Publications

Editing medieval Galician poetry in the 21st century, and Galician-Portuguese troubadour poetry in particular, is more than an exercise in academic navel-gazing. In the current cultural and linguistic climate, textual criticism in Galician and Portuguese is the foundation for the way we (and those who come after us) read, understand and appreciate the literary legacy left by our ancestors.

The songbook left by the troubadour poet, Pero Mafaldo, comprises just nine cantigas in all three troubadour genres. However, what make his work stand out from other individual songbooks created during more than 150 years of troubadour poetry in Galicia and Portugal, and deserving of this special edition and analysis, are the unique qualities, characteristics and personality of his compositions.

Pero Mafaldo was born around the start of the 13th century. The available evidence suggests that he performed in the court of Castile, under Ferdinand III and Alfonso X, and the Aragonese court of James I.