The Arthur of the Iberians: The Arthurian Legends in the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds
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The Arthur of the Iberians: The Arthurian Legends in the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds
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| ISBN-13: | 9781783162437 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Wales Press |
| Publication date: | 06/15/2015 |
| Series: | Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 576 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
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The Arthur of the Iberians
The Arthurian Legend in the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds
By David Hook
University of Wales Press
Copyright © 2015 The Vinaver TrustAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78316-242-0
CHAPTER 1
ARTHURIAN MATERIAL IN IBERIA
Paloma Gracia
The reception of Arthurian material in Iberia was truly important: it was both early and very extensive, since many of the major texts were known and translated. It also penetrated deeply into Peninsular culture, even into life itself, and was continuous and enduring; it remained vigorous throughout the entire Middle Ages and well into the XVIth century, when the early presses of Toledo and Seville published the Demanda del Santo Grial at least twice (1515, 1535), and some years later even than this, between 1540 and 1544, the Portuguese codex of the Livro de Josep Abaramatia was copied.
The introduction of Arthurian material into the Peninsula poses problems for scholarship that are difficult to resolve. It must have taken place at different times, for different reasons, and by different routes. The penetration of Arthurian themes into Catalunya was an entirely natural process. The geographical proximity of Catalunya and Provence, and the former's links with Provenzal culture (so intimate that the Catalan troubadours, who were both numerous and important, composed their poems in Provenzal), meant that the Principality easily accepted these themes from the north of France. The early (but erroneous) attribution by critics of the ensenhamen of Guerau de Cabrera to the Catalan troubadour Guerau III led to their dating to 1160 this earliest witness to the penetration of Arthurian material into the Peninsula. However, the date of this composition, in which Guerau addresses his jongleur Cabra to reproach him on the poverty of his literary repertoire and, in reciting to him the long list of themes that should form part of it, includes various Arthurian names, has been reassigned to a later date by Cingolani (1992–3b). This scholar, in attributing the ensenhamen to Guerau III's grandson Guerau IV, places it between 1196 and 1198, and not in Catalunya but in Provence.
The fact that some Provenzal troubadours allude to Arthurian themes at an early date does not necessarily indicate the presence of these works in the area; it is more plausible to think that knowledge of the material may have been due, rather, to journeys and personal contacts with authors from the north of France. The French narratives would not have spread to the south until around 1180; first, the chansons de geste would have circulated, and then the Arthurian romances, known from the end of the XIIth century in Provence, whence they would have spread into Catalunya. Besides, the simplicity of the troubadours' allusions to the Arthurian world makes it difficult to decide on the nature of the works to which they are referring, so that many of these references could arise from their merely reflecting a fashion, from the echo of a knowledge acquired by hearsay.
If everything leads us to believe that Catalunya did not know the work of Chrétien de Troyes, it is a very different situation in the case of the first of the prose Arthurian cycles, the Vulgate. We have witnesses for the Catalan translation of two sections of the cycle: the Lancelot en prose (known in Catalunya as Lançalot), and the Queste del Saint Graal, entitled in its Catalan version Stòria del Sant Grasal.
The witnesses are scanty. Of the Lancelot en prose there are known only two Catalan fragments: the first of them is preserved on two folios in a Catalan script, dated to the middle of the XIVth century, in the private library of Francesc Cruzate of Mataró; these relate the enchantment of Lancelot in the Forêt perdue, which corresponds to the text edited by Sommer (1908–16: V, 121–4), although it is far from being a literal translation. The second is copied on a single folio preserved in the Arxiu Parroquial of Campos, Mallorca, and also dates from the XIVth century: it relates the combat between Lancelot and Caradoc, although it ends shortly before the knight kills the giant and liberates Gauvain; the text corresponds to that edited by Sommer (1908– 16: IV, 134–6). Bohigas (1962) observed that both copies displayed some affinities in the use of certain letter forms and the presence of archaisms, which led him to suggest the possibility that they contain sections of the same translation; this, because of the freedom with which the French original had been translated, would be different from the Catalan translation of the branch corresponding to the Queste del Saint Graal (known as the Stòria del Sant Grasal), which is much more literal. As far as concerns the dating of the Catalan translation of the Lancelot en prose, and despite the fact that before February 1362 there is no evidence of the existence of an explicitly Catalan Lançalot, Bohigas suggested the possibility that the dating of the translation should be pushed back to the end of the XIIIth century; he proposed 1339 as the latest date possible, because this was the year in which King Pere III ordered payment of the amount owing for a copy of the Lancelot, which this scholar presumed would have been produced in Catalan. It must be noted, however, that the arguments of Bohigas both regarding the date of the translation of the Lançalot, and its relation with the Stòria del Sant Grasal, are extremely weak.
The Stòria del Sant Grasal is preserved in a codex of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, I.79. sup., containing 130 folios. Its colophon offers a date (16 May 1380) and a personal name, G. Rexach. Rexach could have been both the copyist and the translator; such is the opinion of Miguel Adroher (2005–6), who has pointed out the affinity between the Stòria del Sant Grasal and the Queste del Saint Graal copied in MS fr. 343 of the BNF, and has underlined the wealth of Catalan innovations, especially those directed at replacing the original Cistercian tone with a spirituality of Franciscan inspiration.
