The Book of Punishment and Documents of King Sancho IV the Brave

The Book of Punishment and Documents of King Sancho IV the Brave

The special codex with the translated title The Book of Punishment and Documents for a Better Life is an exemplary text for the didactic and moralizing literature of the 13th century. It consists of sermons and apologetic texts from various clerical and heathen sources. The book was dedicated to Sancho IV – called “the Brave” – the King of Castile and his son Ferdinand IV. The moralizing stories in the work are supposed to teach the reader good manners as well as how one should behave toward God, themselves, and one’s subjects. An inscription on the last page of the codex indicates that the work was authored in the name of Sancho IV. Here it states that editing of the work was completed in 1292 and that it was composed “…with the help of wise scholars”. The book probably originated in the scriptorium of the King’s father Alfonso X the Wise.

The Spanish Royal House’s Love of Books

Sancho IV was as big of a literary buff as his father Alfonso X. Both accumulated a comprehensive and incomprehensibly valuable book collection during their lives. Alongside the Book of Punishment, Sancho had two great encyclopedias translated. Those were the Book of Treasures by Brunetto Latini in 1293 followed two years later by the lexicon Elucidarium by Honorius of Autun. Between 1284 and 1289, a chronology of the history of Spain was composed in Sancho’s name. This was considered to be a reliable historical source in the Middle Ages, like the Book of Punishment. Today, it is clear that some of the depictions in these works do not completely reflect reality. Nevertheless, they inform us in an entertaining way about life under the great King Sancho the Brave.

Informative and Expressive Illustration

The Book of Punishment points to various tales about how one behaved ethically in medieval Spain. The particularly illustrious Chapter XI contains a wondrous legend from the life of the prophet Daniel. In this chapter, it is elucidated how vassals should fittingly honor their masters. The gifted illuminator Beatus of Saint-Sever painted a scene of the Daniel and a Lion. The prophet is not attacked by the lion, as one expects. The legend is supposed to teach, that nothing bad can happen to those who serve the Lord. For his illustrations, the artist Beatus only used a few primary colors, but realized an unbelievably creative effect. An image on page 85 of the Book of Punishment is supposed to have inspired Picasso for his painting Guernica. The miniatures of the work are extremely diverse and show armored knights on horseback, but also typical people in medieval robes. One sees starry night skies in a few pictures, in others the earth hills and mountains overgrown with green, and in others the sea with fish and ships.