GONZALO DE BERCEO (c. 118o-c. 1246)

This article appears in Volume V12, Page 237 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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GONZALO DE BERCEO (c. 118o-c. 1246) , the earliest Castilian poet whose name is known to us, was born at Berceo, a

village

VILLAGE

in the neighbourhood of Calahorra in the province of Logrono. In 1221 he became a deacon and was attached, as a secular priest, to the

Benedictine

BENEDICTINE

monastery of San Millan de la Cogolla, in the
diocese of Calahorra. His name is to be met with in a number of documents between the years 1237 and 1246. He wrote upwards of 13,000 verses, all on devotional subjects. His best

work

WORK

is a life of St Oria; others treat of the life of St Millan, of St Dominic of Silos, of the Sacrifice of the Mass, the Martyrdom of St Laurence, the visible signs preceding the Last Judgment, the Praises of Our Lady, the Miracles of Our Lady and the Lamentations of the Virgin on the Passion of her Son. He writes in the common tongue, the roman paladino, and his claim to the name of poet rests on his use of the cuaderna via (single-rhymed quatrains, each verse being of fourteen syllables). Sometimes, however, he takes the more modest title of juglar (jongleur), when claiming payment for his poems. His literary attainments are not

great

GREAT

, and he lacks

imagination

IMAGINATION

and animation of style, but he has a certain eloquence, and in speaking of the Virgin and the saints a certain charm, while his verse bears at times the imprint of a passionate devotion, recalling the lyrical style of the

great

GREAT

Spanish mystics. There is, however, a very strong popular

element

ELEMENT (Lat. elementum)

in his writings, which explains his long vogue. The great

majority

MAJORITY (Fr. majorite; Med. Lat. majoritas; Lat. major, greater)

of his legends of the Virgin are obviously borrowed from the collection of a Frenchman, Gautier de Coinci; but he has succeeded in making this material entirely his own by reason of a certain conciseness and a

realism

REALISM (from Low Lat. realis, appertaining to res, things, as opposed to ideas and imaginations)

in detail which make his

work

WORK

far superior to the tedious and colourless narrative of his model.
His Poesias are in the Biblioteca de autores espanoles of Rivadeneyra, vol. lvii. (1864) ; La Vida de San Domingo de Silos has been edited by J. D. FitzGerald (Paris, 1904; see the Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes, part 149) ; see also F. Fernandez y Gonzalez in the Razors (vol. i., Madrid, 186o) ; N. Hergueta, " Documentos referentes a Gonzalo de Berceo," in the Revista de archives, (3rd

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

, Feb.-

March

, 1904, pp. 178-179). (P. A.)

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