Table Of ContentIconography in Medieval Spanish Literature
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ICONOGRAPHY
in Medieval Spanish Literature
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JOHN KELLERA ND RICHARD P. KINKADE
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THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY
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Publication of this book has been assisted by a grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
C.Opyrighct 1984 by The UniversityP ress ofKcnrucky
Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine College, Berea College, Centre
College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University,
The Filson Club, Georgetown College, Kentucky
Historical Society, Kentucky State University,
Morehead State University, Murray State University,
Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University,
University of Kentucky, University of Louisville,
and Western Kentucky University.
Editorial and Salts 0/fim: Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0024
1.Jbrary of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Keller, John Esten.
Iconography in medieval Spanish literature.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
l. Spanish fiction-To I 500-History and criticism.
2. Spanish fiction-To 1500-lllustrations.
3. Art and literature. 4. Narration (Rhetoric)
I. Kinkade, Richard P. II. Tide.
PQ6141.K44 1983 863'.1'09 83-2478
ISBN 0-8131-1449-7
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Contents
Preface vii
Introduction 1
Las cantigas de Santa Maria 6
El libro de Cali/a e Digna 41
Castigose documentops ara bien vivir 52
El libro de/ CavalleroC ifar 60
La vida de/ Ysopet con sus fabulas hystoriadas 9 3
Notes 105
Selected Bibliography 111
Index 117
[Color plates follow pages 40 and 104}
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Preface
question has haunted us from the outset of These were written in Spain from the time of Gil de
this work and indeed was partially re Zamora, who wrote in Latin; Gonzalo de Berceo, who
sponsible for our undertaking it: how used good Castilian; and King Alfonso X, who wrote
many scholars of medieval Spanish litera or caused to be written the largest collection or anthol
ture have ever seen the illuminations or other illustra ogy of Marian miracles in Galician-Porcuguese rather
tions commissioned by the patrons of the works stu than in his native Castilian. Those who have compared
died in their classes? Even the great critics of medieval the manuscripts of the Cantigas de Santa Maria and
Spanish fiction-Menendez y Pelayo, Amador de los their gorgeous illuminations with the unillustrated
Rios, Bonilla y San Martin, to name but three-did collections of miracles by these other authors can best
not consider it worthwhile to describe the narrative art comprehend what we mean. The illuminated miracles
found in such books as the Cantigas de Santa Maria, are memorable, for their miniatures cling to the minds
Cali/a e Digna, and the Libra de/ Cavallero Cifar. Nor of those who have seen them and serve to inte_nsjfyt he .
have we until recently made any effort to synchronize stories they illustrate.
--Literary:
the two mutually compatible art form~the written hist~ri~s and art historians have too often
word and the narrative art that visualized it -for gone separate ways, the former stressing text, the
- .
medieval man. This fault, committed in even the best latter illustrations, leading to a regretable la~k of co~
-ha11dbookso f literary history, is a serious omission in munication and a mutual misunderstandi.ng..Qf.j_g~r
the presentation of literary history, since illustrations disciplinary possiblities for study. Students of litera
greatly_ e.nhlll!_Ctee ~tu?-1p resentation. and can ev.:e.o ture (and we among them, we confess) have labored in
alter it or color it with noYel .concepts. considerable ignorance of atelier traditions and the
When an educated English-speaking public was possibilities present in their development. And stu
wont to read the Divine Comedy and could view simul dents of art have overlooked or studied only super
taneously Gustave Dore's compelling and often ter ficially the illuminations found in the medieval secular
rifying engravings, this great book took on a vivid life books we treat. Some of these illustrations have never
not quite present in English translation, or indeed in been reproduced anrwhere, while others have entire
the original Tuscan. The connection between the ly escaped the notice of both literary scholars and art
medieval poet and the nineteenth century artist was historians.
powerful enough to reshape in the reader's mind the This leads us to a second question: Must the two
sequences illustrated so long after Dante's time. This disciplines-art and literatur~ontinue their sepa
is an extreme case, perhaps, but it is illustrative of the rate and therefore limited progress toward know
influence of visualizations on the reader's perception ledge? Surely the answer must be in the negative.
of a text. Illuminated medieval texts, both ecclesiastic Communication is as possible as it is necessary if com
al and secular, were more esteemed and more memor prehension of the kind we envisage is to be attained.
