 |
| Juan Diego portrays Alfonso X on the series Toledo |
The short answer: his books.
In the General Estoria,
we read: “The King makes a book, not because he writes it with his hands, but
because he outlines the facts in it, and edits it and makes it right, and shows
the way in which it is to be made… Just as we say that the King makes a palace,
we don’t say it because he constructs it with his hands, but because he ordered
it to be made…” The Book of the Sphere
discusses at length the way King Alfonso worked as general editor. He came up
with the idea for the book and what it should contain, and then went through it
to take out extraneous parts and correct infelicities.
Alfonso X oversaw these projects to give himself access to
the best knowledge in order to learn how rule his country more wisely, and a
great additional benefit was that the books were created in Castilian and in
Latin. They could then be consumed by Alfonso’s Castilian-reading subjects and
Europeans farther afield. A wise populace is the beginning of a wise kingdom,
and wise foreign friends make for smooth dealings and further the cause of that
wise kingdom.
The collaborators made use of the finest sources available.
They accurately cite Aristotle, the early Christian saints including Augustine,
and eleventh-century philosophers such as Pedro Alfonso and Aelred of Rievaulx,
to give the most basic examples. The scope of the intellectual activity has led
to many scholarly volumes. Here’s a list of highlights.
 |
| The Alphonsus Crater on the Moon. Wikimedia Commons |
• Alfonsine Tables
• Picatrix
• Book of Knowledge of
Astronomy
• Book of the Forms
and Images
• Book of the Fixed
Stars
• Book of the Sphere,
etc.
(More about Alfonso X’s astronomy on Unusual Historicals inJuly.)
Other Science
Lapidario—A book
of erudition about types of stones.
 |
| Alfonso X in the US House of Representatives |
• The Fuero Real—A
pragmatic town charter that was granted to new towns in order to begin
regularizing the rule of law throughout Alfonso’s kingdoms.
• Espéculo—Elegant
and comprehensive legal theory with practical applications as an afterthought.
• Siete Partidas—A
great book of medieval thought that also served as the basis of Spanish law for
centuries.
• Specialized books of law—The Book of Gambling Houses, the
Book of Frontier Commanders, various ordinances, etc.
History/Wisdom
• Book of Calila and
Digna—This charming book is the first work of Castilian prose narrative.
Based on ancient Indian texts via Arabic sources, two jackals (or lynxes) tell
each other fables to illustrate complex and sometimes conflicting points of
wisdom.
• Setenario—Often
classed with the legal works, this book obsessed with the number seven is an
unfinished compendium of the most secret kinds of knowledge and how to apply
them.
• History of Spain—Tells
the story of the Iberian Peninsula from the end of the Roman Empire to the
beginning of the thirteenth century.
• General History—An
astoundingly wide-reaching world history from Biblical times.
• The Cantigas de
Santa Maria—The largest collection of written medieval music in the world.
More than 400 praise and miracle songs in Galician Portuguese for the Blessed
Virgin with fun melodies and gorgeous illustrations. I attempted to describe
how wonderful this collection is in this post. I investigate one exciting cantiga in this post.
 |
| Alfonso's sculpture at the National Library in Madrid emphasizes intellect with books and a scroll. |
• Various cantigas de
escarnio e mal dizer—Profane, sometimes grotesque, mostly humorous, and at
least one moving account of the weariness of a king in failing health (“Non me
posso pagar tanto”).
• Libro de ajedrez,
dados e tablas—A comprehensive illustrated compendium of chess strategy for
the troubled intellectual. Ways to play dice, backgammon, and other games of
chance are not as highly regarded.
Much of this body of work had far-reaching impacts in
medieval Europe and modern world. The astronomy inspired and informed Copernicus,
and the law works influence decisions even today in the American Southwest.
In order to begin my studies of Alfonso X, I had to vastly broaden
my fields of expertise in addition to the strictly literary training I’d had up
to that time. Perhaps Alfonso X’s greatest wisdom lay in the voracity with
which he pursued all intellectual subjects. It seems there was nothing the Wise
King wouldn’t want to investigate and read about further.
Simon R. Doubledays’ biography (The Wise King, New York: Basic Books, 2015) seamlessly weaves the
trials and tribulations of Alfonso X’s life and times into the writing of the
body of work he left behind. He makes a good case that Alfonso X based his
intellectuality on the model of polymath Muslim princes. Indeed, the
translators and compilers frequently relied on rescued ancient documents in
Arabic. Doubleday’s book is an excellent overview of a fascinating king—I
learned a few things I didn’t know before.
My tribute to Alfonso's contribution to world culture, Our Lady's Troubadour, lets you experience the Cantigas de Santa Maria in a fun new way!
Jessica Knauss earned her PhD in Medieval Spanish with a
dissertation on the portrayal of Alfonso X’s laws in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, which has been
published as the five-star-rated Law and Order in Medieval Spain. A driven
fiction writer, Jessica Knauss has edited many fine historical novels and is a
bilingual freelance editor. Her historical novel, Seven Noble Knights, is available from Encircle Publications in ebook, paperback, and hardcover. Find out more her writing and bookish activities here or here. Follow
her on Facebook and Twitter, too!
