A Companion to the Poema de mio Cid

555 Pages·2018·6.318 MB·English

by  Irene Zaderenko, Alberto Montaner

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A Companion to the Poema de mio Cid
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004363755_001
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Brill’s Companions to
Mediaeval Philology
VOLUME 1
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bmcp
iii
A Companion to the
Poema de mio Cid
Edited by
Irene Zaderenko
Alberto Montaner
In collaboration with
Peter Mahoney
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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Translators: Peter Mahoney (chapters 2, 9, 11, 12, 14, and 15) Javier Pueyo (chapter 4).
Ottavio Di Camillo also contributed to the development of the project and to the edition of the text.
This book has benefited from funds granted by the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness
to the Research Project FFI2012-32331: Formas de la Épica Hispánica: Tradiciones y Contextos Históricos II,
and to the Project FFI2015-64050: Magia, Épica e Historiografía Hispánicas: Relaciones Literarias y
Nomológicas.
Cover illustration: First folio of the extant manuscript of the Poema de mio Cid (Madrid,ms. Vitr/7/17,
fol. 1r. With kind permission of the Biblioteca Nacional de España.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2018008146
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 2405-903X
isbn 978-90-04-36000-6 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-36375-5 (e-book)
Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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ContentCsontents v
Contents
Prologue  ix
Irene Zaderenko and Alberto Montaner
List of Figures xii
Notes on Contributors xiii
Introduction 1
Irene Zaderenko and Alberto Montaner
Part 1
The Codex and the Author
1 The Poema de mio Cid as Text: Manuscript Transmission and Editorial
Politics 43
Alberto Montaner
2 The Question of Authorship 89
Irene Zaderenko
Part 2
Linguistic Aspects
3 Why was the Poema de mio Cid Written Down the Way It was? 119
Roger Wright
4 A Closer Look at the Poema de mio Cid’s Language 137
Javier Rodríguez Molina
5 On the Arabic Loanwords in the Poema de mio Cid 169
Federico Corriente
Part 3
Poetic Aspects and Structure
6 On the Poetic Technique of the Poema de mio Cid 183
Juan Carlos Bayo Julve
Contents
Contents
Prologue for A Companion to the Poema de mio Cid  ix
Irene Zaderenko and Alberto Montaner
List of Figures xiii vi Contents
Notes on Contributors xiv
Part 1
The Codex and the Author 7 “Mio Cid Ruy Díaz odredes lo que dixo”: The Voice of the Narrator, the
Introduction 1
Irene Zaderenko and Alberto Montaner Voice of the Characters 207
Part 1
The Codex and the Author Salvatore Luongo
Chapter 1
The Poema de mio Cid as Text: Manuscript Transmission and Editorial Politics 43
Alberto Montaner 8 Oral Expression in the Poema de mio Cid 247
Chapter 2
The Question of Authorship* 89 Matthew Bailey
Irene Zaderenko
Translated by Peter Mahoney
Part 2 9 Episodic Logic and the Structure of the Poema de mio Cid 271
Linguistic Aspects
Chapter 3 Leonardo Funes
Why Was the Poema de mio Cid Written Down the Way It Was? 119
Roger Wright
Chapter 4
A Closer Look at the Poema de mio Cid’s Language 137
Javier Rodríguez Molina Part 4
Translated by Javier Pueyo Historical Aspects
Chapter 5
On the Arabic Loanwords in the Poema de mio Cid 169
Federico Corriente
Part 3 10 The Historical Context of the Poema de mio Cid 297
Poetic Aspects and Structure
Simon Barton
Chapter 6
On the Poetic Technique of the Poema de mio Cid 183
Juan Carlos Bayo Julve