able than texts of the same works without illumina As historians of literature and of literature's narrative
tions. Consider miracles of the Virgin, for example. techniques in verbal form, we believe this book can
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vm Preface
assist art historians, although we concede it is not graph in museums, palaces, libraries, churches, and
written with the competence in art possessed by those other places the various art works needed for the
who have made medieval art their life's study. completion of our books. Without this aid, and a
How, then, can comprehension and communica semester's leave of absence for one of us, we could
tion be brought about, if we may ask still a third hardly have made more than a start on our project.
question? The answer, we believe, is through the com We render deepest appreciation to Don Agustin
parative study of literary content and artistic content. Cano, Ministro Encargado de Asuntos Culturales of
The iconography and narrative art of these pictures, the Embassy of Spain in Washington, whose letters of
that is, the visualization of the written work, can be introduction brought great success to our investiga
indispensable to literary scholar and art expert alike. tions. Don Carlos Gonzalez Echegaray of the Cuerpo
Some investigation, though not a great deal, is being Facultativo de Archivos Bibliotecarios y Arqueo
made with regard to text and visualization of ecclesias l6gicos and Subdirector General de Bibliotecas,
tical works, as we shall show in the course of this book. smoothed our path in various museums. The Director
We hope that through this study of the narrative tech of the Museo del Prado, Don Jose Manuel Pitandrade,
niques of visualization found in five repositories of as well as the Subdirector, Don Javier Morales, have
secular Spanish fiction, including both brief narratives sent us most excellently prepared transparencies of a
and more novelesque pieces, we can accomplish two significant part of the Prado's medieval collection.
goals: first and foremost, to lead literary historians and Don Manuel Sanchez Mariana of the Cuerpo Faculta
critics of literature (primarily of Spanish literature) to tivo de Archiveros y Bibliotecarios of the Biblioteca
some new insjghts into the interplay of influences Nacional, made it possible to obtain magnificent color
between literature and il111rnioation; and secondly, to transparencies of numerous miniatures. Special men
open a virtually unexplored area of Spanish art to art tion, too, must go to Father Eduardo Torra de Arana,
historians, both peninsular and foreign, in order to Canon of the Santa Eglesia Metropolitana de La Seo in
increase the communication so often lacking between Saragossa, whose kindness in securing for us photo
students of literature and those of the fine arts. graphs of the famous collection of fourteenth- and
Our approach thus seeks to be interdisciplinary, fifteenth-century tapestries will greatly enrich our
though perforce more literary than visual, since we are studies. Thanks coo, are owed co Father Pascual de
students primarily of literature and its history. With Galindo, whose definitive study of the tapestries pre
each literary sequence which we summarize or trans served in the La Seo collection has proved invaluable;
late, we offer a parallel discussion of its visualization, and to Carlos Sanchez Garcia, who has generously
since we see the two art forms as working mutually and pointed out much about these art works. We are great
simultaneously. ly indebted to Dr. Kathleen Kulp-Hill of Eastern
What we write is our own interpretation of each Kentucky University for permission to print her
picture or set of related pictures in their alliance with translations of the Cantigas dt Santa Maria. Spain's
text, and our conception of the narrative devices or Consul General to New Orleans, Don Enrique lran
techniques both artists and writers employed. Insofar zo, has also helped with his encouragement and sup
as possible, we attempt also to indicate l:!owa rtists and port. From the University of Connecticut came a
writers accommodated the nine elements generally handsome grant to aid in the cost of publication, and
regarded as making v.p the structure of narrative: plot, due thanks are made here. We offer grateful ack
conflict, setting, characterization, theme, style, effect, nowledgment, too, to Don Ram6n Bela, Secrecario
point of view, and mood or tone. Obviously not every Ejecutivo and the Cornice Conjunco Hispano
story, and certainly not every miniature can contain Norteamericano para Asuntos Educativos y Cultu
every one of these elements, but we hope to demon rales: these scholarly persons through their assess
strate that more of these nine elements than has been ment of our book's contribution to the diffusion of
suspected do indeed appear in both media of medieval Spanish culture in the United States made possible a
Spanish story telling-the verbal and the visual. No munificent grant toward publication.
one, to our knowledge, has attempted this in the field Very special thanks are rendered to Bruce F. Denbo
of medieval Spanish secular book illustration. for his encouragement and constantly good advice as
this volume was developed. Last, but not least, we owe
We are most grateful to the National Endowment a great debt of gratitude, as does our profession, to the
for the Humanities and the University of Kentucky, correct dating of the illuminated manuscripts of Casti
through whose matching funds we were able to spend gos t documtntos and the Cavalkro C ifar to Dona Marfa
the summer of 1978 traveling through most of Spain, Elena Arizmendi, whose knowledge of medieval dress
especially along the Way of St. James, and to photo- and coiffure is deep and recognized internationally.
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Introduction
oday scholars are conscious more than ~.es." Probably we cleave to a concept closer to
ever before of the relationships between K. Wietzman's, which states that "Iconography is the
the literary, the graphic, and the plastic science that deals with the forms and recensions of
arts. With greater frequency literary schol images." Wietzman uses recension in the sense of
ars are traversing borders once rarely crossed, and are, textual revision as in Biblical and later literary studies.
in the process of such exploration, discovering fasci We have attempted to ply a course which does not
nating and important concepts. Within the past few stray far from either the more general or the more
years iconography and literature have moved into par specific concepts of iconography. While we concen
allel orbits, if the general meaning of the former is trate to a greater degree upof! ~~ra_tive art,_t _hati s, th~
accepted without the more specific connotations means employed by medieval artists to !llustrate bri«:f
established by art historians. It is necessary here that narratives as well as novelesque .narrativeJ.eq.uences,
we make quite dear what we mean by iconography. 1 we nevertheless do not neglect symbols and their
Webster'sN ew World Dictionary of the American Lan '!leanings.
g11ag(es econd edition, 1970) defines iconography as Since so little has been written about narrative tech
"the art of representing or illustrating by pictures, niques in medieval Spanish secular books, and since
symbols, images, etc.," and goes so far as to state that apparently no one has explored the iconography and
iconology is the same as iconography. The OxfordU ni narrative art devices used by medieval Spanish artists,
versalD ictionaryo n HistoricalP rinciples( 195 5) consid or by artists imported from abroad, 2 we here attempt
ers iconography to be "a pictorial representation;. a to describe and interpret these techniques.
drawing, a ·plan; the description of any subject by Our studies of medieval Spanish fiction were near
means of drawings or figures; any book in which this is ing their end when we realized that much still re
done; also a branch of knowledge which deals with mained to be done to make dear the ways in which
representative art in general." medieval Spaniards came to know the stories of their
We hope that we do not stray too far from the times. After all, a majority of the populace was illiter
definitions used by professional art historians. The ate. Yet a world of visualized knowledge surrounded
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Art, for example, defines the ignorant and taught them much of what they
iconography as "a discipline concerned _wjth the mean needed to know about the great folk of history, of the
ing of symbols and the_m~s_9"f? 'Qrks0 .fw ..''.and goes Bible, ofliterature, both past and current, foreign and
on to stat~ that 'The traditional discipline of iconogra domestic, and also about folklore. When medieval
phy has expanded to include iconology." It also avers people went to church they gazed upon stained glass
that "while iconography proper deals mainly with the windows, at least in the larger churches and cathedrals.
)
ide(!tifi~~ti__on..adnads sificatio11.o(v isµal symJ:,ols,i co: There in gorgeous colors they could view scriptural
/ ! nology seeks _tod iscern the intrin~ic m~a!li!}go f these and other pietistic events depicted in detail; occa
sy~i?o!s ..~ nd their broader interrelationships. as sionally historical personages glowed in stained glass;
i
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2 Iconography in Medieval Spanish Literature
and from time to time, especially in Spain along the of these tales belonged to a kind of universal morality
Way of Saint James, local miracles appeared. Inside satisfying to Christians and non-Christians alike.
