The current volume comprises eighteen chapters dealing in depth with Martin Codax's work and the Vindel Parchment from five basic perspectives: literature, linguistics, codicology and ecdotics, music and history. The articles are in English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, or Galician, with English summaries.
FOR AID in preparing the present resume of Spanish music to 1530 I am indebted to so numerous a company of friends that I must content myself in this preface with no more than a token alphabetical list. In an earlier article - "Music Research in Spanish Libraries," published in Notes of the Music Library Association, sec. ser. X, i (December, 1952, pp. 49-57) - Richard Hill did kindly allow me to itemize my indebtednesses to the Spanish friends whose names make up two-thirds of the following list. The reader who has seen that article already knows how keenly felt are my gracias. Fernando Aguilar Escrich, Norberto Almandoz, H.K. Andrews, Higinio Angles, Jesus Bal y Gay, Robert D. Barton, Gilbert Chase, R. Thurston Dart, Exmos. Sres. Duques de Medinaceli, Charles Warren Fox, Nicold, s Garcia,]ulidn Garcia Blanco, Juan Miguel Garcia Perez, Santiaga Gonzdlez Alvarez, Francisco Guerrero, Perreal Herndndez, Ma cario Santiaga Kastner, Adele Kibre, Edmund King, Luisa de Larramendi, Pedro Longds Bartibds, M arques de Santo Domingo, M arques de Villa-Alcdzar, J uan M ontejano Chico, B. Municio Crist6bal, Ricardo Nuiiez, Clara L. Penney, Carmen Perez-Ddvila, Gustave Reese, Francisco Ribera Recio, Bernard Rose, Samuel Rubio, Adolfo Salazar, Francisco Sdnchez, Graciela Sdnchez Cerro, Manuel Sdnchez Mora, Alfredo Sixto Planas, Denis Stevens, fase Subird, Earl 0. Titus,]. B. Trend,]ahn Ward, Ruth Watanabe,]. A. Westrup, Franktin Zimmerman
Gómez-Bravo also explores how authorial and textual agency were competing forces in the midst of an era marked by the institution of the Inquisition, the advent of the absolutist state, the growth of cities, and the constitution of the Spanish nation.
The first major French poet to disassociate lyric poetry from its musical setting, Eustache Deschamps gives poetry a value independent of music. This work, Deschamps' ars poetica, examines many aspects of medieval attitudes towards poetry as well as the historical conditions of medieval life. Despite remaining incomplete, L'art de dictier is considered remarkable for its acceptance of the vernacular, its deemphasis of medieval setting, and its author's place in historical poetic tradition. In fact, Geoffrey Chaucer borrowed extensively from his French contemporary, and Deschamps returned the compliment, calling him "grand translateur" in his "Ballade adresse a Geoffrey Chaucer."
In the "Cantigas de Santa Maria," a collection of about four hundred poems written in Galician, Alfonso X, el Sabio, king of Castile-Leon, has left us a kind of poetic biography. This volume explicates the historical circumstances surrounding the stories that the king tells about himself and his kingdom. As Mary's troubadour, he appeals to her as his advocate and consoler.