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BHS LXII 1985)

The Prologue of the

Cauallero Cifar

An Example of Medieval Creativity.

M RIL YN OLSEN

The University Nebraska-Lincoln

The opening folios of the fourteenth-century Spanish prose romance,

Libro del Cauallero


2/9

16 MARILYN A. OLSEN

seemingly disjointed topics: first, he reminds the reader that the accounts of the jubilee, the

trip to Toledo and the life of Cifar were written to record the facts of history; second, the

work was translated from Chaldean to Latin and from Latin to Romance; third, the reason

for narrating the historical events of 1300 isto communicate to future generations when the

jubile e will occ ur a nd to remind them tha t Goncalo Gudiel was the first Cardinal to be

buried in Spain; fourth, anyone wishing and able to alter the text may do so; fifth, the

purpose of the work is to illustrate how to avoid errors. After stressing that one should

always finish a project once it has begun, for a work favourably initiated is favourably

terminated, the author eulogizes the attributes of the Knight Cifar.

This brief summary

i l ~ t r t s

tha t the contents of both major halves may he further

subdivided so

that

the Prologue contains four sections: Part I focuses mainly on Boniface,

and includes the description of the Jubilee and the efforts made to release the Cardinal s

body from its burial site in Rome; Part II describes the journey from Rome to Toledo during

which the centre of attention isshifted to the deceased Cardinal; Part III iscomposed of a list

of

topo together with an explanation of the author s reasons for writing the romance; Part

IV centres on the attributes of the Knight Cifar, All these sections, with the exception of the

third, focus on a major figure: Boniface in Part I, Goncalo Gudiel in Part II, and Cifar in Part

IV. An analysis of each personality reveals that the Pope s values contrast sharply with those

of Goncalo Gudiel and Cifar,

The

defects of Boniface are subtly and humorously disclosed, both in the account of the

jubilee, and also in the attempts made to receive permission for the removal of the

Cardinal s body from Rome. During the Jubilee the Pope automatically absolved everyone

from all sins regardless of the kind

or

degree of transgression involved; the Pope s power of

pardon encompassed almost all those who were able to take the journey irrespective of the

seriousness of their violation or whether the transgression was even remembered. From

among this indiscriminate assemblage of sinners emerge three categories of people whose

religious errors were excused even if they did not reach the sacred city: 1) travellers whose

journey was interrupted by sickness or death; 2) those who, for unspecified reasons, could

not remain in Rome the entire fifteen days; and 3)

l rigos l gos

who either committed

adultery or who failed to observe the obligatory hours of prayer. Ironically, the Pope s

tolerance of imprope r behaviour did not include those suffering from penury: debts

incurred for the trip had to be settled no matter what the source of income may have been,

prestado 0 prendado 0 furtado :

E ciertas bien fue ombre aventurado el que esta rrorneria fue ganar atantos grandes

perdones commo en este

afio,

sabiendolo 0 podiendo yr alla sin enbargo, ca en esta

rromeria fueron todos asueltos a culpa e a pena seyendo en verdadera penjtencia tan

bien de los confesados commo de olujdado. E fue y despendido elpoder del Padre

Santo ca todos aquellos clerigos que cayeron en yerro [

] yrregularidat non vsando

de sus oficios, e fue despendido contra todos aquellos clerigos e legos e sobre los

adulterios e sobre las oras non rrezadas a que eran thenudos de rrezar e sobre

aquestas muchas cosas saluo ende sa bre debdas que cada vno de los peligrinos

deujan, tan bien que tornaron prestado

0

prendado

0

furtado, en qualqujer

manera que

toujesen contra volujnjrad de cuyo era, toujeron por bien que

tomasen. E porque Iuego non se podia tornar

que cada vno deuja segund dicho es e

podiesen pagar, oujesen los perdones mas conplidos, dioies plaza a que pagasen

fasta Ia fiesta de rresurrecion que fue fecha en la era de mjll e trezientose treynta e

nueue fios

la

During the process of gaining permission to remove the Cardinal s body from Rome, the

author reveals another aspect of the papal personality: rigidity.

stressing his absolute

refusal, without explanations, to allow the removal of the Cardinal s cadaver from the Holy

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T PROLOGU O T C V LLERO C; FAR

