Girberga of Flanders: Author of the Codex Calixtinus?

It is widely accepted by historians, both ancient and modern, that the Codex Calixtinus was not written by Pope Calixtus II. Researchers are also quite certain that the likely author of the manuscript was a French cleric who accompanied the renowned Pope on his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

Not much is known about Aymeric Picaud due to the lack of written information that has survived to the present day, but we will dedicate another post to discussing this silent protagonist in more detail. What is emerging with great force, however, is a new theory championed by Carmen Pugliese, an Italian historian based in Spain. According to this theory, the possibility that the important flagship book of the Jacobean culture was written not by a man, but by one of the first, or rather, most important female pilgrims of the time, cannot be ruled out. This researcher argues that, especially in Book V (Liber Peregrinationis), a distinctly feminine perspective is evident, as it dwells more on details, mentions local cuisine, warns of dangers, and focuses more on architecture, among other things.

Not much is known about Girberga of Flanders today either; in fact, we've searched high and low online and it's nearly impossible to find reliable and verified information about this historical figure. The only known fact is that she accompanied Aymeric on the transfer of the Codex Calixtinus from the Vatican to its final location in Santiago de Compostela. As early as 1880, the newspaper El Gallego used an excerpt from Father Fidel Fita's translation in which our protagonist was named as accompanying him on this journey, as the following text indicates: