1099. The best of these poems is the one beginning: El mio Cid (vide Ticknor). Though incomplete, it constitutes a real epic poem, and if examined in detail appears to have been written at the beginning of the 12th century.[1] Three contemporary works have reached us: La Vida de Santa Maria Egipciaca, El Libro de los tres reyes d’Orient, and Los tres reyes magos. The first two were evidently written under a French influence; Los tres reyes magos was written for recital in a church.
The same intellectual development appears in Spain in the 13th century as in Italy and France. The universities of Palencia and Salamanca contributed towards it. The tendency of the writers of this period is to imitate classic authors. A priest, Gonzalo de Berceo, is the first poet of any importance in the 13th century, 1230: he wrote a large number of verses on religious subjects. His poem to the Virgin contains some poetical passages. Two poems appeared shortly afterwards, El Libro de Apollonio and El Libro de Alexandre, by J. Lorenzo Segura, adapted from the history of Alexandre Le Grand, by Chatillon. The poem Fernan Gonzalez is of the same period: it is free from foreign influence. Prose is improved at the beginning of the century by the translation from Latin of the Fuero Juzgo, and other historical and didactical works.
Don Alonso el Sabio, 1221–1284, absorbs the scientific and literary life of Spain during his time: the most eminent of his countrymen, Spaniards, Jews, and Moors, gathered round him. So many works have appeared under his name that it is incredible they should all have been written by him. Probably only the poems, Las Querellas, written in the Castilian dialect, are his. An extensive Universal History, the first written in Europe in a vernacular language, the Leyes de Partidas, a series of legal works; El Saber de Astronomia, a cyclopædia of this science as it stood at that time; the Cantigas, a poem containing upwards of 400 compositions to the Virgin, written in the Gallician dialect and in the Provençal style, and several other works, have passed hitherto as proceeding from his pen.
Don Sancho el Bravo, a son of Don Alonso, wrote the Lucidario and Libro de los Castigos, a moral treatise dedicated to his son. The Libro del Tesoro and La Gran Conquista de Ultramar were translated at his instigation from the Latin. The Infante, Don Juan Manuel, 1282, a nephew of Don Alonso, wrote several works on different subjects. The finest is the interesting collection of fables, El Conde Lucanor. They are earlier than the Decamerone or Canterbury Tales.
Spanish poetry revived in the 14th century. The archpriest of Hita, 1330–1348, wrote thousands of verses on different subjects. Rabbi Don Sem Tob, 1350, a Spanish Jew, dedicated to his friend, King Peter the Cruel, his principal poetical works, The best is on the Danza de la Muerte, a favourite subject of that time. Pero Lopez de Ayala, 1372–1407, who wrote the Rimado de Palacio, and Rodrigo Yañez, the author of the Poema de Alonso XI., end the series of poets of the 14th century. Romances of chivalry became popular in Spain in the 15th century: their popularity lasted until the 16th, when Cervantes published his Don Quijote. Amadis de Gaula was the first work of im-
- ↑ Vide Mila, ‘Poesia heroico popular en Castilla,’ Barcelona, 1872.