17

City

an d

by announcing

that

all official requests to release the corpse were denied, the

author is in fact indicating

that

Boniface was an unyielding, unreasonable man. This trait is

underscored even further when we are told

that

no one had the courage to approach him

except Bishop

don

Pedro of Burgos who sforcose a

dernandar (2a), a statement which

implies fear of the Pope.l

This negative image of Boniface isconfirmed by historians who regard him as on e of the

most

hated figures of the century. He believed himself to be the supreme judge of all men,

an d was remembered for violent outbursts of rage. His infamous behaviour caught the

attention of Dantewho, in the

Divine Comedy

mentions him twice before finally depositing

him in

He

6

In Part II the author s main focus shifts to the Cardinal who is constantly associated with

the theme of honour and whose personality we may reconstruct by observing the reactions

of his friends to his death. The virtues of Goncalo Gudiel are indicated immediately when

we are told that his grave in Rome is located in the church of Santa Marja la mayor ,

adjacent to the tomb of St Jerome; the physical proximity of this saint to the Cardinal,

irrespective of historical veracity, associates the qualities of a saint with Goncalo Gudiel.

Christian values are elaborated even more as we observe the Archdeacon s attempts to

obtain

permission to release the body from Rome, for his perseverence undoubtedly reflects

Ferrand Martines {oyalry to Goncalo Gudiel. When the funeral procession entersSpain an d

passes through Logrofio, Penafiel and Burgos, people gather in the streets to pay their last

respects. Finally the travellers reach Toledo an d the author repeats his earlier statement that

Ferrand Martines, by persisting in his efforts to secure the release of the Cardinal s body, is

repaying his deceased friend for many years of tutelage:

E ciertamente sy costa grande fizo

el

arcidiano en esre carnjno, mucho Ie es de

gradescer porque

enpleo muy bjen, reconosciendo la merced del cardenal que

rescibiera e la crianca que en el fiziera, asy commo deuen fazer todos los ombres de

buen entendjmjento e de buen conoscer e que bien e merced rescibe de

o tr o. O nd e

bjen auenturado fue el senor que se trabajo de fazer buenos criados et leales, ca estos

atales njn les falleceran en la vjda njn despues, ca lealtad les faze acordarse

de

bien

fecho que rescibieron en vjda e en muerte. (2b)

The

third figure of importance, the Knight Cifar, appears in Part IV where we are told

that

his title,

Cauallero de Dios

indicates his most significant trait-God s grace: e l

qual cauallero ou o nonbre Cifar del bautismo, e despues ou o nonbre el Cauallero de Dios

porque se touo el syenpre ca n Dios e Dios con el en todos los fechos, . (3b). Radiating

from God s blessing are a litany of compliments:

buen

seso

natural

(intelligence),

de

esforcar

(valiant), and

de justicia

(sound judgement). Cifar s prestige is heightened even

more when the reader is informed

that

the knight is from India, birthplace of St

Bartholomew.The association of Cifar with a man famous for his skill in delivering sermons

may well foreshadow Cifar s role as a preacher, an observation first made by Roger M.

Walker.?

Further analysis reveals

that

subordinate to these major rulers is

one

more figure which,

despite her relatively minor role, should be mentioned because she is highly praised: Queen

Maria. He r mostoutstanding virtue is faith in God, a quality controlling all actions since

it

is

the prime source of intelligence. Without

buen

seso

natural

people are incapable of making

wise decisions, of forming long-lasting friendships or of exhibiting mesura or

[usticia

E otrosi par rruego de dona Maria, rreyna de Castilla e de Leon, que era a esa sazon

que Ie enbjo rrogar, la qual fue muy buena duefia e de muy buena vida e de buen

consejo e de muy gran rreposso e de gran seso natural e muy conplida en todas

buenas costunbres e

amadora

de justicia con grandisyma piadat, non argulleciendo

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18

MARILYN A. OLSEN

con buena andanca njn desesperando con mal andanca quando Ie acaescie, mas muy

firme e estable en tod os los sus fechos q ue entendie q ue

sic

con Dios e con razon e

con derecho. 2a)

Th e

recurrence of almost identical attributes in

both

Cifar

a nd M ar ia

is

not

totally

surprising since repetition is on e of the author s most typical stylistic devices. II However,

even considering the desirability of stressing moral issues, one has the impression that they

are unnecessarily overemphasized to the point of b orin g even the medieval reader. Why

would the

author

go to such lengths and risk monotony unless there were another motive?

