The bibliographic wealth of this convent, founded by Cistercians and acquired by the Augustinian Recollects who have inhabited it since 1865, has yet to be sufficiently explored. Recently, the couple María Gemberro-Ustárroz and Emilio Ros-Fábregas, authorities in bibliographical research, have devoted many hours to the study of the hymns of the convent in Marcilla, Navarre, Spain.
A couple of internationally renowned musicologists have devoted two intense days of work to revising and studying the hymnals from the Marcilla convent. María Gembero-Ustárroz and Emilio Ros-Fábregas form an odd couple: a married couple in which both are researchers at the Higher Council for Scientific Research at its headquarters in Barcelona. For years they have been carrying out a patient task of locating and studying musical scores and sources, which has resulted in important contributions, such as a musical history of Navarra or the digital platform Books of Hispanic Polyphony / Libros de Polifonía Hispana, which to date is the most complete census of sources and information on Hispanic polyphony.
By chance they had learned of the existence of the 13 recoleto Hymnals that are kept in the convent of Marcilla. Nine of them come from the old convent of El Portillo, in the city of Zaragoza, headquarters of the province of Aragon. They are dated between 1689 and 1742. Together, they constitute one of the few jewels saved from the shipwreck caused by the Confiscation of 1835. A stroke of fortune made them move to the only Recollect convent that was saved, the Monteagudo novitiate; and later they ended up in the Marcilla library, when this was the main house of studies in the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine.
Unlike those nine, which are beautifully set to music, the two belonging to the then-called Colegio de Marcilla only collect the text of the different canonical hours. These are much more modern, since they are dated in 1868, when the formative movement of what had been a Cistercian monastery was beginning until 1835. The same as the previous ones, the two volumes from Marcilla are written on parchment and decorated with numerous tacks and fittings that reinforce the wooden covers.
The two researchers could not hide the impression that the set of hymnals lined up in one of the Marseille cloisters caused them, the most appropriate setting for the gigantic size of these volumes, 70/80 centimeters high and 20/25 kilos in weight.
They devoted two whole days to reviewing them in detail, on August 17 and 18, taking their notes and checking the few that they had previously been able to obtain. And they still had time to spare, in short, to photograph them page by page. They took home the main work, study and documentation, which requires time for reflection and perhaps writing if, as we hope, their conclusions deserve to be reflected in a separate publication.