No Catalan translation is preserved of the Mort le roi Artu; however, an author called Mosen Gras recreated the work closely, condensing some of its episodes, which cover approximately a fifth of the original. The Tragèdia de Lançalot emphasises the sentimental values of the Mort le roi Artu, transforming selected sections with the object of emphasising the amorous tragedy. Mosen Gras dedicated the Tragèdia de Lançalot to Joan de Torrelles, Count of Iscla, who took part in various military campaigns in the service of Alfonso the Magnanimous, king of Aragon; the work is preserved in an incunable, probably printed in 1496, of which a copy is in the Biblioteca de Catalunya.
Of the Catalan version of the Tristan en prose or Tristany de Leonis there are preserved only brief fragments. The first of these occupies folios 32r–35v of the Codex Miscel·lani (or MS 1 of the Arxiu de les Set Claus) and is copied in a script of the second half of the XIVth century; its text corresponds to paragraphs 56–7 and 71a of the analysis by Löseth (1891). The Codex Miscel·lani is a factitious codex, now preserved in the Arxiu Històric Nacional de Andorra la Vella; it consists of 153 folios and eight endleaves, and contains numerous texts of diverse content, dated between the XIIIth and XIVth century. The compilation could have been the work of the notary Miquel Ribot d'Aixirivall, who was active at the end of the XVth century or the beginning of the XVIth. The second fragment is copied on four folios in the Arxiu Històric Comarcal de Cervera (B-343), although its present whereabouts are uncertain; the script is of the end of the XIVth century and corresponds to paragraphs 20–2 of the analysis by Löseth. A final fragment, corresponding to Löseth's paragraphs 22–7 and 34–8 has recently been discovered; it is currently deposited in the Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, where it awaits cataloguing (Santanach i Suñol 2010).
There is something that attracts attention in these Catalan translations of the prose Arthurian cycles, and this is the contrast between the paucity of the surviving witnesses and the number of copies, relatively high, that enriched Catalan libraries: references are numerous, and come from the Principado, Mallorca, and Valencia; not from Aragon, where Cingolani (1990–1: 114–15) comments that the inventories scarcely register books, and that the few books that do appear are generally related to the professional interests of their owners. Inventories, letters and wills drawn up between the beginning of the XIVth century and the end of the XVth have left us precious information. Comparison with what happens in the Castilian-speaking area is inevitable; the discreet presence of Arthurian texts in libraries has left a panorama far richer in references. This abundance of Catalan references to Arthurian books suggests that this type of literature must have aroused considerable interest, especially in the royal house, which displayed an enormous enthusiasm for the material and in which there was a traffic of books being bought, translations ordered, books being given, or being loaned. From the royal house there would have radiated outwards the taste for Arthurian literature, which would have extended to nobles and merchants, whose libraries contained Arthurian works, in Catalan and in French alike. The impression arises that an enthusiasm more concentrated upon specific titles and dates results, in Catalunya, in a smaller number of extant copies, with greater numbers in Castile, where the interest seems to become more pronounced as the XVth century advances, and which leaves more manuscript witnesses and a good number of printed editions.
The Catalan references to 'Lancelots', 'Tristans', and 'Books of the Holy Grail' are significant (Cingolani 1990–1), although it is certain that they refer to a smaller number of copies; some are referring to codices that were changing hands. Cingolani collects at least eighteen references to the presence of codices of the Lancelot en prose or the Lançalot, without its being possible to determine if this is the original in French or the Catalan adaptation. Many involve registers from the royal house: Jaume II (1291–1327) possessed at least two copies of the work, which he presented to princes Ramon Berenguer and Pere, on 6 August 1319 and 10 December 1321 respectively. Pere III (1336–87) paid for the copying of a Lancelot on 8 September 1339 and again on 17 April 1346. Between these dates, on 19 November 1342, he ordered the return to the monastery of Sigena of a copy of a Livro del Sant Graalthat had been stolen from it. Joan I (1387–96) had a Lançalot bound in 1374 and five years later received as a loan a manuscript of the French version. Cingolani (1990–1) brings together thirteen references to 'Books of the Holy Grail', with varying titles, and twenty-one references to 'Tristans', two involving King Joan I, who seems to have promoted the translation into Catalan of the Arthurian originals.
As far as historiography is concerned, and by contrast with what occurred in Castile, the Historia regum Britanniae seems to have had little resonance in Catalunya. It is possible that the conception of Arthur narrated by Geoffrey (in the original version, or in one of its French recreations) may have inspired the legend of the conception of King Jaume I narrated in the Crònicas of Ramon Muntaner and Bernat Desclot (Delpech 1993; Montoliu 1925). Leaving aside this questionable influence, the presence of the Historia regum Britanniae is in practice limited to the partial Catalan translation contained in MS esp. 13 of the BNF, dated to the beginning of the XIVth century, and extremely literal. The presence in this MS of the Catalan version of Geoffrey's work could be linked to the Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César copied into the greater part of it; the reason is that one of the witnesses of the French universal history offered a translation of the Historia regum Britanniae, so that, since the Histoire had already incorporated within its French tradition an adaptation of the work of Geoffrey, it is plausible that the model of the Catalan version may also have contained a translation of the Latin work (Simó 2007; 2008).
