Medieval Spanish Literature
Origins of Prose
Prose emerged later than lyric and epic poetry. King Fernando III adopted Castilian chancery as the official language, replacing Latin. Alfonso X, the Wise, promoted the Toledo School of Translators. Early collections of Castilian stories and fables were translated from Arabic. Don Juan Manuel created original works of great quality, compiling over 50 stories.
Alfonso X, the Wise
Alfonso X demonstrated a commitment to promoting Castilian writing across all areas of knowledge, including historical chronicles (General Chronicle), legal works, scientific treatises, and books on games like chess, dice, and tables.
Mester de Clerecía
From the 13th century, a new learned poetic movement developed known as the Mester de Clerecía. This style, influenced by religious ideology and written by cultured writers, employed consistent rhyme schemes and new Alexandrine verses with 14 syllables.
Gonzalo de Berceo
Gonzalo de Berceo, a priest from the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, is a key figure in this movement. His works include Lives of the Saints (Santo Domingo de Silos, San Millán, and Santa Oria). His most important work is Miracles of Our Lady. His style is characterized by simple language, addressing the people like a minstrel.
Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita
Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita, wrote the Book of Good Love, a work encompassing a variety of themes, genres, stanzas, and verses.
Key Aspects of the Book of Good Love
- A preface explaining the moralizing intention of the work.
- A cheerful and carefree autobiographical account of the protagonist’s love affairs, interspersed with other elements.
- Stories or examples.
- Satires.
- Moral reflections and strategies to combat sin.
- Religious lyrical poems.
- Profane lyrical poems.
Intention of the Work
The true intention of the work, whether didactic or not, is debated. The Archpriest of Hita is deliberately ambiguous, presenting both religious and worldly perspectives, the exaltation of carnal love and pious devotion.
Characteristics of the Work
The Book of Good Love blends troubadour and popular elements. Popular meter, carefree and comical tone, vivid language, varied expressive resources, and realism are hallmarks of his style.
Don Juan Manuel
Count Lucanor is Don Juan Manuel’s most important work. It comprises fifty-one stories, proverbs, and a moral treatise.
Count Lucanor Structure
The stories are framed as dialogues between Count Lucanor and his advisor, Patronio. The Count presents a problem, Patronio offers advice and tells a story to illustrate it. The Count accepts the advice, and Don Juan Manuel summarizes the moral in two-verse poems.
Sources and Influences
The tales draw from Arabic, Oriental, and European Christian storytelling traditions.
Style
Don Juan Manuel skillfully uses Castilian prose, noting when he incorporates Latin terms. The style can be somewhat archaic.
Themes and Intention
The teachings are directed towards the nobility, covering diverse topics. Don Juan Manuel aims to provide moral instruction while also entertaining the reader.
Castilian Popular Lyric
: its conservation was possible was collected aq songbooks of the period. These compositions are simple, beautiful and lyrical density. Its metric is irregular with a tendency to verses 6 and 8 syllables. The theme is love.
The compositions most often used is the carol that has the following structure: repeated initial verse altogether, form the chorus. A move of 4 lines and 2 or more connecting lines, 1 q rhyme with the move and another, called back line, with the chorus. The romance: os romances are literary manifestations of oral transmission most appreciated of Spanish folk poetry. Q is considered derived from fragments of epic poems. Octosyllabic serious rhyming assonance in pairs. What you do in the romance epic verse is split into 2 parts. Primitive as minstrel romances, created in the fifteenth century, are part of the old ballads. They are lyrical and epic-range of topics. Classes Romance: Historical: King Don Rodrigo, the Cid … Frontier: fighting against the Moorish kingdom of Granada. Carolingian or Breton theme: Roldan. Romantic and lyrical, sentimental subject. The romances mixed narration and dialogue and are characterized by their simplicity of expression, spontaneity and the use of a range of resources such repetitions, parallels, … were cultivated by writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These romances are known as new romances.Learned poetry or courtesan. Q learned poetry acquires a palace courtier and air. Get double influence: “Provencal troubadour poetry, short lines and theme of love,” the Italian Dante’s allegorical poetry leads to long poems of couplets of high art. It is preserved in various song-like and the Stúñiga Baena. The great poets of the age cults: the Marquis of Santillana, Juan de Mena … The Marquis de Santillana: verses in the first half of the fifteenth century. His poetry is suffused with a noble attitude, refined and elegant and an aristocratic spirit. Could be classified into “poetry of Provençal influence (serranillas), Italian-influenced poetry (hells of lovers) and moral-didactic poetry (proverbs) Juan de Mena: contemporary writer the Marquis of Santillana. His most important work Laberinto de Fortuna, also known as The three hundred, to be composed of nearly that number of verses of high art. Follow the procedures of allegorical poetry dantesa. And Co language highly expressive worship, develops the idea of the influence of Fortune in the lives of men.The dances of death is anonymous and Spanish, widespread genus in European medieval literature. In the Dances of Death, a skeleton summons to men to remind them of their mortal condition. It begins with verses put into the mouth of death.