Becerro Galicano

The cartulary of the monasteries of San Millán de la Cogolla in Spain survives as a codex called the Becerro galicano. It contains more than 200 folio sheets, the work of a single scribe active at the end of the 12th century. The scribe was transcribing earlier documents which are sometimes dated. The dating cannot always be taken at face value: sometimes monasteries used documentary fabrication to reclaim lost prestige. In the case of San Millán de la Cogolla, it has been pointed out that it was in the interests of the monastery to include in the cartulary claims in respect of patrimony associated with episcopal titles which its abbots had held under Navarrese royal patronage.

Becerro is a Spanish term for a monastic cartulary. It is derived from the word for the calf-binding typical of Spanish cartularies (although in this case the binding is goatskin). Galicano refers to Carolingian script, the type of script used. The monastery originally had another cartulary in Gothic script.