Very different was what occurred in the centre, or rather (to include Salamanca and León) the centre and west of the Peninsula. Here, the Arthurian legends were known at an early date, to such an extent that they seem to have arrived in a state previous to the works of Chrétien de Troyes, and earlier even than the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth. A good part of the Iberian Peninsula seems to have known the Arthurian material in its varied and earliest forms, and to have shown itself receptive to this material from a date earlier than the completion of the Historia regum Britanniae. The proof of this is the existence of individuals baptised with Arthurian names, who are documented from 1136. The first is Martín Galván, who is followed, in chronological order, by Artus (1151), Galas (1156), Guillem Artus (1167), Martin Merlim (1186), Merlinus (1190) and many others. The names Galaz, Galván and Merlin were not unusual in the Peninsula during the Middle Ages; they appear in all kinds of medieval documents, even as family names. What is most surprising is the early date of their appearance; the first known Galas occurs in a document of 12 April 1156, in which princess Sancha donates one of her properties to the order of St John of Jerusalem, that is to say, at a date earlier than Li contes del Graal. These names are recorded in documents with precise dates, which come mainly from the area of Burgos and León; they are alien to the contemporary Peninsular onomastic tradition, for which reason they could result from an oral diffusion of Arthurian material, in versions that do not survive and that would obviously have been different from the reworkings created by literary culture at later dates. They were, however, sufficiently well known for Peninsular couples to want their children to bear the names of their heroes (Hook 1990–1, 1991; 1992–3a; 1996).
In contrast to Catalunya, where the reception of the Arthurian literature is linked to the enthusiasm of its kings and princes for the prose Arthurian cycles, and is therefore the result of a fashion, the centre and west of the Peninsula gave an early acceptance to the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Wace, the interest in which was aroused by the political dimension of the material. This fact was accompanied by an important presence of this material in historiography, the history of England being that narrated by Geoffrey and Wace.
The Historia regum Britanniae was repeatedly used in annals and chronicles; its exploitation is attested by the Crónicas navarras (1186) and the Anales Toledanos Primeros (1219). The reason for this early presence of the Arthurian legend in Peninsular historiography is unknown: the marriage of Eleanor, daughter of Henry II of England, and Alfonso VIII could have favoured it. However, the extent of the queen's role is uncertain and would surely be limited to encouragement of the diffusion of the material in Castile. Eleanor could also have had something to do with the interest displayed by her grandson, Alfonso X, in the text of Geoffrey (Kasten 1970); but the inclusion of the Historia regum Britanniae in the General estoria could have been suggested, in addition, by another influence: that of French historiography. This is merely a hypothesis, but since Alfonso relied heavily on the Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César as a source for his General estoria, and since a version of the French work, such as that preserved in MS fr. 17177 of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF), contains a translation of a substantial part of the Historia regum Britanniae, the possibility exists that the manuscript used by Alfonso X could have contained this translation, and could have inspired the incorporation of the Arthurian material. The Estoria de las Bretannas is dispersed among the different sections of the General estoria in an unequal distribution: it begins with the story of Brutus, at the end of Part II and ends in Part V, when the compilation relates the events of the time of Julius Caesar. The various points at which the General estoria adds material derived from the Historia regum Britanniae are dictated by the biblical references contained in Geoffrey's text. The interpolation is accomplished with care, avoiding incoherence and redundancy, and is in harmony with the Alfonsine project in terms of both what is wrought in structural complexity, and what relates to its ideological aims (Simó 2008).
(Continues...)
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Table of Contents
Preface Ad Putter ix
List of Contributors xi
List of Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
I Arthurian Material in Iberia Paloma Gracia 11
II The Surviving Peninsular Arthurian Witnesses: A Description and an Analysis José Manuel Lucía Megías 33
III Arthurian Literature in Portugal Santiago Gutierrez Garcia 58
IV The Matière de Bretagne in Galicia from the XIIth to the XVth Century Pilar Lorenzo Gradin 118
V The Matière de Bretagne in the Corona de Aragòn Lourdes Soriano Robles 162
VI The Matter of Britain in Spanish Society and Literature from Cluny to Cervantes Carlos Alvar 187
VII The Post-Vulgate Cycle in the Iberian Peninsula Paloma Gracia 271
VIII The Hispanic Versions of the Lancelot en prose: Lanzarote del Lago and Lançalot Antonio Contreras 289
IX The Iberian Tristan Texts of the Middle Ages and Renaissance María Luzdivina Cuesta Torre 309
X Amadis de Gaula Rafael Ramos 364
XI Arthur Goes Global: Arthurian Material in Hispanic and Portuguese America and Asia David Hook 382
XII The Contemporary Return of the Matter of Britain to Iberian Letters (XIXth to XXIst Centuries) Juan Miguel Zarandona 408
Bibliography 446
Index of Manuscripts 511
Index 513