Medieval Iberian Studies

Medieval Iberian Studies examines the languages, literatures, histories, and material cultures of the Iberian Peninsula from roughly the fifth through the fifteenth centuries, a period shaped by the coexistence and conflict of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities across what are now Spain and Portugal. Scholars work directly with manuscripts—among them the lavishly illuminated *Cantigas de Santa Maria*, a vast collection of Marian verse and melody compiled under the Castilian king Alfonso X in the thirteenth century—to reconstruct how ideas, stories, and artistic forms traveled across linguistic and religious boundaries. Epic poetry, legal texts, chronicles, and lyric traditions are all read as evidence of how medieval Iberians understood power, devotion, identity, and cultural exchange. Active research continues to debate how deeply Arabophone and Hebrew learning shaped vernacular literature, and how scribal communities produced, circulated, and transformed texts across a politically fragmented peninsula.

Works

97,798

Total citations

56,000

Keywords

MedievalIberianLiteratureHistoryManuscriptsCantigas de Santa Maria