An armorial manuscript is a collection of coats of arms, heraldic designs belonging to different noble families that were first developed in medieval Europe. This manuscript consists of woodcut stamps that were colored and labeled by hand. A few of the stamps visible here are still blank, waiting to be filled in.

Cartas executorias are legal documents that certify the recipient’s claim to nobility. Because these documents were so precious, the successful applicant often had their copy luxuriously illuminated and elaborately bound. Like all cartas executorias, this manuscript was issued with the authority of the king of Spain. It granted nobility for Mari Lopez de Comenares, probably on behalf of her young son.

This illuminated certificate memorializes the entrance of Donna Theresia, a northern Italian woman, into a convent under the order dedicated to Saint Ambrose, bishop of Milan. For a young woman of higher social status who wished to be educated, monastic life was an option—sometimes by their own choice, sometimes not. By the 1600s, when this certificate was made, printing was widespread; choosing instead to commission an illuminated manuscript reflects this document’s importance to Donna Theresia’s family.

This prayer book was made around 1500, and the coat of arms at the very end was probably added shortly after. Heraldry has its own elaborate vocabulary: this shield is formally identified as "azure, a fleur-de-lys or, party per pale azure, an eagle gules," which is another way of saying "a blue shield that’s half gold petals and half red eagle."