churches, too, in elaborate or simply carved choir Popular or folkloristic themes were also preserved
stalls, on misericordiabs eneath the seats, in pulpits, on throughout the visual media. They varied in content,
columns, and on walls and ceilings, they could view dealing with particular local saints or containing mira
a multitude of stories. From tapestries and frescoes, cles of the Virgin and other religious figures known
sculptures, carvings in wood and ivory, stucco, across all Christendom. Frequently, too, purely Span
painted or unpainted, a host of visual images in ish miracles of Our Lady as well as those of Spanish
structed the viewer at every turn. Frequently during saints were the inspiration of both literary and artistic
important seasons of the ecclesiastical year the clergy treatment. Another source for both written and visual
displayed tapestries, paintings, and sculptures repre representation was the deeds of foreign heroes like
senting such important incidents as the Nativity, Res Charlemagne and Arthur, together with Spanish per
surrection, and events from the lives of the saints, sonages like the Cid and Fernan Gonzalez. Still others
some life-sized, some smaller, to rival the presenta depicted folktales and regional superstitions exempli
tions dramatized in mystery and miracle plays and in fied by the remarkable al/arjes, or beam paintings,
autos andpasos.T he exteriors of churches and palaces recently discovered in a church in Los Balbases, a tiny
were similarly rich in visualization of Scripture, his village near the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos,
tory, and sometimes literature and folklore. Sculp or by the innumerable and artistic alfarjeso f that great
ture, statuary, bas-reliefs, columns, lavishly carved monastery itself. 4
facades, and beam paintings joined to elucidate and Spain, then, is rich in visualizations of many
perpetuate for medieval people the lore of past cen varieties. In the Iberian Peninsula respect, devotion,
turies. Castles, guild halls, civic buildings, fortresses, and deep interest in what is hispanic have always been
and private dwellings of the rich and poor (though of powerful mainsprings, sentiments that contributed
the latter virtually nothing is known) were also reposi forcefully to the rise of realism in medieval literature
tories of this visual heritage, while emblems, blazons, and art. Spanish writers, for example, consistently
and various heraldic imagery constantly appeared. In avoided the impossible or the exaggerated in epic
sum, medieval people could not escape the vast visual poetry, a genre which in other cultures often stressed
array proffered by the Church, royalty, and the nobil these very elements. Even in the realm of miracles,
ity to attract and instruct them. which were considered as perfectly factual, this real
Visual, too, of course, were the great mystery and ism prevailed, so that one finds unusual portrayals of
miracle plays and sacramental autos, as well as other the real world in such works. Similarly, we believe, to
religious dramatic productions, and folk dramas and a degree Spanish artists, particularly in the case of
secular plays such as those censured by King Alfonso miniatures, went beyond the realism found in much
X in his Sittt Partidas, or Stven Divisions of Law, which of European Gothic art in order to depict elements
were apparently widespread enough to merit legal peculiar to Spanish life. Visualization thus provided
prohibition.3 In Spain much of the graphic, plastic, the greater part of the medieval Spaniard's education
and dramatic art from the Middle Ages survives to this and recreation. Sermons in stone, as well as in stained
day, particularly in the displays of Corpus Christi dur glass and ivory and paper, were sermons indeed. This
ing Holy Week. does not mean that books like the Cantigas dt Santa
Ecclesiastical visualization predominated in all areas Maria, Castigose documtntos,a nd the CavalleroC ifar
of medieval art, supported by the powerful church were available to the populace. Their content, howev
with frequent directives such as those of Gregory the er, reached the people in song and story in churches,
Great to the effect that visual representations should palaces, plazas and streets, and instructed them.
be used to instruct the illiterate masses in matters of Analogies can be found in our own century. If one
the Gospel. Secular narrative art offered considerable were asked how the average person of today learns
rivalry, however, since the classical past-Aesopic about events of the past, about history, the lives of
fables, Roman and Greek myths, and the heroes of prominent people, the Bible, great literature (classi
Antiquity-all played persuasive roles in the medieval cal, historical, or national), the answer might be from
symphony. Indeed, ecclesiastics also made use of per reading. But a moment's thought would surely correct
sonages, events, or stories from the Ancient World, this, for what the average American (alas, even the
from popular lore, or the plethora of oriental apo average college-trained American) knows of such
logues and tales, either adding virtuous exhortations matters may stem, as in the Middle Ages, from visual
or cleaving to the original interpretations, since many media-television primarily, and after television the
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Introduction 3
cinema. Probably more people learned something of others, as well as the entire process of visualized pre
the life and times of the Emperor Claudius through sentation in Alfonsine illuminations, may suggest
the televised version of Robert Graves's biographical areas of further study to those more expert than we in
novel than by reading the book itself or the history the history of art.
from which Graves drew it. So, too, for the lives of Spanish secular miniatures, particularly in books of
Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, the Churchills, the fiction which have survived the ages, are not numer
Adams family, and other televised dramatizations of ous. For this reason we feel confident that we have
the past. Great literature, the Scriptures, significant fairly well encompassed the primary artistic repositor
religious and civic events, though often badly cur ies in the few volumes we treat, and that these volumes
tailed or altered, also reach the public through these portray a majority of the narrative techniques utilized
same media. Perhaps it is just as well, for the Middle in the Peninsula before the Renaissance. Like Emile
Ages and its ignorance perforce come to mind when Male when he assembled materials for his mon
we reflect upon the large segments of the contempor umental study The Gothic Image: ReligiouJ Art in
ary population who never read a book or have not France of the Thirteenth Century, we can best and most
learned how to read one. effectively treat one representative block of time.
