Just Another Perfect Day

Now I have to define ¨perfect.¨ See if this works. I started at the rare book collection at the University of Leon. They set out early editions of Cervantes just to impress me (it worked), but the heart of the collection was in Incanabula (that would be books printed between 1455 and 1500) and in medieval manuscripts. I had e-mailed ahead my interest in medieval music, so 20 manuscripts of music, complete with notation and illustration, were waiting for me. I spent hours--I could have spent days. These are works of art in themselves, representing years of veneration and careful preservation. The single most impressive manuscript was a 14th century collection of music, fully illustrated on magna-folio; that is, it was hand written and drawn with four colors of ink on sheets of vellum (calf´s skin) cut to large size--about 22x29 inches per page. Simply perfect.

Then I cheated. I rode the Leon city bus to the very edge of the city so that my walk to Hospital de Orbigo would be only about 12 kilometers. I was anxious to see the 19-span, medieval bridge that links the towns of Puente de Orbigo and Hospital de Orbigo. I arrived by 6:00, found an alburge, showered, and came right back to photograph the bridge. Here´s why. In 1434, Suero de Quiñones was in love (all together now--aaaaawwwwwww). But, of course, his lover rejected him. Don Suero decided that the only way to overcome his unrequited love was to purify himself through manly contest--specifically, he and eight of his squires posted a challenge to all knights passing the bridge over the Rio Orbigo to joust. His goal was to break 300 lances in knightly contest. Over a period of a month and a half, 63 knights did indeed take up the offer. Afterwards, Don Suero and his squires made the pilgrimage to Santiago where he left a gold bracelet commemorating his higher love for God. That bracelet is, in fact, still in the cathedral in Santiago. Evern more alluring for me, the stories surrounding the life of Don Suero de Quiñones are reputed to have inspired the character of Don Quixote.

So, try your best to imagine this. I´m sitting at the end of the long, eleventh-century bridge, right across from a fifteenth-century church and an Atlantic cool front has just rolled over the Leon Mountains into Hospital de Orbigo. Night is falling, and I survey the field where Don Suero fought to wrench tortured love from his blighted heart. I have an ice-cold coke in my hand. Isn´t that the end of a perfect day?