LA FAZIENDA DE ULTRA MAR
Folio 2v (detail)
Lately I have been devoting most of my (scarce) spare-time to one of the most fascinating medieval manuscripts I've come accross. The BU Salamanca 1997 dates from ca. 1220, and it is the only extant witness of what Moshé Lazar appropriately named La fazienda de Ultra Mar in 1965. It is mainly a translation of the Hebrew Bible into old-Spanish, although it contains many passages from an itinerary of the Holy Land, and bits and pieces from the Latin Vulgate. When it comes to complicated (and interesting) manuscripts, I don't think one can do much better: Several scribes, some of which "modernize" the spelling, while some retain the readings of the "original"; frequent translation errors-some from Spanish, some from Hebrew-; folios copied in incorrect order; and overall, a complicated language throughout predating Alfonso X. More to come...
PELAYO AND THE "ORIGINS" OF SPAIN
An early image of King Pelayo
Following the research I made in my doctoral dissertation,
MAINETE & THE LOST CANTARES DE GESTA
MS BN Madrid 7583, f. 11r
Alfonso X's Estoria de Espanna has the particularity of...