Male preferred to focus upon thirteenth-century
In the Middle Ages the word m101ature, today France with only a few references to earlier and later
meaning "diminutive," had another Cori.notation due periods. We treat the thirteenth, fourteenth, and part
to its derivation from the Latin minium, meaning "red of the fifteenth centuries, entering the fifteenth cen
lead" or "verrnillion," the coio~ ~sed for the borders Qf. tury only where necessary to round out the develop
pages as well as for the initial capitai letters, into which ment of secular miniatures and other art forms found
smaller pictures or pictorial scenes and events were in books. This time span in Spain formed a some
9ften introduced. Later these red initials were known what homogeneous period in art and letters. This
as rubrics, and when entered in the Church calendar to homogeneity may reflect that "Spanish belatedness"
mark a saint's day or festival, these days came to be so well described and exemplified by Curtius in Euro
known as_red-le(ter-_daysIn time the term miniature pean Literature and the Latin Middle AgeJ, in which he
0
was applied by extension to most vignettes or decora makes clear how reluctantly Spanish culture relin
tions limned with the red border. Minature by this quished many of its medieval characteristics. This be
time also drew upon the French mignature, "small," so latedness in literature was reflected also in medieval
a miniature i_$a ." 'sm~pUll intiog'._'._l>ecauthsee paintings art in the Iberian Peninsula. Of course, no one can
.;ithin th~-red border were small. The word illumi~a with real authority draw the limits of a cultural period,
tion comes from O!d _French i(umin~r fr<?~-th_~L atin but as far as seems feasible and sensible we feel that
i/luminare," to paint," so medieval representa~ions_in the period we have described is a logical one. In the
miniature are also called illuminations. volumes in which we plan to treatJre_sc.oes, stained.
Miniatures appeared in books for the most part, but glass windows, and other art media, we must venture
they were present too in a wide variety of painted deeper into the fifteenth century because someo f ih.e
objetJd 'art. Our present study of miniatures includes best examples of these art forms belong to this later
only those found in books. Later we plan to treat time and because fewer survive from an earlier_p~r:iod..
miniatures in enamel, ivory, and those carved in other The representative art works we have selected cor
materials. Fortunately, miniatures in books are gener respond to the acme of the illuminator's art, to an
ally accompanied by verbal accounts which describe excellence in line drawings and fine woodcuts in
or refer to the visual representations, thus greatly books that we consider to be monuments of Spanish
contributing to an understanding of them and permit literature. Apparently it was neither fashionable nor
ting us to comprehend better these two parallel narra customary to have books of fiction illustrated, making
tive techniques, the verbal and the pictorial. the ones we study unique. One may search in vain for
We have often been surprised at the very real dif art work of any kind in Don Juan Manuel's famous
ferences which frequently exist between verbalization collection of moralized tales, El Conde Lucanor,
and visualization in some of the books we have stud although one of its manuscripts mentions another
ied, most markedly in the CantigaJ de Santa Maria. copy which contains illustrations. The three extant
We have wondered, too, at the marvelously close manuscripts of Barlaam e ]01afat, important in the
relationship achieved between these two expressive development of prose narrative, are unillustrated.
media on other pages. How the variations came about Spain's earliest version of the /Jpok of Sindibad, know~
is a subject for speculation. These questions and as the Libro1Uloungano1, a work sponsoredby no less
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4 Iconography in Medieval SpaniJh Literature
a personage than Prince Fadrique, brother of Alfonso did) of one of Arabic literature's finest works, the
X, and the purveyor of many tales to become famous book of Kali/ah wa-Dimna, known in Spanish as Cali
in peninsular fiction, is without miniatures or other /a e Digna, a compendium of oriental wisdom, pre
illustrations, at least in extant copies. Nor do any of cepts, and moralized tales some of whose origins may
the three copies of Juan Ruiz's famous Libro de buen be traced to the Hindu Panchatantra. The three ex
amor contain any art beyond a few rudimentary illus tant manuscripts of the Spanish translation are be
trations which might best be described as capricious lieved to date from the fourteenth or early fifteenth
scribal sketches. 5 century. One of them is illustrated in lively fashion
We must therefore resort to some five books in with clear line drawings.
