Songs of Holy Mary of Alfonso X, The Wise

Few truly masterly works in literature, music, and graphic arts have been as sadly neglectes as the thirteenth-century “Cantigas de Santa Maria”of king Alfonso X “El Sabio” (1221-1284). This collection of 420 poems and songs recounting miracles performed by the Virgin Mary was written not in Castillian but in Galician-Portuguese, an important spoken and literary language in the Middle Ages that is little understood today,

Kulp-Hill’s text is the first English translation of this important work. In the poems, a colorful panorama of medieval life unfolds, reflecting a vast array of historical, cultural, linguistic, folklorist, and aestetic interests and information.

Because the Cantigas contribute to the well-established medieval genre of verse relating miraculous events to Mary, this book should be of interest to a broad audience.