The Monastery of Ripoll: Catalonia's Hidden Scriptorium

The Monastery of Ripoll: Catalonia's Hidden Scriptorium

A nine-hundred-year-old scriptorium, a library with 246 volumes, and a fire that burned history.

The Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll, a Benedictine monastery in Ripoll, Catalonia, Spain, was founded in 888 by Count Wilfred the Hairy who used it as a centre to bring about the repopulation of the region after conquering it. The monastery quickly gained renown, with its scriptorium and monastic school becoming significant. By the year 1046, the library numbered 246 manuscripts, many of which were translations of Arabic works on mathematics or astronomy. However, the monastery was later damaged by an earthquake in 1428 and a fire in 1835 that destroyed much of the library and archives. Today, the monastery continues to serve as a testament to the power of written word, a testament to the monastery's nine-hundred-year legacy as a scriptorium.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons

Written by Nik Frost

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