Spanish police recover 17th-century manuscript from online listing

An unassuming online listing has led Spanish police to a jaw-dropping historical discovery: police in Spain have successfully recovered a guild manuscript from the 17th century that had disappeared from Valencia’s College of the Major Art of Silk more than 100 years ago in an online listing, where it was being put up for sale for €71,900.

A breathtaking manuscript, bound in velvet

The manuscript, made on green vellum, bound in green velvet and decorated with bronze fittings, is a copy of ordinances signed in 1479 by Ferdinand the Catholic. It is a collection of historical documents that promoted velvet-making from a trade to an art, and granted velvet makers privileges and social recognition.

These ordinances of the Gremi de Velluters, or velvet guild, were approved on February 16, 1479, and officially ratified on October 13 of the same year by Ferdinand the Catholic. The manuscript also includes written laws of the Brotherhood of San Jerónimo, founded in 1483.

In total, the book contains 26 chapters from the ordinances and the Brotherhood laws combined.

Spanish police recovered the missing document from online listing

The incredible historical document was discovered when officers from the Heritage Group of the National Police Unit assigned to the Community of Valencia performed routine monitoring of online sales of cultural goods, according to a statement by the Spanish police.

According to reports, the seller did not know the document’s origin and claimed his father acquired it in the 1970s. The manuscript was confirmed to have disappeared between 1907 and 1909, and was never on record as having been sold. The owner’s father also microfilmed the book (photographed it onto film at reduced sizes) in 1992.

What will happen to the document now?

The invaluable manuscript will remain the property of its current owner, but will now undergo conservation. Before it can be returned to the owner, however, it will be registered in the official Valencian heritage records and the owner must agree to uphold the conservation standards.

The College of the Major Art of Silk, located in the historic centre of Valencia, is one of the most prominent buildings of Valencian architecture and culture. Its guild archive is considered Europe’s oldest, with documents dating as far back as the 15th century.