The silent music of the title is the musical notation in medieval liturgical manuscripts copied by Andrés Marcos Burriel and Francisco Xavier de Santiago y Palomares in Toledo in the mid-eighteenth century. Susan Boynton, in five engrossing chapters enriched with copious endnotes, sets their labour in the context of the Spanish Enlightenment, and shows why it was significant. In the process, she devotes attention to a range of issues including liturgy, palaeography and the history and politics of the time. Burriel (1719–62), a Jesuit theologian and historian, was a major intellectual figure prominent among the scholars of his time, notably Mayans, Flórez and Sarmiento. He aimed to promote the study of Spain's past through a number of channels, but his focus of attention was on the codices in the Cathedral library of Toledo, which contained the old Hispanic or Mozarabic rite. He was appointed Director of the Royal Commission for Archives established by Fernando VI in 1749, the purpose of which was to locate and transcribe documents in church archives. Its ultimate objective was a political one, to demonstrate the ‘primacy of the national church over Rome’. Susan Boynton draws on published and unpublished material to chart Burriel's intellectual activity and to demonstrate that he was not a traditionalist as some of his contemporaries were, but rather a scholar using methods in advance of his time. He adopted what might be called the approach of a modern critic in his comparison of liturgical manuscripts and printed editions. He was assisted in his project by his younger contemporary Palomares (1728–96), an exceptionally skilled calligrapher and author of a treatise on palaeography, who was aware of the ‘lack of any connection between the chant of the early modern Mozarabic liturgy and the medieval manuscripts widely thought to preserve its melodies’ (p. 85). However the liturgical tradition of the Mozarabs was their historical justification for the special status they enjoyed in eighteenth-century Toledo. To later scholars, it has become apparent that what Cisneros was doing when he commissioned a new edition of the Mozarabic rite to be sung in the Mozarabic chapel that he had endowed in Toledo cathedral at the beginning of the sixteenth century was, wittingly or otherwise, resuscitating a moribund community. In Burriel's time, the Mozarabs of Toledo were desperate for the reaffirmation of their status, the privileges granted to them by earlier monarchs being confirmed by Philip V in 1740.

Amongst the range of issues addressed by Susan Boynton is the Adoptionist controversy of the eighth century, when Elipandus the archbishop of Toledo was convicted of heresy. She describes Burriel's interest in this significant chapter of Iberian ecclesiastical history as ‘yet another facet of his antiquarianism’ (p. 75), which maybe it was in the strictest sense. However, Burriel had an agenda in his scrutiny of medieval manuscripts, and one wonders whether the use of the term ‘antiquarian’ to describe his scholarly endeavour is appropriate. Elsewhere, Palomares's approach to the transcription of medieval codices is described as ‘more antiquarian than philological’ (p. 118). Both men, though, had a purpose other than the study of the past for its own sake. Are all those who seek to examine medieval material to be categorised as antiquarian? Scholars such as Burriel who sought to understand the past for purposes defined by his own age are perhaps preferably styled historians.

In a particularly illuminating chapter, Susan Boynton discusses the copy of the Toledo codex of Alfonso X's Cantigas de Santa María by Palomares. She analyses the iconography of the portrayal of Alfonso that Palomares added to his copy, showing the relevance to contemporary Spain of each object portrayed. Thus the depiction of an armillary sphere could be interpreted as a sign of ‘the scientific erudition cultivated during Fernando's reign’. The portrait itself is integrated into the elegant design on the upper cover by Ingrid Paulson; it is also illustrated in the text (p. 119), but the details of some of the items are not wholly clear without a magnifying glass. The association of Alfonso X with Fernando VI through the choice of manuscript as well as the pictorial allusions shows how alert Palomares was to the preoccupations of his age. One might point out here that the fine two-page colour illustrations in this chapter, the only ones in the book, do not appear to have been listed and, although their manuscript provenance is given, they would benefit from an explanatory caption.

Throughout her fascinating account, Susan Boynton casts light on the history of Spain in the Middle Ages and in the eighteenth century, drawing parallels that seem obvious when she reveals them, but which have not to my knowledge been made before. She creates meticulously fashioned tableaux, each rigorously documented and accompanied by a plethora of references. In her footnotes and elsewhere, there are the dozens of acknowledgements by name to other scholars who have assisted her with a specific point or detail. This is such a feature of her work as to deserve comment. Scholarship as evinced by the example of this book is enhanced by collegiate endeavour. This can only be described as refreshing in a world where competition rather than collegiality tends to be in the ascendancy.

Not only is this excellent book an example of scholarship at its best, but it also shows how the past can encroach on the present. Burriel and Palomares realised the impact that their labours in the archives could have on their own age and environment. In a sense they were reliving the past in their scholarly achievements, even if these were only partially fulfilled. It is pertinent, in conclusion, to point to Susan Boynton's engagement with her subject. Not only does she ‘share their passionate interest in the minutest details of medieval manuscripts’, but during the course of writing this book, she has developed an affinity with her principal character. Of Burriel she writes: ‘Despite his bitter disappointment at leaving so many projects unfinished (a feeling with which all scholars are surely familiar), I hope that he would be glad to know that his effort were not wasted – that, to the contrary, his findings remain pertinent and instructive even today.’ The author deserves congratulations for bringing an unfamiliar period to light in such an erudite yet accessible manner.