which one may profitably witness the rise and de The thirteenth century also witnessed the creation
velopment of secular illustration. Most are royal of another important work, written at the behest of
manuscripts or copies of royal manuscripts, and this King Sancho IV, son of Alfonso X and his successor to
no doubt explains why they have survived virtually the throne. It bears the title CaJtigoJe documentopJa ra
undamaged. We know of no illustrated secular litera bien1 1i11oirr, Teachings and Treatises for Right Living.
ture before the thirteenth century. We study the few Sancho, who surely was conversant with his father's
in the period we have chosen to investigate, and we literary achievements, and who had been reared under
marvel at the dearth. 6 the tutelage of the king himself, knew the value of
The thirteenth-century book chosen happens co be visual story, and yet the manuscripts of CaJtigoJ
the most lavishly illustrated and perhaps the most penned in his reign do not have illustrations, and his
exemplary specimen of narrative art. The CantigaJ de son, for whom the volume was designed, had to read it
Santa Maria of King Alfonso X survives in four manu without the beautiful pictures a later manuscript con
scripts, three of which are justly renowned for their tained, the details of which will be given in the chapter
exquisite illuminations and calligraphy. Two of these, devoted to this work.
the Escorial codex and a similar but much shorter We offer no book illustrations from the fourteenth
codex preserved in the National Library of Florence, century. Not even the CavalleroC ifar, purportedly
when viewed as a whole, contain nearly three hundred finished in 130 l (a date not accepted by all scholars)
full pages of illumination. Insofar as we can ascertain, contains illustrations in its earlier manuscript. Not
these two volumes of miracles and hymns to the until the fifteenth century was there an illuminated
Blessed Virgin embody almost all, if not all, artistic Cifar. It is a pity that the original manuscript was not as
devices known or employed in medieval Spain up to rich in pictures as the later version, for had it been, we
their time and perhaps even until as late as the fif would possess a valuable pictorial account of thir
teenth century. The influence of this thirteenth teenth-century life and custom, since the author was a
century work on literature, music, and art has been thirteenth-century man. The same ideals of religion
incalculable, though until recently scholars have not and chivalry, the same aspects of daily life, the same
recognized its importance. Though cantigaJ is indeed customs, the same credulity, and similar concepts of
the plural of cantiga,o r "canticle," we shall write of the law, philosophy, and government, ran like a steady
CantigaJ as a unified work and mention the separate stream through the thirteenth century and the greater
manuscripts upon which we base our study only when part of the fourteenth. The authorship of Cifar is not
necessary to indicate to which one a particular narra known, but it was probably composed by Ferrand
tive belongs. Martinez, archdeacon of the Church of Toledo. Its
The anxiety of King Alfonso (who ruled from 1252 plot is not original in its entirety but part of it is a
to 1284) to render into Castilian the world's greatest rather clever adaptation of the famous and widely
corpus of knowledge, to produce a code of laws fit to dispersed story of the life of St. Eustace, or Placidus.
cope with the needs of his kingdom, to provide his But here we are interested primarily in its wealth of
people with a history of the world and another of their more than 200 miniatures from the fiftheenth-cencury
own land, to attempt to gather together encyclopedic manuscript, and in their place in the history of
works in the sciences, literature, games and recrea peninsular narrative.
tions, makes his reign a veritable treasure trove of From the fifteenth century also we have selected an
medieval information. Given his ecumenical curiosity incunabulum dating from 1489, among the first of its
and insatiable penchant for detail, it is no wonder that kind to be composed primarily of brief narratives. The
he embarked upon Europe's most ambitious collec illustrations of La 11idad e/ YJopetc onJ IIJfa bu/aJ hyJtor
tion of Marian miracles. Nor is it surprising that he iadaJ,o r The Life of AeJopw ith /tJ Fab/eJI //11Jtrateda,r e
may have sponsored the translation (as we believe he in the form of woodcuts taken directly from a similar
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