Documentos del Romance en el Reyno de León

Leonese is an endangered language in Spain which is on the verge of extinction. Nevertheless, the linguist Ramón Menéndez Pidal has pointed to the significance of the Kingdom of León for the development of the Spanish language**. This compendium collects documents from the 10th to the 12th which originate from various secular and ecclesiastical institutions. They give a glimpse into the Spanish language in the Kingdom of León, which was particularly important in the High Middle Ages for the development of “el Romance”.

Asturian-Leonese-Castilian

El Romance is an antiquated term for the Spanish language. Today, High-Spanish is actually Castilian, castellano. Nevertheless, various different Spanish languages arose in the course of Spain’s history with its numerous kingdoms, which superseded or combined with one another. In the Kingdom of León, whose history spanned from the 10th to the 13th history, Asturian-Leonese was spoken, inter alia. From the 10th century on, this was a literary- and courtly-language and was originally in competition with Castilian. Today, Leonese is a language on the verge of extinction.

León as the Wellspring of Spanish

The significant Spanish linguist Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869–1968) had primarily concerned himself with the development of the Spanish language. In his 1926 standard work on the history of the Spanish language with the title Orígenes del Español, Menéndez emphasizes the significance of the Kingdom of León for the development of the Spanish language. The documents from high-medieval León are particularly significant for this purpose. Pidal personally availed himself of sources from the collections of the Monastery of Sahún, the Monastery of Otero de las Dueñas, and the Cathedral of León.

The Historic and the Linguistic

The compendium at hand comprises documents from the 10th to the 12th centuries from the medieval collections of clerical and lay institutions. These were systematically compiled within the frame of a great project based on careful plans. In this way, documentary sources regarding not only the development of el Romance, but also the Kingdom of León were recorded in this specimen. The compendium contains the complete and full-length texts of the documents until the year 1300. The documents, because of the sheer unmanageability of the materials, was recorded in regestae until 1500. In this way, the documents simultaneously offer an exciting and informative inside view into the language and history of the significant kingdom of León!