Could these themes serve more than one purpose? In addition to informing the reader of the

important

values in life, is it no t possible that they might also serve as a cohesive force,

joining the first half of the Prologue to the second? Further analysis reveals that they do and

in add itio n, their lives provide o th er parallels which, to gether with strong contrasts, all

serve to bind each section to all others.

The Pope in Part I an d the Card in al in Part II are closely fused by a journe y an d its

financing,

an d

by their mutual title of Padre Santo . However, the wise Cardinal obviously

merits the very essence of the term whereas the politically superior Pope is Padre Santo by

election only. His method of absolving all people from all sins

and

his difficulty in

communicating with colleagues reveal him to be quite incompetent

an d

morally unworthy

of his position.

Criticism of Boniface

an d

praise of Goncalo Gudiel is implicit in their journeys, which

involve travel in opposite directions: the intemperate Boniface urged all sinners to migrate

to

Rome bu t the highly Christian Cardinal insisted that his b od y be removed fro m the Holy

City

an d

returned to Toled o, an ironic situation which d owng rades the prestige of Rom e

while increasing

that

of Toledo.

Finally, the comment that all debts should be repaid whether or no t they are prestado 0

prendado

0

furtado

is certainly a negative remark

an d

may well indicate the

author s

belief

that

financial obligations incurred for the Jubilee were no t justified because of the Pope s

lack of discretion in absolving sinners,

On

the other hand the enormous cost of the journey

for those

wh o

accompanied the Cardinal s

body

from Rome to Toledo is viewed positively:

la ljeua de la bestia constaua cada noche en muchos logares quatro torneses

gruesos. E fue g rand mjraglo de Dio s q ue en tod os los carnjnos por donde yuan los

pelegrinos, ta n abondados eran de todas las viandas que nunca fallescio a los

pelegrinos cosa de que aujan menester, ca Nuestro Senor Dios

por

la su merced

quiso que

non

menguase njnguna cosa a aquellos que en su serujcio yuan. E

ciertamente sy costa grande fizoel arcidiano en este camino, mucho Iees de gradescer

porque

enpleo muy bjen, reconosciendo la merced del cardenal que rescibiera

2b

Th e joining of Goncalo Gudiel in Part II

and

Cifar in

Part

IV is primarily accomplished

through

contact

wi th G od.

God s

influence on t he Ca rdinal is seen mainly

through

the

loyalty

an d

friendship shown towards him by the people, an attribute which, in turn reflects

his love for them. God s

influence in


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T PROLOGUE OFT

CAVALLERO

c ;IFAR

19

ca n el en todos los fechos, asy

comma

adelante oyredes, podredes ver e entendredes

po r

las sus obras. 3a-b)

In addition, their life history is similar: both are Christian leaders, th e Cardinal because

of his position in

th e

church,

an d

Cifar

who, as Cauallero de Dios, propagates the faith; each

is associated with a saint, the Cardinal with Jerome and Cifar with Bartholomew.

By far the most interesting relationship concerns Boniface an d

Cifar,

Although th e Pope

as a religious leader is a key figure in the development of fourteenth-century civilization, a

role similar to that

played by Cifar wh o preaches in the timeless kingdoms of fiction,

th e

most striking point to be made is their extreme oppositeness. Cifar is praised lavishly for his

Christian values,

bu t

nothing good is said about Boniface whose actions denote the absence

of Divine Grace. Boniface s absolution of all sinners indicates a lack of intelligence an d

honesty. His concern

that

all travellers repay their debts no matter what the source suggests

at least tw o points.first, he is far more preoccupied with the pilgrims financial welfare than

he is in curing their souls; an d second, he places greater value on material goods than he does

on

spiritual matters. Although he finally relented, his initial refusal to allow the

Cardinal s

body to be transferred from Rome despite repeated requests, the absence of any justification

for his position, an d his difficulty in communicating with colleagues all suggest a lack of

flexibility.

