Cantigas de Santa María: 2-25 of the Escorial Manuscript T.I.1, "Códice Rico": Miniatures, Translations of the Old Spanish Prose Marginalia, and ... De Literatura Medieval John E. Keller)

The Cantigas de Santa Maria is a collection of 420 poetic narratives of Marian miracles, songs of praise to the Virgin, and May songs, compiled under the auspices of Alfonso X, el Sabio (reigned 1252-1284). Over the years, the compositions have been studied, translated, and analyzed with regard to themes, music, poetry, art, historical content and linguistic milieu.

A version in Old Spanish prose was written in the marginalia of Cantigas 2-25, most often under the miniatures of the Códice Rico, Escorial MS T.I.1. As a corpus they have not been translated into English, but have been studied over the years with regard to authorship, date of composition, linguistic characteristics, themes and reasons for their inclusion in the marginalia of this gorgeous manuscript. As with many medieval works of fiction, the concept of deleitar enseñando (entertaining while teaching) from Horace’s concept of dulce et utile (sweet and useful) is at work here. We can imagine the manuscript lying open and someone reading to an audience the prose versions of the stories, which appear below the miniatures.

Our goal in this monograph is to present these twenty-four cantigas translated into English accompanied by their miniatures...

~ from the Introduction