Music manuscripts "silent" for hundreds of years restored and returned to the General Library of the University of Coimbra

^{Short version in English by Diana Taborda}

A collection of sixteen codices from the 17th century, known as "cartapácios", most likely from the Santa Cruz Monastery in Coimbra. They have been "silent" for hundreds of years and are currently used as working material for musical groups incubated in the "Mundos e Fundos" project of the Centre for Classical and Humanistic Studies of the University of Coimbra (CECH/UC), such as the "Bando de Surunyo" or the "Capella Sanctae Crucis". These are music manuscripts that have been restored and returned to the General Library of the University of Coimbra (BGUC) for research, consultation and more.

"Coimbra has a very rich tradition of sacred polyphony from the modern era, especially the collections of the Cathedral and the Monastery of Santa Cruz. It is necessary to safeguard them and prevent the wear and tear of time and human negligence from erasing this cultural and aesthetic memory of incalculable value," says the Director of the General Library of the UC, João Gouveia Monteiro. He believes that "the time has come to return music to the place it once occupied in academic ceremonies and in the curricula of the UC". The recovery of "a few dozen manuscripts, which, after being duly microfilmed and preserved, will be studied by teachers, researchers and students of the UC, will be an invaluable enrichment of our musical knowledge, as well as its worldwide dissemination". According to João Gouveia Monteiro, it also offers "the possibility of seeing, in the 21st century, proper interpretations of some of the pieces that the most remarkable composers of the Renaissance (such as Pedro de Cristo) offered to the world".

The musical manuscripts, kept in the UC General Library, are currently being restored in Cuenca, Spain, in the specialised DELTOS workshop, in a lengthy process reminiscent of putting together a jigsaw puzzle.