These defects acquire greater significance when we take into consideration on e

additional point: the trait responsible for persuading the Pope to allow the Cardinal s body

to be removed from Rome is mesura: E otrosy queriendo el obispo onrrar a toda Espana,

no n auja otro cardenal enterrado, njnguno de los otros non osauan al Papa dernandar, e

elcpor la su mesura, esforcose a

demandar. (2a)

On e ha s th e impression

that

m sur is

not

only deliberately used to communicate an

unfavourable message about the Pope, b ut t ha t it also defines the essence of th e difference

between Boniface

an d

Cifar,

If

mesura

is responsible for changing the

Pope s opinion,

is it

no t possible

that

Boniface is lacking

that

quality? A conclusion may be reached by

considering a variety of factors. T he author s main technique is to contrast Boniface

with

Cifar a nd t he

other

laudable

figures-the

Cardinal, Queen

Maria

an d

Ferrand

Martines.

The basis for this contrast is th e presence of Divine Grace

(Cifar)

an d its absence (Boniface),

th e quality that controls all others. T he t ra it which most completely summarizes all of

Cifar s positive values is

mesura

although the term, perhaps even deliberately, is not

applied to him.

On

the

other hand,

Boniface was

hated

by his contemporaries

an d

is

portrayed as an arrogant man with unlimited authority

an d

desire for

power.

In sum, one

reaches the inescapable conclusion that the author is attempting to

portray

the Pope s defect

as th e opposite of mesura that is,

desmesura

or

cobdicia

Th e meaning of

cobdicia

is

explained by

A. Bly

an d

A. D. Deyermond in an article defining this flaw as it applies to

Alexander in the

Libra de Alexandre:

T he opposite of

cobdicia

for th e Alexandre poet is

normally no t caridad (the antonym which the works of D. W. Robertson an d his followers

would

lead us to expect),

bu t

mesura Cobdicia seems more closely akin to desmesura

than

to th e cupiditasof the theologians; it means not knowing when to stop. The fate of a ma n

dominated by cobdicia is a very serious one indeed, for in the corpus of the romance the

author

explains

that

this trait is t he r oo t of all evil, even worse

than

death:

M uy mejor

es ,

dixo el cauallero,

auer

ombre la muerte ante que la cubdicie

(35a)

la grand cobdicia trae al ombre a grand peligro e a grand desonrra de sy

104b

la onestidad es noble cosa e ta n virtuosa e ta n santa que con la su virtud

no n

se tira asi falagandovos con el

poder

grande de

hondad.

E sy la cosa fuere prouechosa

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20

MARILYN A OLSEN

e non onesta njn buena deuedes consejar que aquella non faga comoquier que aya en

ella pro et gancia, Ca esta non viene synon de cubdicia que es rayz de todos los

males. 92b) .

In sum, Part I in the Prologue is directly linked to Part II and to Part IV. The

interrelationship between these three sections is so strong

that

it would he strange if Part III

were

no t

also tied to the othe r segments, a nd it is in two ways: the stress on

od s

role in

endowing people with intelligence, and the motif of the candle, with the explanation

that

its

light reflects God s will:

Ca Dios es comjenco et acabarnjento de todas las cosas e entre todas las o tra s

ciencias que encienden, la candela que a todas estas alunbra, sseso natural es, ca .

njnguna ciencia que ombre aprenda no n puede ser alunbrada njn enderescado

sic

syn buen seso natural. 3a)

Since Part III is linked to both Part II and IV, it is automatically but indirectly connected

to Part

I

But we may also conclude

that

it is directly linked to

Pan

I through the

oppositeness of the values presented. The virtues stressed in Part III, primarily deriving from

God s grace, contradict Boniface s qualities which stem from a lack of divine inspiration.

Since each section and each major figure of the Prologue is in fact joined to all others, the

next topic to be explored is the a uthor s purpose in creating ties between Boniface, the

Cardinal and Cifar, One interpretation which should be investigated takes its point of

departure from Memory, a concept stressed in Part

10

Memory is an ancient term which

acquired particular significance in the Roman world where, in both Classical

an d

Vulgar

Latin, it referred to a reponing of something, the preparation of a written-historical account

and the faculty of recollection which is transmitted to posterity.

11

It was also

on e

of the

five

divisions of rhetoric, the technique by which an

orator

could accurately deliver long

speeches by retaining a series of images in a certain order. Its scope was gradually extended

to include material of moral value. For example, Cicero considered Virtue to consist of

Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance, with Prudence being further subdivided to

include Memory, a classification justified on the basis

that

both Prudence

an d

Memory

share a common ideal, namely, that past experience is a storehouse of wisdom which serves

as a guide to future actions. Since the past moulds the future, it is of far greater value than

either the present

or

future, for only in the past are both the beginning and end of actions

verified.

