The Tumbo Menor is manuscript compiling the rights, properties, privileges, and general archival notes belonging to the Order of Santiago, a religious and military order founded in the 12th century and dedicated to St. James the Great (known as Santiago in Spain). The documents were kept within the archives of the Monastery of Uclés, in Castile-La Mancha, and were copied in a single volume around the mid-13th century. The manuscript is of great value and interest not only because of its contents, its materials and richly decorated miniatures, but also because each of its four sections has survived intact since its creation.
The four sections were most likely copied at the same time and are all written in Gothic bookhand, with documents in Latin and a relatively modern form of Castilian. The first section consists almost exclusively of royal privileges; the second and third contain documents granted by private individuals; and the fourth brings together records from the papal chancery—including papal bulls and apostolic letters.
The Tumbo remained in Uclés for six centuries, until it was transferred in 1872 to the Archivo Histórico Nacional, where it was recorded using the Selene Photometric Stereo System and composite colour photography in May 2024. Factum Foundation’s team worked on a facsimile from the high-resolution data, complete with a leather cover: the facsimile manuscript was donated to the Monastery of Uclés on 19 June 2025. To support wider access and research, ten additional copies – without the leather binding – were also created and distributed to relevant institutions. The data from the recording was also provided to the Archivo Nacional Histórico, in order to aid with the study and dissemination of the manuscript.
High-resolution viewer of one of the pages of the Tumbo Menor de Castilla, with the colour (left) and the 3D (right) information © Archivo Histórico Nacional | Factum Foundation
Printing the individual pages © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Foundation
Silvia Álvarez retouching the miniature decorations © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Foundation
Retouching the miniature decorations © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Foundation
Presentation of the original manuscript and the facsimile at the Archivo Histórico Nacional © Alba Villar Gómez
In November 2025, high-resolution 3D data acquired with the Selene Photometric Stereo System has been combined for the first time with hyperspectral imaging data produced by the Institute of Heritage Sciences (INCIPIT), a research organisation within the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). A miniature (folio 15, depicting the donation of Uclés to the Order of Santiago) from the Tumbo Menor de Castilla was chosen as the first case study, given its historical relevance and opportunity for in-depth research.
Hyperspectral imaging can identify pigments with precision through spectral analysis—essentially reading the unique “fingerprint” of each colour. Bringing together these two approaches to capturing data opens new possibilities for studying cultural heritage without ever touching the objects themselves. It is now possible to consider how certain pigments create specific surface textures, how they interact with different binding materials and analyse the interaction between the way an image is built up and its final appearance.
Detail of the Tumbo Menor de Castilla with hyperspectral imaging (left) and color+3D (right) side by side in Factum’s high resolution viewer © Factum Foundation
Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) + 3D. SAM analysis identifies organic and inorganic pigments based on their spectral reflectance: blue indicates azurite, red vermilion, and green malachite
Left: Infrared False Color (IRFC) combined with 3D data. Right: Principal component Analysis (PCA) with 3D. IRFC helps to study the pigment composition, while PCA reduces the dataset to its principal components, highlighting the most significant information
