Inscriptions On The Iberian Peninsula: Material Script And Narrative Logic In Castilian And Catalan Literatures

Before the unification of the Castilian and the Aragonés crowns under the “Catholic Kings” Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in 1479, the medieval Iberian Peninsula was a heterogeneous mosaic of smaller kingdoms. This linguistic diversity has not changed significantly until today. The Iberian primary dialects català, gallego, old castellano, (navarro-)aragonés and astur-leonés (the latter three combining into Castilian) all developed from vernacular Latin. While Castilian1 and Catalan2 evolved into important juridical and administrative languages after political unification campaigns during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Gallego-Portuguese was prized as the language of poetry (cantigas) and was, as such, also used by Castilian writers.3 Nevertheless, each of the three dominant romances (vernacular languages) developed a sophisticated literary register and rich textual corpora. If the bureaucratic structures set up for the rivalries between the royal houses and the campaigns against the Muslim domination were great motors for the rise of vernacular cultural expression,