ABSTRACT

This essay focuses on two previously unpublished photographs of the Dream of Charlemagne, one of most famous illuminations from the twelfth-century Codex Calixtinus (Santiago Cathedral Library, MS. CF 14), which allow the reconstruction of details of its composition that seemed to have been lost. The search for these photographs goes parallel with an immersion in the archive of the Seminario de Estudos Galegos, a research institution that was preparing the first modern edition of the Codex Calixtinus, including photographs of its illuminations, when the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936. The Seminario was closed down after the war by the Francoist regime leaving the scattered galleys of the Codex Calixtinus edition as its last ruined monument. I propose a Benjaminian pilgrimage through the archive of the Seminario, taking the Dream of Charlemagne as a “dialectical image” allowing us to meditate on the historical processes to which this illumination bears witness. The article engages with the theory and materiality of photography, the archaeology of archives, and the significance of medieval manuscripts as national emblems in the twentieth century. As a coda, it reveals the medieval model inspiring Paul Klee's Angelus Novus, turned by Walter Benjamin into an image of his “angel of history.”

摘要

本文重点关注查理曼大帝之梦的两张以前未发表的照片，这是 12 世纪卡利克斯法典（圣地亚哥大教堂图书馆，MS. CF 14）中最著名的照明之一，它允许重建其构图的细节，这些细节似乎已经丢失了。搜索这些照片的同时还沉浸在Seminario de Estudos Galegos的档案中，该研究机构正在准备第一本现代版的法典 Calixtinus，包括其照明照片，当时西班牙内战于 1936 年爆发.战后，佛朗哥政权关闭了神学院，留下散落的Calixtinus手抄本版作为其最后一个被毁的纪念碑。我建议通过神学院的档案进行本雅明式的朝圣，将查理曼大帝之梦作为一个“辩证的形象”，让我们沉思这个启示所见证的历史进程。本文涉及摄影的理论和物质性、档案考古学以及中世纪手稿作为 20 世纪国徽的意义。作为结尾，它揭示了启发保罗·克利的《新天使》的中世纪模式，沃尔特·本雅明将其转变为他的“历史天使”形象。