Angelus or The touch of the Virgin: the Music in the Cantigas de Santa Maria (13th century) by King Alfonso X
Bárbara Dantas
Original title: Angelus ou O toque da Virgem: a Música nas Cantigas de Santa Maria (séc. XIII) do rei Afonso X
Published in Music in Middle Ages and Early Modernity
Keywords: Alfonso X, Architecture, Art, Cantigas de Santa María, Middle Ages, Music, Poetry.
Harmonious as a song, the Galician-Portuguese poetry, systematized by the zéjel metric, was the basis of the poetry of Cantigas de Santa Maria, a compilation that contains reports of miracles and praises to the Virgin performed in the second half of the 13th century at the request of the castilian king Alfonso X (1221-1284), creator, sponsor and supervisor of the work. In Cantigas, reality is overcome by imagination without limits and the relation of poetry with two other artistic forms (Music and image) makes it literary support in which the themes of the songs to the Virgin were formed. Music and image share with the poetry a sensitivity capable of expressing in different ways certain reports of miracles or praise. For this article, I present to you the Cantiga 276 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria. From iconographic and architectural analyzes, I realized the association between church bells, the architecture of the sanctuary towers where they are housed and the melody of the Angelus (The Virgin's Touch).
Augustine of Hippo’s Doctrine of Jewish Witness in Partida 7.24 De los judios
David NAVARRO
Published in Rhythms, expressions and representations of the body
Keywords: Alfonso X, Augustine of Hippo, Fourth Lateran, Jews, Siete Partidas.
This article examines Augustine of Hippo’s Doctrine of Jewish Witness in Alfonso X’s Partida 7.24 De los judios. This Augustinian tenet, derived from traditional theological anti-Judaism, serves as the juridical principle for the first six laws of the Partida. These postulates, the most extensive and detailed of the Partida, enhance the Jews’ hermeneutical features, and denote a lenient posture toward their religious freedom and communal jurisdictional autonomy. In addition, these precepts differ from the Jews’ functional traits and the segregationist tone present in the rest of the laws of the text, drawn from the Church’s Lateran campaign and popular tradition. I posit the Augustinian Witness Doctrine represents the main legal framework in the redaction of this Partida, creating an opening for a new discussion on the monarch’s debated tolerant stance toward his Jewish subjects.
Goodness, Justice and Truth. Three Marian virtues in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and in the Book of Santa Maria, by Ramon Llull
Ricardo da COSTA, Bárbara DANTAS
Original title: Bondade, Justiça e Verdade. Três virtudes marianas nas Cantigas de Santa Maria e no Livro de Santa Maria, de Ramon Llull
Published in
Keywords: Alfonso X, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Enluminures, Libre de Sancta Maria, Medieval Art, Ramon Llull.
The Cantigas de Santa Maria is a cultural landmark in medieval Spain. This magnific work of the thirteenth century is composed of 420 praises and narratives of miracles of the Virgin Mary and written in galician-portuguese language. Furthermore, have hundreds of miniatures. Sponsored by King Alfonso X (1221-1284), is not great only for its artistic value, but, specially, for its historical value. Each song registry differents aspects of medieval sensibility. Thus, the objective of this study is to make a comparative analysis (textual and imagistic) of three philosophical-theological virtues of the Virgin Mary – Goodness, Truth and Justice – present in the praise 140 of the Cantigas de Santa María and in the Libre de Sancta Maria (c. 1290) from the Catalan philosopher Ramon Llull (1232-1316), to analyze the symbolic structures from marian spirituality, typical religious and artistic manifestation of the thirteenth century in the Medieval West.
Soissons: the stone builds the Marian faith (The Cantiga 53 of Cantigas de Santa Maria by Afonso X)
Bárbara DANTAS
Original title: Soissons: a pedra edifica a fé mariana (a Cantiga 53 das Cantigas de Santa Maria de Afonso X)
Published in Mirabilia Journal
Keywords: Alfonso X, Cantigas de Santa María, Middle Ages, Soissons Cathedral.
Alfonso X, sovereign of the peninsular kingdoms of León and Castilla, honored the fame of the kings of the medieval West of the 13th century and dedicated much of his time and money to promoting the arts, sciences and Marian cult. One of the ways to unite all these initiatives was the creation of the Cantigas de Santa María, a set of hundreds of stories of miracles and praises to the Virgin Mary, in which another hundred full-page illuminations are recorded. This work will focus on Cantiga 53 and aims to show the technical development implemented by gothic architects, as well as the syncretism between the French and peninsular kingdoms with regard to cathedral architecture, for the example of Soissons Cathedral.
