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Among the many legends that went round the Medieval Europe, the most remarkable one is the “Legende de S. Voult de Luques”, which tells the miraculous arrival of a boat without crew at an Italian port, carrying the image of Christ´s face. The legend states that the image was sculpted by Nicodemus, who took part in the Descent of Jesus from the Cross. Due to the fact that he was not an expert sculptor, he would not have been able to sculpt the face the way he had wished. Tired and disappointed, he fell asleep before his work had been finished; when he woke up he found the face miraculously completed by an angel´s hand.

It is believed that this iconography was carried to Catalonia by the Italian soldiers who arrived in 1114 to help the Count of Barcelona Ramon Berenguer III in the conquest of the Balear Islands. Due to that reason, this image became very famous and venerated in the Romanesque Catalonia.

The first miniature of the luxurious manuscript kept at the Vatican Library, shows a man and a woman knelt down before the image; undoubtedly, they were the owners of such a magnificent codex.

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