After entering El Escorial or the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, and taking time to admire the architecture and paintings, I made my way to the library. The library at El Escorial is probably the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.
It is 54 meters long, 9 meters wide and 10 meters high, and the most impressive aspect, at least visually, is the ceiling of the room. It is divided into zones, each ornamented with fresco paintings representing the Grammar, Rhetoric, Dialectic, Arithmetic, Music, Geometry and Astrology. In this stunning hall catching the sunlight through large windows looking out on the Spanish countryside, lies the most exquisite collection of books.
To someone like me who has always loved books and can think of no greater joy than curling up with one for hours on end, this was my idea of heaven.
Today though, only one book mattered. There, in a glass-fronted case, right under the painting of Rhetoric, stood the Libro de los Juegos or Book of Games commissioned by Alfonso X of Castille in 1283. I gazed at it in wonder, but I had one more step in my adventure.
I asked for the librarian, Mr. José Luis del Valle, and I was escorted to a study lined with books and overlooking the Spanish countryside. Mr. Valle is a thin, tall man with glasses, and a broad forehead. He heard about my journey with a great deal of interest.
The Book of Games was in Spanish, so frankly. I was unsure how much I would get out of actually seeing it. but he was quick to reassure me and produced a fantastic translation to a support my research. He then picked up the beautifully bound book and put it on what looked like a small bean bag. The purpose of the bean bag was to support the spine of the book.
He then informed me that the original book was under lock and key for the purposes of preservation, and both the one he had given me, and the one displayed in the library were parchment copies that exactly reproduced everything in the original.
He gave me an empty table and left me to my own devices. For a few happy hours. I pored over the book. No matter what I had seen on my computer, it did not compare with feeling the parchment, looking at the illustrations and scrutinizing them carefully to notice small details.
It was almost five hours later that I finally got up and stretched. My back hurt, my neck hurt, my shoulders hurt, and my eyes were dry. I had worked without a break for five hours I walked across to the window and stared outside. My research would never be the same again. Although I would continue to reference what I found online, having seen the manuscript made a huge difference.
The icing of the cake was when I went to thank Mr. José Luis del Valle and gave him a copy of my book on games. He requested me to sign it to the library at El Escorial. I had goose bumps when I did that; it was amazing to feel that somehow, somewhere, the book I wrote was connected in some way with Alfonso X’s, Book of Games.
I walked out of El Escorial in a daze. I had done what I had come to do. My journey from Madras to Madrid was complete. It was time to go home.
Ripples Of Life and Time 