Ortega y Cotes, Ignacio Jose de - Bullarium Ordinis Militiae de Calatrava: per annorum seriem nonnullis donatiorum, concordiarum & al - 1761

A volume in folio (30. 1 x 21. 4 cm) bound in full antique leather, spine decorated with gold details, red spine label: Bullarium ordinis de Calatra. Frontispiece copper engraved by Pedro Villafranca, 16 sheets, including the title page in two colours, 872 pp. printed in two columns. Wood engraved heads, initials and culs de lamp. The Order of Calatrava was founded in the Kingdom of Castile in the 12th century by abbot Raimundo de Fitero, in order to protect the town of Calatrava, located near the current Ciudad Real. Its origin is due to a heroic gesture. The city of Calatrava, along the Guadiana River, had been taken from the Arabs by Alfonso VII in 1147. Given the strategic importance of the place as an advanced bulwark of Toledo before the Moors, after a short possession by certain magnates, the King wanted to ensure its defence by handing it over in 1150 to the Order of the Temple, as at that time there were no regular armies, nor was it easy to populate the border areas. A few years later, in the face of the Islamic pressure, the Templars gave it up for lost, and returned the fortress to Alfonso's successor, King Sancho III. Faced with the situation created and the imminent danger, he gathered his notables and offered Calatrava to whoever took charge of his defence. The abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Fitero, encouraged by the monk of his monastery Diego Velázquez, who had previously been a warrior, accepted the challenge. As there was no alternative, the King kept his word, handing Calatrava over to the monks of Fitero by donation on 1st January 1158 in Almazán. They formed in a short time an army of more than 20,000 monks and soldiers, uniting those who had managed to organise Bother Diego Velázquez in the vicinity of Calatrava and those who had recruited Raimundo in the Kingdom of Aragon. In front of such a crowd, the Arabs refused to enter the battle, retreating southwards. Very clean and in perfect condition.