Chapter 7 11 Social Structures and Values in the Poema de mio Cid 322
“Mio Cid Ruy Díaz odredes lo que dixo”: The Voice of the Narrator, the Voice of the Characters 207
Georges Martin
Salvatore Luongo
Chapter 8
Oral Expression in the Poema de mio Cid 247
Matthew Bailey 12 Legal Aspects of the Poema de mio Cid 347
Chapter 9
Eukene Lacarra Lanz
Episodic Logic and the Structure of the Poema de mio Cid 271
Leonardo Funes
Translated by Peter Mahoney
Part 4
Historical Aspects Part 5
Chapter 10
The Historical Context of the Poema de mio Cid 297 The Poema de mio Cid in the Cultural History of Spain
Simon Barton
Chapter 11
* 322
Social Structures and Values in the Poema de mio Cid
13 The Poema de mio Cid and the Canon of the Spanish Epic
Georges Martin
Translated by Peter Mahoney Revisited 379
Chapter 12
Legal Aspects of the Poema de mio Cid 347 Mercedes Vaquero
Eukene Lacarra Lanz
Translated by Peter Mahoney
Part 5 14 The Poema de mio Cid in 13th- and 14th-Century Romance
The Poema de mio Cid
in the Cultural History of Spain Historiography 412
Chapter 13
The Poema de mio Cid and the Canon of the Spanish Epic Revisited 379 Francisco Bautista
Mercedes Vaquero
Chapter 14
The Poema de mio Cid in 13th and 14th-Century Romance Historiography 412 15 The Cidian Matter in the 15th Century 463
Francisco Bautista
Translated by Peter Mahoney Fernando Gómez Redondo
Chapter 15
The Cidian Matter in the 15th Century 463
Fernando Gómez Redondo
Translated by Peter Mahoney
Chapter 16
The Canonization of the Poema de mio Cid from the 18th to the 20th Century 497
Luis Galván
Select Bibliography 523
Index 527
Contents vii
16 The Canonization of the Poema de mio Cid from the 18th to the 20th
Century 497
Luis Galván
Select Bibliography 523
Index 527
viii Contents
ProloguZea derenko and Montaner  ix
Prologue
Irene Zaderenko and Alberto Montaner
The Poema de mio Cid (PMC) has long been regarded as one of the major works
of Spanish medieval literature due to its linguistic and literary value, its histori-
cal influence, and its foundational role in Castilian epic poetry. It stands side
by side with Homeric poems, the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf, the Old French Chanson
de Roland, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and other such contributions from the epic
genre to the Weltliteratur pantheon.
It is significant that the PMC is the only Spanish epic text that has survived
almost in its entirety in a manuscript devoted solely to the poem. Though the
extant manuscript was produced sometime in the first decades of the 14th cen-
tury, the poem was previously copied in 1207 as indicated in the colophon.
Regarding the relatively late date of the surviving manuscript, it can best be
explained by the growing interest in its hero. In fact, by the end of the 13th
century the poem began to be utilized as a historical document in several ver-
nacular chronicles, a historiographical practice that continued uninterrupted
until the end of the 15th century. During this period, alongside its acceptance
as part of the official history of Spain, the work underwent a series of rewrit-
ings, revisions, and amplifications, generating new fictional narratives as it
moved into other literary genres.
Until today, students and scholars who wanted to embark on a critical read-
ing of the poem were faced with a massive collection of scholarly works
without the guide of a reliable and up-to-date handbook on the PMC. Such an
aid simply did not exist either in English or in any other language. In order to
meet this need, our volume brings together the critical knowledge of a number
of distinguished scholars, whose undisputed contributions to the field of PMC
studies have been widely recognized. 
Our aim is to provide an informed introduction to key literary aspects of the
poem (codicological and textual problems, authorship, reception, language,
rhyme and versification, formulaic style, themes, narrative devices, structure),
as well as presenting essential aspects and issues for a more comprehensive
understanding of the work (historical context, ideological motivations, prosifi-
cation in medieval chronicles, the poem’s place in the canon of Spanish
literature). Equally important is to present new critical interpretations that
have been put forward since the 1970s, when scholars started to challenge
Ramón Menéndez Pidal’s theories that had dominated the philological