The third session of the Conference Cycle: Manuscritos de Alcobaça will take place on May 26, and will feature lectures by Ana Lemos and Luís Correia de Sousa:

1st Conference: “Os livros de horas em Alcobaça”, by Ana Lemos (Instituto de Estudos Medievais da Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

What does a book of hours tell us about its belonging to Alcobaça? Besides the calendar, what other evidence does the study of the texts give us? Is there a specific prayer that links them to the Cistercian order? It is this detective work that we propose to carry out here, in order to identify the particularities of the Alcobaça books of hours.

2nd Conference: “A Bíblia de D. Mafalda da livraria de Alcobaça”, by Luís Correia de Sousa (Instituto de Estudos Medievais da Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

Through the testament of D. Mafalda Sanches (c.1195/96-1256), daughter of D. Sancho I and D. Dulce of Barcelona, we know that the monks of Alcobaça lent her a small illuminated Bible, an object of great artistic value that justified keeping it in a coffin that they called the three keys. It is, according to the most recent studies, the oldest portable Bible we have in our collections, an object of particular interest that should be made known.