Both the functional and interpretive value of Memory are utilized in Part III of the

ifar

Prologue where it is carefully woven into the text:

E porque la memoria del ombre ha luengo tienpo e non se pueden acordar los ombres

de las casas mucho antiguas sy non las fallo pa r escripto, e pa r ende el tresladador

[si

de la esto ria que adelante oyredes, que fue trasladada de caldeo en latjn e de latjn

en romance, e puso e ordeno estas dos casas sobredichas porque las que benjan

despues de las deste tienposera

quandoel

ana jubile]o] ha de ser; par que puedan yr a

ganar los bien auenturados perdones que en aquel tienpo son otorgados a todos los

que alia fueren, e que sepan que este fue el primer cardenal que fue e nter ra do en

Espana. 2b)

II II III

E par ende deuemos creer que todo ombre ha cunpljdo saber de Dios solo e non de

otro njnguno, ca por razon de la mengua de la memoria del ombre fueron puestas

estas cosas

a

esta obra, en la qual ay muy buenos enxienplos para se saber guardar

ombre

de yerro sy bjen quisieren beujr e vsar dellas. 3a)

Technically,

emoria

links the moral values of Boniface in Part I to those of Cifar in Part IV

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7/9

T

PROLOGU O T CAVALLERO CIFAR

by stressing

that

the actions of both should be preserved for posterity. We may then

conclude

that

one of the author 's purposes in joining the actions

of

Boniface, Goncalo

Gudiel and Cifar is a moral one: the unrestrained, immoderate actions of the Pope served as

a model of errors

that

were avoided by the Cardinal and that would be shunned by the

Knight Cifar, Furthermore, the use of Memory in the Prologue leads the reader to believe

that the 'cosas' to be learned are encountered in the rest of the work, thereby establishing a

direct connection between the Prologue

and

the romance.

The

author's technique of presenting parallels, similarities and opposites with the goal

of tying together the various sections of the Prologue and of illustrating the defects of

Boniface in contrast to the attributes of the Cardinal and Cifar, are far too numerous to be

purely coincidental; the elaborate network could only have been achieved by an author who

was consciously aware of his methods. But the ultimate judgement confirming the accuracy

of this analysis and interpretation lies itt defining the thematic structure of the entire

romance. Several similarities between the Prologue and romance should be noted,

and

particularly crucial is Part III of the romance, as revealed in the investigation

of

Roger M.

Walker.

12

Walker explains

that

this section, labelled by Wagner as the 'Castigos del Rey de

Menton

contains several basic concepts which are repeated throughout the book. First, a

ruler is incapable of administering justice without the aid of a priest; second, not only is the

fear

and

love of God man's most sacred duty, but God's greatest gift is the endowing of

people with intelligence, for without mental acuteness a ruler becomes arrogant

and

will

reign with

locura

and

torpedat;

third, friendship is of incalculable value; fourth, money

should be spent wisely. Finally, Walker explains the importance

of

an apothecary's

prescription:

The apothecary's prescription in Chapter 125 contains nine main ingredients: the

fear of God, the will to observe God's commandments (i.e. love of God),

and

a list of

seven virtues which, in all but one case, agrees with the church's list of contrary

virtues to the seven deadly

sins-humility

homildat ,

meekness

paciencia ,

chastity

castidat ,

charity

caridat ,

temperance

mesura ,

diligence

tcostanca-firmezai.

The

last virtue given in the

Castigos

is

uergilenca,

whereas the church list has liberality. In

,view of the prominence given to liberality in the rest of the

Castigos and

the fact that

shame is never mentioned again, we may be entitled to postulate some textual

corruption

at

this point.

13

A direct correspondence exists between the themes in Part III of the romance

and

those

encountered in all four parts of the Prologue. In addition, the overall organization of the

Prologue resembles

that

of the romance. Both contain the same number of divisions,

although exactly how many is debatable, since both three and four sections are possible.

Four parts may be defined as follows: (1) Cifar begins his adventures as Knight of God; the

Pope pardons all sinners

who

travel

to

Rome, including Ferrand Martines

who

promises to

bury Goncalo Gudiel in Toledo; (2) Cifar becomes King of Menton where his experiences

end; the Archdeacon transfers the Cardinal 's body to Spain, thereby terminating the

historical half; (3) this section in the romance contains the advice of GHar given to his sons

on how

to rule,

and

includes themes which summarize values stressed in Parts I, II, and IV;

in the Prologue, Part III provides a summary of themes found in Parts I, II and IV;.(4) in the

romance the last section is devoted to the adventures of another figure, Roboan; in the

Prologue the author introduces the Knight Cifar and depicts his attributes.

