Sovereign, Saint, and City: Honor and Reuse of Textiles in the Treasury of San Isidoro (León)

Abstract

The textiles currently housed in the treasury of the collegiate church of San Isidoro de León are part of a centuries-long process of collecting relics at the heart of an emblematic royal mausoleum. Instead of studying them through the prism of the “charter of 1063,” this investigation proposes a wider look at the place of luxurious textiles in Castile and León before and after the arrival of Saint Isidore’s relics. What emerges is an intricate relationship between the mythification of the city of León as a civitas regia, the Leonese monarchy’s concept of antiquity in legitimizing their rule, and the refinement associated with the royal court and its sacred performance of the cults of saints.