Missal of Silos

The Missal of Silos is the oldest known paper document created in the Christian West; it is 11th century in date. The quarto missal has 157 original folios of which 1 to 37 are paper and the rest in parchment. Strictly speaking it is not exactly a missal: it has been described as a breviary-missal. It can also be described as a Liber Mysticus or Breviarum gothicum.

The missal is held in the library of the Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos near Burgos, Spain as Codex 6. It is one of a number of liturgical manuscripts of the Mozarabic rite which have been preserved in the Silos library, despite the suppression of the rite by Pope Gregory VII in 1089. However, rather than being produced at the scriptorium there, it originated from the monastery of Santa María la Real of Nájera. Nájera was in Christian territory at the time the document was created, but the paper for the missal is believed to have been manufactured in the Islamic world, possibly Islamic Spain.

Media interest

In 2013 the manuscript was inspected by Umberto Eco, who had referred to Silos in his 1980 novel The Name of the Rose. Eco's visit was widely reported in the Spanish press.

External links

• Catalogue entry & image in Vivancos
• Catholic Encyclopedia on Mozarabic Rite; see "Offices and Masses; f)" - source of material, size and ff number.