If one prefers to separate the romance into three parts, as stated in the 1512 Seville

edition which joins the first

two

sections, this does not disturb the parallels drawn with the

Prologue where the first

two

historical sections may also be fused to form

OJ e

unit. The

distinction between three sections and four may be relevant,

not

for the numerical value

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8/9

M RILYN

A.

OLS N

they represent,

but

for the symbolic significance associated with them, an aspect of this

work which should be investigated in greater depth.

Finally, the very end of the romance (pp.

149-51

my edition) reiterates the main

thematic points in the Prologue: Roboan makes a

romeria ;

the reader is told that the

adventures of Roboan s son are to be found in

un libro en caldeo ;

one should have faith in

God;

and

he who begins a project should 6nish it with the end being consistent with the

beginning. That is, the themes in the Prologue, togetherwith those highlighted at the end of

the romance, form a frame within which the basic narrative evolves.

In conclusion, the author has chosenhistorical events as a pointof departure from which

he builds an elaborate literary structure. Formodern readers the surface isdeceptive because

it disguises one major point: both literary and historical figures rest on the same foundation.

This foundation, consisting qf repetitions, parallels and contrasts, links the lives of

Boniface, the Cardinal and Cifar, and all are firmly fused byMemory. The author s creative

genius is

not

to be found either in the material or in the themes,

but

in the elaborate

apparatus by which he joins tremendously diverse material into one whole unit.

future

studies of the readings of both manuscripts confirm Walker s analysis, we may then

conclude

that

the Prologue foreshadows the thematic structure of the romance as a whole. 15

NOTES

1

The f;ifar

is preserved in three

extant

versions: MSM,MS P,

and

S, a 1512 Sevilleedition.

The

first folio of

M,

both

recto

and

verso, has been lost

and

the textof all three is different, However, it is

not

yet possible to define

these differences for M

and

S have no t been transcribed separately.

The

content of the Prologue of M

and

P is

essentially the same although some key words are different; S has been totally altered.

The

Seville edition does

indicate

the

end of the Prologue, a

point

which coincides with Wagner s limits for his edition.

All references are basedon myedition: M. A.Olsen,Libro del Cauallero < ;ifar (Madison: Hispanic Seminaryof

Medieval Studies, 1984), an edition based totally on MS P.

The

first

modem

edition of the < ;ifar contained a

mixture of P

and

S

and

was published in

1872

by Heinrich Michelant. The second modern edition, the

1929

version edited by Charles Philip Wagner, is based on M,

but

he mixes with M many portions of P

and

S: Charles

PhilipWagner, ed., El Libro del Cauallero Zifar El Libro del Cauallero de Dios), PartI,

Text

[no more published],

University of Michigan blicarions in Language and Literature, 5 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1929; rpr,

Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus, 1971). All

other

modern editions are primarily based on Wagner:

Martin

de Riquer,

1951; Felicidad Buendia, 1954; joaquin Gonzalez-Muela, 1982; and the very recent edition of Cristina Gonzalez

which I haveno t seen.

The

1983 English translation of CharlesL.Nelson is also based on Wagner. All references in

this article to the Wagner edition are cited as

Edition.

2

james

F. Burke, History n Vision: The Figural Structure of the Libro del cauallero Zifar (london:

Tamesis, 1972); Marta Ana Diz, La construcci6n del Zifar , NRFH, XXVIlI

(1979),105-17, at

115-16. Roger

M. Walker, Tradition

n

Technique in El Libro del cauallero Ziiar (London: Tamesis, 1974), 118, hereafter

cited as

Tradition

n

Technique. The

article of FernandoGomez Redondo, El pr6logo de


9/9

THE PROLOGUE OF THE CAUALLERO

CIFAR

McSorley, An Outline History

of

the Church

Centuries SrLouis, Mo.

and

London: B.Herder Book Co., 1983);

La Diuina Commedia, ed. C. H. Grandgent, rev. by Charles S.Singleton {Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U.P., 1975}.

