Manuscript, Patent of nobility for García de Rueda, Spain (Valladolid), 1499.

Foliation: i (16th-century paper, watermark: hand with a four-pointed star issuing from the first finger) + 22 + ii (conjoint with f. i) ff.
Number of lines: 48 lines
Language: Spanish
Script: Spanish documentary script

Textual content:
ff. 2r-21v: Copy of letters patent of Ferdinand and Isabella, king and queen of Spain, reviewing documents relating to the legitimacy and lineage of García de Rueda of Valladolid, dated at Valladolid on 2 May 1499.
f. 21v: inscription in a late 16th-century hand describing the document and ending with the date 1581. The same hand has annotated certain parts of the text mentioning property rights (ff. 3r, 17v, 18r). See Object History section.
Decoration:
f. 1v: leaf added c.1581. Two coats of arms, of the Rueda and Camargo families, surmounted by helm with blue, yellow, green and red feathers, mantling azure and or on either side. Rueda: quarterly 1 and 4, azure, a spiked wheel with handle or, a bordure gules with eight crowns or; 2 and 3, azure, a voided cross fleurette or, a border gules with eight crossed batons or. Camargo: or, six balls azure with three bars, lower edge, nebuly, argent, a border gules with ten three-turreted castles, doors azure. Full border with candelabras, birds, sphinx busts, dragons, and a grotesque owl. In the lower border, two hybrid angels support a cartouche with the inscription: ‘ARMAS DE LOS RUEDAS I CAMARGOS’.
f. 2v: 14-line decorated initial D containing an eagle behind a shield with the Rueda (?) arms, Quarterly, 1 and 4, per cross or and argent, 2 and 3, per saltire and or and argent. The shield is not clearly legible and does not fit well with the rest of the decoration. The D is also ignored, as the inscription beside it reads ‘DON FERNANDO Y DONNA ISABEL’. At the top of the page, panel of five compartments with washed-out pigment. The outline of a yoke seems visible in the green compartment.

Binding: late 16th century (?), Spain. Brown calf over pasteboards, with blind-tooled decoration (three nested frames of a roll tool, floral ornament containing three medallions, two of a crowned face in profile, the third of a helmeted man in profile), central panel with a Name of Jesus (IHS) stamp (?) with rays extending from it, tooled architectural arcading above and below.

1) Written in Valladolid for García de Rueda, shortly before 2 May 1499 (on f. 20r, space left in the text for the insertion of the word ‘dos’, the month and year being in the hand of the text). Each page has notarial initials. On f. 20r are signatures of court notaries. The document mentions García Ruys de Rueda, son of García Sanchez (f. 6r) and Elvira Ruys, parents of García de Rueda, stated to have been over 33 in 1599 (f. 4r), the latter’s brothers Diego and Fernando de Rueda (ff. 12v-13). García Ruys de Rueda had a house in Guadalajara (f. 4v). The coat of arms on f. 2v is presumably that of the Rueda: Quarterly, 1 and 4, per cross or and argent, 2 and 3, per saltire and or and argent.
García de Rueda may be the individual of this name described as an ancestor of Donna Ana de Rueda y Carvagal who married Miguel de Gálvez y Gálvez in 1617 (Alfonso de Figueroa y Melgar, Estudio histórico sobre algunas familias españolas, V, Madrid, 1974, p. 1125).

2) Bifolium (ff. 1 and 22) added c. 1581 by a descendant of García de Rueda, presumably a grandson, who also annotated the original document (ff. 3r, 17v, 18r). The same hand added an inscription on f. 21v describing the document and ending with the date 1581.
The two coats of arms on f. 1v are those of the Rueda and Camargo families. Rueda: quarterly 1 and 4, azure, a spiked wheel with handle or, a bordure gules with eight crowns or; 2 and 3, azure, a voided cross fleurette or, a border gules with eight crossed batons or. The wheel was adopted by the Rueda family in the 16th century. Camargo: or, six balls azure with three bars, lower edge, nebuly, argent, a border gules with ten three-turreted castles, doors azure. F. 22 is blank.


3) Acquired by the South Kensington Museum in 1898 from an unknown source. The number in pencil on the rear pastedown ‘3537’ may be a book dealer’s reference.

This manuscript encloses a patent of nobility dated at Valladolid on 2 May 1499 for an individual called García Ruys de Rueda. This legal document written in Spanish attests to his legitimacy and lineage, and mentions some property rights. It was still in the Rueda family in the late 16th century when a descendant of García Ruys, possibly his grandson, had the manuscript embellished with a heraldic frontispiece featuring the arms of the Rueda alongside those of the Camargo family, presumably recording a matrimonial alliance (f. 1v). It also received a new beautifully decorated binding on this occasion.
It was probably the same descendant who annotated the manuscript where property rights were mentioned, and described the document on f. 21v, ending with the date 1581.

MSL/1898/1387