin. F. 6v: blank except for five lines heavily cancelled in red. Ff. 7r-7v: five paragraphs, in a fine upright italic hand, the first and? third with headings in red, La orden que han de tener en la procession de la Resurxection [sic] en la [faded and illegible]?; La orden que sea de tener en la procession de la Resurretion [sic] en el domingo de pascua es la siguente. Followed on f. 7v by a note in a different hand dated from La Horcajada, 21 May 1550. Ff. 7v-8v and back inner cover: later additions, some quite faded. A few later marginal annotations throughout. Rubrication and decoration: headings and line fillers in red, a few ornamented line fillers or borders, some passages underlined in red or light purple, else ruled in dry point, numerous calligraphic initials in red or brown ink, opening initial with purple filigree extension filling left margin, numerous foliate, vegetable and zoomorphic ornamental designs in the margins in red, purple and brown ink. Binding: stitched into the original parchment cover with title ?Regla de la P[a]sio[n]? in large letters, the R with decorative extensions, above a large cross in green ink, entwined with the snake and in the margins apparently the instruments of the Passion. Condition: rubbing and staining, vertical crease from folding causing occasional erasure of text, outer edge of first page somewhat rubbed affecting legibility of text (some words at line ends helpfully written over in a later hand), the inks used in the last two leaves quite faded; wrapper worn and darkened, with tears at top and 3 small holes in lower cover. Provenance: Confraternity of the Holy Cross of Horcajada; purchased in France (with export license).?? An early Spanish confraternity manuscript, containing the rules and statutes that governed the Confraternity of the Holy Cross (referred to as the Cofrad?a or Hermandad de la [Cruz], the word Cruz being supplied by a Maltese cross in red) of La Horcajada, a town located in Castile y Le?n, in the province of ?vila. As in other Roman Catholic countries, confraternities or lay brotherhoods played a vital role in community life in Spain, functioning as mutual aid societies and venues for laypeople to express their piety and perform charitable acts. Vernacular manuscript confraternity statutes from the Iberian peninsula surface much more rarely than, for example, their Italian counterparts, although it appears that Spain had a larger number of confraternities proportional to the population, especially in Castile y Leon, than the other Catholic lands. Virtually every community, including small villages, had at least one confraternity. W.…