Berceo, Gonzalo de

BERCEO, GONZALO de. - Spanish priest and poet, about whom little biographical information survives. Born at Berceo (diocese of Calahorra) around 1198, he was educated in the Benedictine monastery of St. Millán, where he was ordained a priest and where he probably remained. The manuscripts of his works were long preserved there, and were later dispersed. The documents that mention him do not go beyond 1242, but he certainly died very old (1268?), since he describes himself as such in the Vida de santa Oria, which is perhaps his last writing.

G. de B. is considered one of the most distinguished representatives of the "mester de clerecía," a literary school that sought to set against the ametric or catabetic system of epic and minstrel poetry the use of the monorhymed tetrastich stanza of alexandrines ("cuaderna vía"). A learned poet, then, also because in the simplicity of his language (which is nonetheless that vernacular "en qual suele el pueblo fablar a su vecino") there is revealed the desire for a living and refined style, for a rich and varied vocabulary. The whole body of his works (in total about 13,000 verses), effectively defined as a "romancero de la Iglesia," can be divided into three triads: the first comprising lives of saints (Domingo, Millán, Oria), the second concerning the Virgin (Loores de Nuestra Señora, Milagros de Nuestra Señora, Duelo de la Virgen), the third of varied religious subject matter (El martirio de Sant Laurencio, El sacrificio de la Misa, Los signos que aparecerán antes del Juicio). Among all these writings there stand out, for their particular artistic value, the Milagros de Nuestra Señora, which were believed to be drawn from a similar work by Gautier de Coincy, but which instead go back to a common Latin source, identified in ms. Thott 128 of the library of Copenhagen. But the imitation takes nothing away from the originality and spontaneity of B. His faith, of a candor that may at times seem excessive, is nonetheless always alive and profound, wholly intent on making shine forth, in the most diverse situations, the merciful work of Mary who rescues her devotees from the pains of hell, even if they are sometimes unworthy and sinners until the final hour.

In this enchanted and miraculous atmosphere the pious Spanish cleric finds his truest spiritual and poetic world. Thus in the Vida del glorioso Confesor S. Domingo de Silos, a reworking of the Vita Beati Dominici by the monk Grimaldo, the second and third parts treat of the miracles in the Saint's life and after his death, while only the first is devoted to the biography; the same order is kept in the Estoria del Señor Sant Millán, derived from the Vita Aemiliani of St. Braulio, bishop of Saragossa. Another favorite theme of B.'s art are descriptions and demonic and celestial visions. In the two Lives already cited and in the Milagros there abound varied and lively scenes whose protagonists are devils; in the Vida de s. Oria, moreover (drawn from a tale by Munio, her confessor in the monastery of St. Millán), there is narrated the apparition of three saints, who invite the young girl to ascend to Heaven along a tall column crowned with trees and flowers; up there she can speak with the souls of her fellow countrymen, hear the voice of Jesus and see the seat that is reserved for her. It may perhaps be said that this tale and the Duelo de la Virgen, in which the Madonna narrates the passion and the deposition of the Lord, are the works in which the poet's sensitivity and emotionality are best revealed, while El Sacrificio de la Misa and Los signos que aparecerán... have more than anything else a descriptive and exegetical character; to the Loores de Nuestra Señora we can attach only a value of exercise and of anticipation with respect to the far higher and more deeply felt poetry of the Milagros.

His works were printed in the volume dedicated to the Poetas castellanos anteriores al siglo XV, in the Bibl. de aut. esp., 57 (Madrid 1864), pp. 59-146; recent editions are those of the Milagros, ed. Solalinde ("Clás. Castellanos" [Madrid 1934]); of C. C. Marden (Veintirés Milagros [ibid. 1929]), to whom is also due one of Cuatro poemas de G. de B. (ibid. 1928); one may add La Vida de santo Domingo (ed. Fitz-Gerald, Paris 1904); El Sacrificio de la Misa (ed. Solalinde, Madrid 1913); the Martirio de sant Laurencio (Publ. of the mod. Lang. Assoc. [Baltimore 1930]).

Ruggero M. Ruggieri.