The Evolution of Castilian Prose and Poetry
The Beginnings of Castilian Prose
Until the reign of Alfonso X, Castilian was considered suitable only for oral communication in informal contexts, while Latin was the language of scholars. Early examples of Castilian glosses are found in the monasteries of Santo Domingo de Silos (Burgos) and San Millán de la Cogolla (La Rioja), both dating back to the 10th century. These are short notes in Castilian that translate Latin passages, which even then were difficult to understand. Around 1250, translations of Eastern works from Arabic into Castilian began to appear.
The Alfonsine School
King Alfonso X, “The Wise,” assembled at his court learned Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin-Christian scholars to help him translate and systematize all the knowledge of his time into Castilian. As a result, Castilian expanded and evolved to fulfill its new role as an official and literary language. In addition to making knowledge accessible to those who did not know Latin, this also fostered the secularization of culture.
The Working Method
King Alfonso X did not personally write his works, but directed the team of experts and supervised the results of their work. The Alfonsine school began by collecting the necessary Latin, Arabic, and Jewish sources for each work, then translated them into Castilian. They then revised the style, corrected the spelling, eliminated redundancies, and ensured consistency with other sources within the same book.
Works of Alfonso X
- Law: Las Siete Partidas (The Seven Parts), a comprehensive collection of laws of the time.
- History: Crónica General de España (General Chronicle of Spain).
- Science: Books of knowledge about the stars and astronomy.
- Entertainment: Games and tables.
The work of Alfonso X laid the groundwork for the beginning of prose fiction in Romance languages.
Don Juan Manuel
A nobleman, ambitious and proud to be a writer, Don Juan Manuel, a nephew of Alfonso X, was the first gentleman to embody the ideal of cultivating both arms and letters. His work, imbued with moral and didactic intent, often chose topics of interest to the nobles of his time, as evidenced in his autobiographical books. Eastern sources predominate in his work. Like other medieval authors, Don Juan Manuel did not feel the need to be original, but he handled his sources with some freedom. He may also be the first Castilian writer to strive for a unique style, one that is clear and concise, yet, in its desire to be fully understood, can be repetitive in some passages.
El Conde Lucanor (Count Lucanor)
Written around 1335, this book’s storyline revolves around conversations between two characters, the Count and his advisor, Patronio. It is divided into five parts, but the most interesting are the fifty-one stories that make up the first part. All the stories, parables, or examples share a common structure: the Count presents a problem to Patronio; Patronio tells a story to illustrate the solution; Patronio extracts the advice needed from the story; the Count applies the advice and succeeds; Don Juan Manuel includes the story in his book and concludes with a moral couplet. The stories, all with a clear didactic intention and written in a simple and concise style, deal with social, ideological, and ethical issues of a nobleman. The sources are varied, ranging from Eastern stories to Christian sources and Greek fables.
The Narrative Poem: Mester de Clerecía
A new school of poetry emerged in Spanish literature, perhaps the first conscious poetic school, the mester de clerecía (clergy’s craft), whose works appeared from 1240 onwards. The clergy drew on the books kept in monastery libraries and wrote poems based on them, not mere translations, but creative works. The main purposes were to moralize and teach, and only to a lesser extent to entertain, which distinguishes them from the minstrels. The works of the mester de clerecía deal with religious themes and ancient history. Its authors wrote lives of saints and miracles of the Virgin Mary. In contrast to the oral literature of the minstrels, the priests continually expressed their respect for writing. The authors of this new movement used a poetic verse (probably of French origin) that required more skill than the irregular assonant verses of the mester de juglaría (minstrelsy). This verse form, also called the cuaderna vía (four-fold way), consists of four lines of fourteen syllables with a single rhyme (AAAA). Each verse is divided into two hemistichs.
Mester de Clerecía of the Thirteenth Century
The poems of the clergy in the thirteenth century are stories in cuaderna vía with didactic and doctrinal purposes. Examples include the Libro de Apolonio (Book of Apollonius), the Poema de Fernán González, and the Libro de Alexandre (Book of Alexander).
Gonzalo de Berceo
Gonzalo de Berceo is the first Castilian poet whose name we know, breaking the anonymity common among the authors of the mester de clerecía. Despite the simplicity of his style and his warm and approachable tone, careful observation reveals a profound knowledge of rhetoric, letters, and even medieval Latin and Romance literatures of other countries. The didactic intent is coupled with a propagandistic purpose, as Berceo used the dissemination of the lives of saints to attract pilgrims to San Millán de la Cogolla, which brought both greater prestige and material resources to the monastery.
Milagros de Nuestra Señora (Miracles of Our Lady)
This work, the pinnacle of the thirteenth-century mester de clerecía, is a collection of twenty short stories in cuaderna vía framed within the Marian tradition. Gonzalo de Berceo based it on one of the many collections of miracles written in Latin throughout Europe. Imitation was common in the Middle Ages. However, Berceo infused liveliness into the Latin narrative by adding dialogues, everyday details, nicknames, and personal comments. His popular style, which did not preclude the use of numerous learned terms, is also evident in the way he addresses the public, imitating the jesters. The Virgin Mary, like a feudal lord, always comes to the aid of her faithful. One of Berceo’s main merits is his ability to bring the divine down to the human level, portraying Mary as a real woman who is outraged and fights for those in need.
The Mester de Clerecía of the Fourteenth Century
The Libro de buen amor (Book of Good Love) is the most important work of the fourteenth-century mester de clerecía and reveals significant changes from the previous century’s literary canons.
The Intention of Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita
We have only vague indications of the real existence of Juan Ruiz. The main problem with the Libro de buen amor is its ambiguity. In the introduction, the author states that his intention is moral.
Structure and Style of the Libro de buen amor
Other characteristics of the work are its originality and variety. The storyline is a fictional amorous autobiography. The main components are:
- The amorous adventures of the protagonist: After initial failures, the Archpriest receives advice from various characters. Following these tips, he is more successful in later adventures. At the end of the book, he falls in love with Doña Garoza, but she dies, and the Archpriest consoles himself with another woman.
- An imitation of a twelfth-century anonymous comedy: The hero, Don Melón de la Huerta, falls for the young widow Doña Endrina and wins her love through deception.
- The allegorical battle between Don Carnal and Doña Cuaresma: A parody of the battles described in epic poetry.
- A number of animal fables and diverse tales: Many are of Eastern origin, circulating in European collections translated into the vernacular.
- Lyrical compositions: There are poems of praise to the Virgin and love poems that show a variety of verses.
- Moralizing digressions: Condemnations of the deadly sins, protests against the disasters caused by love, and complaints about death are some examples.
There are other materials that are difficult to classify. Variety is also a characteristic of Juan Ruiz’s style: proverbs and idioms, nicknames, puns, double meanings, and jokes.