Liber Testamentorum
Detail of Alfonso II of Asturias praying to Christ Pantocrator

by Pelagius, c.1118AD


ADEFONSUS REX CASTUS    ARMIGER REGIS       MICHAEL   
The full image of Liber Testamentorum Eccleciae Ouetensis, Spain, c.1118AD
A & E
Liber Testamentorum Eccleciae Ouetensis. Catedral de Oviedo mss. 1. Ca. 1118. (Izquierda) Donación de Alfonso II



Referenced on p.153, Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era, 1050-1350, Western Europe and the Crusader States by David Nicolle
384A-E Liber Testamentorum Regium, Asturias, 1126-9
(Library of the Cathedral, Oviedo, Spain)

A Guards of Alfonso II of Asturia; B-D - Guards of Alfonso III of Asturia; E - Guards of Alfonso II of Asturia. It seems as if earlier styles might have survived in the isolated Asturias while French influence penetrated Castile. Here soldiers carry broadswords with down-turned quillons (B and D), and in one case recurved quillons (E). Two large, kite-shaped shields are shown. Generally such large shields seem to be associated with spears; and small round shields or bucklers with swords. If this is a survival of Arab-Islamic influence then the sword and buckler might indicate cavalry, the large shield and even larger bladed spear indicating infantry as in the iconography of Fātimid Egypt. Without further evidence, however, might also indicate light infantry with sword and buckler and heavy, European-style cavalry with lance and tall shield.

Detail of soldiers of Alfonso III of Asturias in the Liber Testamentorum



See also Knights on the Sarcophagus of Doña Sancha, Benedictine Monastery of Santa Cruz, Jaca, Aragon, Spain, 1110-1120AD
Prudentius' Psychomachia, British Library. Cotton MS Titus D XVI, St Albans, England, 1120AD
Other Spanish and North African Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers












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