From Legend to Chronicle: The Treatment of Epic Material in Alphonsine Historiography 0907570038, 9780907570035

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MEDIUM .tEVUM MONOGRAPHS NEW SERIES XIII

FROM LEGEND TO Ct-lRONl~_LE ..

The Treatment_ O(El)ic Material in -Alphonsine His~oriography . ...

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Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford

The Society for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature Oxford 1983

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UNIVERSITYOF MICHIGAN

© 1983 D. G. Pattison

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Pattison, D.G. From legend to chronicle: the treatment of epic material in Alphonsine historiography .-(Medium A:vum monographs. New series; 13) 1. Cid. Poem I. Title II. Series 861'.1 PQ6373 ISBN 0-907570-03-8

Typeset by Joshua Associates, Oxford and printed in Great Britain by Short Run Press Ltd., Exeter

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PREFACE I began serious work on the Alphonsine chronicles in 1974, during the first of a series of visits to Spain to work on archival material there. In the course of the ensuing years I have built up a long list of debts of gratitude, the principal among which it is my pleasure now to attempt to discharge. Among these, the chief one, as anyone will know who has worked over a period in Spanish libraries, must be to the directors and personnel of those libraries: among them I single out especially those of the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, the Biblioteca del Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, the Biblioteca de la Universidad de Salamanca, and the Biblioteca Menendez y Pelayo at Santander. Next I must record my thanks to those institutions and individuals that have enabled me to travel to Spain and pursue my studies there. The British Academy made me grants for travel to Spain out of its Research Fund in 1977 and 1979. I have received similar help from time to time out of funds administered for the University of Oxford by the Board of the Faculty of Medieval and Modem Languages, and all this assistance is gratefully acknowledged. When in Madrid, I have been privileged to stay at the Casa de Velazquez, and offer my heartfelt thanks to successive Directors of that institution, MM. Fran