From the Cantigas de Amor to the Cantigas de Santa Maria: The Appellatives of the Dame in Galician-Portuguese Troubadour Poetry
Marina KLEINE
Original title: Das cantigas de amor às Cantigas de Santa Maria: os apelativos da dama na lírica galego-portuguesa
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Alfonso X., Appellatives, Cancioneiro da Ajuda, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Galician-Portuguese troubadour poetry.
This paper aims to study the different forms of nominating the beloved woman, or dame, who constitutes the troubadours’ object of devotion in Galician-Portuguese love poetry, both profane and religious. The analysis will be focused on the appellatives of the dame in a sample of cantigas de amor extracted from the Cancioneiro da Ajuda and in Cantigas de Santa Maria’s cantigas de loor.
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.
Sacred Architecture and Nature in the Cantigas de Santa María
Ricardo da COSTA, Bárbara DANTAS
Original title: A Arquitetura Sagrada e a Natureza nas Cantigas de Santa María (séc. XIII)
Published in Art, Criticism and Mysticism
Keywords: Cantigas de Santa Maria, Medieval Art, Medieval Literature, Nature.
The Middle Ages was the time of insertion of man in Natural environment. More than that: it was, mainly, the time of the conquest of space, the large land clearance, the architectural constructions (sometimes in the middle of Nature), and the expansions at the expense of the environment. The monastic movements were the drivers of this increase. In this sense, the monks were, par excellence, the pathfinders, the lords, the domesticators of Nature, both subjects as objects to induce this process of understanding, civilization. Theology itself so allowed (“For every sort of beast and bird and every living thing on earth and in the sea has been controlled by man and is under his authority”, Jas 3, 7). The Western civilization was the daughter of this process, of this relationship, of this symbiosis, often unintended, between Nature and Culture, Civilization and Barbarism, raw and cooked. The purpose of this study is to analyze the iconography of the illuminations of two songs and one praise present in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, a work attributed to Alfonso X, the Wise. Our methodology consisted of thematically define the presence of Nature in those three illuminated, so when we fix the following artistic tops: 1) The Sacred Nature (cantiga 10), 2) The Supplicant Nature (cantiga 93) and 3) The Saving Nature (cantiga 7). In order, from Nature that surrounds and adorns the Virgin to Nature, which witnesses the passage of time, in a paradoxical duality between the eternal time of Nature and the fleeting and fickle weather of Art. Meanwhile, the Nature who pleads isolates the leper in his retreat, and, ultimately, the saving Nature is one that involves with his heavenly robe who ask the intercession of the Virgin.
The monastery and the social function of religious architecture: the Cantiga 45 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria by king Alfonso X (13th century)
Bárbara DANTAS
Original title: O mosteiro e a função social da arquitetura religiosa: a Cantiga 45 das Cantigas de Santa Maria do rei Afonso X (século XIII)
Published in
Keywords: Cantigas de Santa Maria, Medieval architecture, Middle Ages, Monastery.
D. Afonso wanted his obra maestra, the Cantigas de Santa Maria, to encompass everything that man sees and feels. And there is nothing more seen and felt than Architecture. Especially for us Religious Architecture. In Cantiga 45, the wise king presents us with a miracle report in which a knight, very affectionate to bad attitudes, wished to repair his errors and build a monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary. His monastery would have all the rooms and spaces necessary for the monastic life.
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.
The stone vault and the ivy leaves: the Cantiga 65 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria by King Afonso X (13th century)
Bárbara DANTAS
Original title: A abóbada de pedra e as folhas de hera: a Cantiga 65 das Cantigas de Santa Maria do rei Afonso X (século XIII)
Published in Returning to Eden
Keywords: Afonso X, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Medieval Art., Vault.
This work analyses the text and images of the Cantiga 65 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria by the Castilian king Afonso X with the aim of demonstrating how the vaults of medieval sanctuaries relate to the ivy leaves and the main character of this Cantiga, an excommunicated man who wandered across half the world to receive from the Virgin herself the grace of redemption, in addition to glimpsing the immortality of faith and friendship in an abandoned church, already covered by vast foliage.
