IJUP08 - Universidade do Porto

Alfonso X’s General Estoria and the Portuguese Culture: an
example of continuity between Middle Ages and Modernity
Mariana Soares da Cunha Leite 1
1 Master of Arts Student in Romanic Literatures, Department of Portuguese and Romanic Studies
of the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Portugal.
Researcher of the Medieval Seminar of Literature, Thought and Society, Instituto de Filosofia of
the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Portugal
This paper aims to present a synthesis of the research work I have been conducting for the
past year in the field of medieval literature and medieval Iberian culture. It will culminate
in a Master’s degree thesis, due late this year.
Historiography is, beyond doubt, a privileged means of understanding cultures, world
visions and Men’s attitudes towards their past. Within Iberian vernacular historiographic
literature, Alfonso X’s 1252-88 General Estoria (of which only the two first chapters 1 and
fragments of the third 2 were edited – a circumstance that heavily hinders the study of the
text) occupies a particularly conspicuous place. His ambitious project of writing a history
of the world from its remote creation until the birth of Jesus capable of encompassing both
the Greek-Roman and the Judaic-Christian historical traditions, had an impact on
Portuguese culture whose profound consequences have not yet been fully studied. There
existed at least two translations: one into Portuguese 3 , fragmentary, and the other into
Galician 4 , comprising only the first two parts.
Due to the superficiality of the studies produced so far regarding these narratives, we still
ignore which parts of them were more decisive in influencing Portuguese culture – not
only in what concerns historiography, but literate culture in general. In view of this, and
bearing in mind the difficulties posed by the fragmentary nature of the General Estoria, I
will try to analyse the diffusion in Portugal of the Alfonsi text, taking as example an
unpublished manuscript kept at the Biblioteca Pública de Évora. The excerpt I will be
working upon is part of a larger edition of the manuscript, which will be included in my
thesis. In order to make my point more clearly, I will provide a document with the
transcription.
References:
[1] Solalinde, António G. [ed.] (1930), Alfonso X, General Estoria. Madrid, (s/n). See also:
Sánchez-Prieto Borja, Pedro [ed.] (2001), Alfonso X, General estoria.Madrid, Fundación José
Antonio de Castro.
[2] Sánchez-Prieto Borja, Pedro; Horcajada Diezma, Bautista [ed.] (1994), Alfonso X, General
estoria. Tercera parte. Madrid, Gredos. See also:
Fernández López, María del Carmen [ed.] (1998), Edición crítica del “Libro de Isaías” de la
Tercera Parte de la “General Estoria”. Alcalá de Henares, Servicio de Publicaciones de la
Universidad de Alcalá de Henares
[3] Costa, Avelino Jesus da (1949), Fragmentos preciosos de códices medievais, Braga, Bracara
Augusta.
[4] Martinez-Lopez, Ramón [ed.] (1963), Alfonso X, General Estoria : versión gallega del siglo
XIV : Ms. .I.I. del Escorial. Oviedo, Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, Universidad de Oviedo.
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