Gonzalo de Berceo

The earliest known Castilian poet, born in Berceo, N Spain. He became a deacon and wrote more than 13 000 verses on devotional subjects, of which the best is a Life of St Oria. His poems were not discovered and published until the late 18th-c.

Gonzalo de Berceo (ca. 1190– before 1264) was a Spanish poet born in the Riojan village of Berceo, close to the major Benedictine monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla. He is celebrated for his poems on religious subjects, written in a style of verse which has been called Mester de Clerecía, shared with more secular productions such as the Libro de Alexandre, the Libro de Apolonio, and later works such as the 14th century Libro de Buen Amor. The devotional may be divided into two sub-sections: the Marian (the long Milagros de Nuestra Seňora (Miracles of Our Lady - perhaps influenced by Gautier de Coincy), the Duelo de la Virgen (the Mourning of the Virgin, a dialogue between the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux) and Loores de la Virgen (the Praises of the Virgin, which is a type of salvation history); and the hagiographical (the Vida de San Millán de la Cogolla, Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos and the Vida de Santa Oria-the lives of Aemilian of la Cogolla, Dominic of Silos, and Oria). He also wrote the fragmentary Martirio de San Lorenzo (the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, a Roman martyr of the third century), which may be connected to a shrine of Saint Lawrence supposedly built by Aemilian himself, at the top of the mountain below which the monastery of San Millán is situated.

The theological works are the Del sacrificio de la misa (On the Sacrifice of the Mass), a verse-compendium of the significance of the priest's actions during the eucharist;

His proximity to San Millán and his composition of hagiographies which seem to support the monastery's interests, have led him to be considered a propagandist for the narrow interests of the monastery of San Millán. This view has been propounded above all by Brian Dutton, editor of Gonzalo de Berceo's collected works, although some critics (notably Fernando Baños and Isabel Uría Maqua) have taken a view which presents the poet as less motivated by his concerns for the monastery; Images of the Here-and-Now in Gonzalo de Bercero's "De los signos que apareceran ante del juicio".