Cantiga

Cantiga is Spanish for ‘song’, and there is a large tradition of secular lyric cantigas from the Iberian peninsula, most of which survive without music. The Cantigas de Santa Maria, the ‘songs for the Blessed Virgin Mary’, however, are approximately 450 religious songs with melodies, in Portuguese-Galician. The collection was created ca. 1270-90 under the supervision of King Alfonso X el Sabio (the wise, or learned) of Castile and León (1221-1284; ascended to the throne in 1252). It is preserved in four manuscripts from the 13th and 14th centuries: Escorial j.b.2 (a facsimile of this, the manuscript with the greatest number of songs, appears in Anglès); Escorial T.j.1; Madrid, National...