7 Tradition and Technique, 118, 123.

8 A lt ho ug h W ag ner Edition, XV) believed that the eulogy of Queen

Maria

isa marginal gloss, he does

no t

explain the basis for this conclusion and my own examination of the manuscripts does

not

support his thesis. This

does

not

mean

that

he may

not

be correct,

but

we should

not

accept this theory

without

further investigation.

9 P. A. Bly and A. D. D ey er mo nd , T he Use of ligura in the

Libro

de Alexandre ,

The

Journal ofMedieval

and

Renaissance Studies,

II 1982),

151-81, at

161.

10 The following material is a synthesis of ideas contained in the following works: Ernst Robert Curtius,

European Literature

and

the Latin Middle Ages,

trans. Williard R.Trask N.Y.:

Harper and

Row, 1953);James j.

Murphy. Rhetoric in the Middle Ages Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1974); Frances A. Yates,

The

Art of

Memory

C hi cago: Univ. of C hi cago Press, 19 66). See also the old but excellent Lateiniscb Deutscbe Schul-

Worterbuch, ed. F. Ingerslev, 9th ed. Brunswick: Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn, 1881); A Latin Dictionary, ed.

Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short, rev. ed. of Freund s Latin Dictionary Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975).

As far as I know, only two studies analyse Memory in Spain: Dorothy Sherman Severin,

Memory

in

La

Celestina London: Tamesis, 1970); also, John K. Walsh. Memoria. voluntad y enrendimiento ,

Reuista

de

Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos, in press. For a more general study see: A. R. D. Pagden, The Diffusion of

Aristotle s Moral Philosophy in Spain, ca.140ka. 1600 , Traditio. XXXI 1975),

287-313.

1am indebted to E. Michael Gerli for sending me his unpublished typescript El castillo interior y el a rte de la

memoria , and for b ri ng ing to my att en ti on a n umber of i mp or tant studies: P ed ro M ej ia, Silva de Varia

Leeton

[sic]

Vol. II Madrid: Sociedad de Bibliofilos Espafioles, 1934); joseph F. Chorpenning, The Literary and

Theological

Method

of the Castillo Interior , JHP, III 1979), 121-33; Colbert Nepaulsingh, The

Concept

Book and Early Spanish Literature , Mediaevalia, The Early Renaissance. Acta, Vol. V, 1978,

133-55;

Rene

Taylor, Hermetism and Mystical Architecture in the Society of Jesus , in Baroque Art: The Jesuit Contribution,

63-91, ed. Rudolf Wittkower and Irma B.j affe New York: Fordham U.P., 1979). See also Heiner Gillmeisrer,An

Intriguing Fourteenth-century Document: Thomas Bradwardine s De arte memoratiua ; Archiu

fUr

das Studium

der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, CXXXV (1983),111-14.

11 By Vul gar Latin I am referring to the s poke n language which includes both popular speech sermo

plebeius) and the colloquial language spoken by educated Romans sermo cotidianus).

12 Tradition and Technique,

Chapter

IV.

13 Tradition and Technique, 132. It should be taken into consideration that Walker s conclusions are derived

from t he W ag ner edi ti on w hereas my s tu dy is based t ot al ly on MS P as t rans cr ib ed in my edi ti on .

14 The Sevilleedition states: Este libro que es dicho del Cauallero Cifar tiene tres partes. La primera es de la

vida y aduersidades y prosperidades desre cauallero Cifar. La segunda esde los castigos que dio a sus hijos Garfin y

Roboan. La tercera esde los [sic] cauallerias y prosperidades del infante Roboan su hijo fol. 2r). I have transcribed

this paragraph from the copyflow of S, and have modernized the capitalization and punctuation. For a discussion

supporting the tripartite structure of the romance see R. G. Keighrley, The Story of Zifar and the Structure of the

Libro del Caballero Zifar ,

MLR

LXXIll 1978), 308-27.

15 This article is a reworking of a chapter in my doctoral dissertation at the University of Wisconsin, under

the direction of Lloyd A. Kasten: The Manuscripts. the Wagner edition and the Prologue of the Cauallero Zifar ,

1975. At the 1976 ML A in New York I presented a revised version of the topic at the Seminar on Romances of

Chivalry.

I wish to

thank

Thomas Bestul, Steven Kirby, Paul Schach, Joseph T. Snow

and

R ichard T yl er for t heir

suggestionson an early version of this rypescript. I am most grateful to Roger M. Walker for his comments on the

final text.

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