CANTIGAS DE SANTA MARIA
Alfonso X el Sabio

Ref: AV9923

The Cantigas de Santa Maria («Canticles of Holy Mary») are 420 poems with musical notation, written during the reign of Alfonso X The Wise (1221–1284) and often attributed to him. It is one of the largest collections of monophonic songs from the Middle Ages and is characterized by the mention of the Virgin Mary in every song.

ALFONSO THE WISE
Cantigas de Santa Maria

As a lawmaker and originator of legal codes, Alfonso X, also known as Alfonso the Wise, followed in his father’s footsteps, carrying out projects planned and begun by King Ferdinand. In the field of poetry it is also very likely that he was inspired by the example of his father. As we know from Alfonso’s description of him in Setenario, as well as other sources, King Ferdinand was a great patron of the minstrels who visited the court of Castile and, significantly, he professed a deep devotion to the Virgin Mary, which is referenced in three of the Cantigas (122, 221 and 292).

 Emergence and spread of the Marian cult

 According to sources conserved in various 3rd century Coptic and Egyptian papyri, as well as texts by St Ephrem the Syrian († 373) and St Epiphany († 403), the author of Precationes ad Deiparam and the earliest popular liturgical hymns, the origins of the popular veneration of the Virgin Mary can be traced to the East. It was there, at the site of the famous temple of Artemis (the goddess of hunting, forests, mountains and the moon, considered by ancient traditions to be the twin sister of Apollo) in the city of Ephesus (present-day Selçuk, in the district of Izmir near Kusadasi, Turkey), at that time the second most important city in the Roman Empire that Mary was proclaimed the “Mother of God” during the third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431. Regarded as the prelude to the spread of the Marian cult in both the Eastern and Western Church, this dogma was celebrated and set in stone for posterity by Sixtus III (432-440) with the rebuilding of the Liberian Basilica in Rome, today known as the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. The basilica was the epicentre from which the most splendid rituals of the Marian liturgy radiated forth, as witnessed by the antiphons O admirabile commercium, Quando natus es ineffabiliter ex Virgine, Ecce Maria genuit Salvatorem, which were originally sung by the Eastern communities and subsequently translated into Latin to form part of the Roman liturgy to form part of the rituals of the Marian liturgy, and are still sung every year on 1st January on the Feast the Circumcision of Our Lord.

+ information in the CD booklet

JORDI SAVALL
Florence, 19th May, 2017

Translated by Jacqueline Minnet