The Alfonsine Guzman ladies. A feminine dynasty in Castile, 13th-14th centuries
Pablo MARTÍN PRIETO
Original title: Las Guzmán alfonsinas. Una dinastía femenina en la Castilla de los siglos XIII y XIV
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Alfonso X, Beatriz of Portugal, Blanca of Portugal, Guzman, Mayor Guillen.
From the mid-13th century, the relationship between Alfonso X of Castile and his mistress Mayor Guillen de Guzman gave rise to a veritable feminine dynasty, beginning with their daughter Beatriz − later Queen of Portugal through her marriage − and continued through the latter's daughter, Princess Blanca of Portugal, the grand-daughter of Mayor Guillen, well until the 1320s. In this time, the ladies belonging to this illegitimate line of Alfonso X's descent kept a special commitment to the Castilian crown, as well as to certain interests of piety and power related to this king. The continuity along this Alfonsine line of the important noble family of Guzman stands as a showcase of the public relevance of women set in a high environment.
The legislative panorama of the territories of the Castile’s Crown in the beginning of the reign of Alfonso X, The Wise
Jaime Estevão dos REIS
Original title: O panorama legislativo dos territórios da Coroa de Castela no início do reinado de Alfonso X, o Sábio
Published in Monastic and Scholastic Philosophy in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Alfonso X, Castile, Legislation, León, Territories.
This article has the objective of discussing the effective legislation in the territories of the Castile’s Crown in the beginning of the reign of Alfonso X, The Wise (1252-1284). In the middle of the thirteenth century, the territories belonging to the kingdoms of Castile and León, unified in 1230, by Fernando III (1217-1252), father of Alfonso X, had their own legislation, without a unity among the several juridical codes. In the kingdom of León, as well as in the territories belonging to him, the rights originating from the visigothic Liber Iudiciorum remained. In the territories of the Castile’s kingdom, the old Castilian right was in force, the Fuero Viejo of Castilla, codified in the beginning of the thirteenth century for Alfonso VIII (1158-1214). In the Andalusia territories that were incorporated to the Castilian crown by Fernando III, the Fuero Juzgo ruled, adapted to the local reality. The main task of Alfonso XI in the beginning of his reign was the one of idealizing a project of juridical unification of the several codes on going in the territories of the Castile’s Crown.
The names of the Moors: the perception of the ethnic-cultural differences of the Islamic populations in a Castilian documentation of the 13th century
Renata VEREZA
Original title: Os nomes dos mouros: a percepção das diferenças étnico-culturais das populações islâmicas em uma documentação castelhana do século XIII
Published in Ramon Llull. Seventh centenary
Keywords: 13th century, Alfonso X, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Castille, Moors.
The present work analyzes how the Muslims are represented, particularly in the Marian songbook produced by Alfonso X of Castile in the second half of the 13th century (“Cantigas de Santa Maria”), in order to verify if the ethnic cultural differences of the Islamic populations, both of the Iberian Peninsula, and from North Africa and the East are reflected in the documentation. In addition, it seeks to ascertain whether it is possible to affirm ignorance on the part of Christians in relation to the internal divisions of the Islamic world, or whether missing information is due to the specific political agenda.
The portal and the rose window in the Praise 1 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria by Alfonso X (13th century)
Bárbara DANTAS
Original title: O portal e a rosácea no Louvor 1 das Cantigas de Santa Maria de Afonso X (século XIII)
Published in Intercultural Mediterranean
Keywords: Alfonso X, Architecture, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Virgin Mary.
Language:
The Cantigas de Santa Maria, in addition to their most obvious characteristic, that of King Alfonso X's homage to the Virgin Mary, through hundreds of praises, accounts of miracles and their corresponding images – in particular, more than four hundred full-page historical illuminations – are for us, art historians, a summary of medieval life, not only in the kingdoms of León and Castile, ruled by the Wise King in the second half of the 13th century, but throughout Europe and its surroundings. An example of this is right at the beginning of the Alfonsine compendium, in the Praise 1, since its 2nd stanza, as well as vignette 2 of the illumination, tell of an important event that took place in Bethlehem: the birth of Jesus. Focusing on this stanza and vignette – but without losing sight of the main theme of the praise of the Virgin, her seven moments of extreme happiness, or “goyos” in Galician language –, this article correlates biblical texts with the themes addressed in the Praise 1 of the Cantigas; it also correlates religion and architecture, goodness and beauty, as well as holiness and perfection of forms. Let us then delve into the religious universe that underpins the creation of the Gothic portal and rose window, according to the vision of Alfonso X and his Cantigas de Santa Maria.
