Medieval Spanish Literature: An Overview
Medieval Spanish Literature
Overview
Medieval Spanish literature refers to the body of literary works produced during the Middle Ages in Spain. These works, primarily narrative poems written by individual authors and clergy, often lacked originality due to their reliance on established Latin texts. Authors frequently cited these sources to lend credibility to their words. This literature often served a pedagogical purpose, disseminating knowledge to the illiterate population. Religious and cultural themes were prominent, and writers commonly employed a regular versification style.
Book of Good Love
This narrative poem explores themes of adventure and, most prominently, love. It interweaves autobiographical tales, fables from classical sources, lyrical praises of the Virgin Mary, and popular songs of various social groups, including students, the blind, and mountain dwellers. Didactic and moral reflections on ethics and death are interspersed with critical commentary on societal aspects and ironic observations on the nature of love and its deceptions. The diverse stories within the Book of Good Love connect through the central theme of the Archpriest’s love affairs. Allegorical battles, such as those between the Archpriest and Don Amor, and Don Carnal and Doña Lent, further enrich the narrative. The author employs vivid and varied language, utilizing the zejel verse form.
Early Humanism and Courtly Poetry
One prominent figure of this period was a noted humanist with an extensive personal library. He commissioned translations of classical works into Castilian and was influenced by the Italian Renaissance. Considered a pre-Renaissance writer, he is recognized for introducing Petrarchan sonnets to Spanish literature and for his popular serranillas, poems describing encounters with refined shepherdesses. Another important figure balanced a life of arms and letters, composing love poems tinged with a deep sadness, often collected in anthologies focused on themes of death.
Don Juan Manuel and the Rise of Prose
Don Juan Manuel, believing in concise expression and the importance of preserving accurate texts, pioneered the narrative genre in Europe. His Count Lucanor presents fifty stories with a consistent structure: Count Lucanor seeks advice from his tutor, Patronio, on resolving a problem, each concluding with a moral lesson.
Other Literary Forms
Epistolary literature emerged, focusing on the analysis of love through exchanged letters. Love, often depicted through allegorical and abstract language, typically resulted in unhappy endings, exemplified by Diego de San Pedro’s Prison of Love. Chivalric romances, featuring exceptional warriors and knights embarking on extraordinary adventures to uphold justice, also gained popularity. Works like Amadis de Gaul and Tirant lo Blanc exemplify this genre. The court poet, distinct from minstrels and clergy, arose to meet the demands of a new readership. Their lyric poetry, often collected in manuscripts called cancioneros, imitated the courtly love tradition of the troubadours. These poems frequently lament the unrequited love of the poet for a lady, employing abstract and artificial language with octosyllabic rhyme schemes.
Epic Poetry
Epic poetry can be categorized into several types: national-historical poems derived from Castilian epic traditions, romantic and lyrical poems born from popular imagination, border and Moorish poems depicting war episodes on the frontiers, Carolingian poems centered on Charlemagne, and Arthurian poems inspired by King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.