And That's How Spanish Was Born
Discover how the annotations in the margins of books in Latin became the first samples of written Spanish.
Yuso MonasteryOriginal Source: La Rioja Turismo
Glossing is making annotations in a text to make it easier for readers to understand. In the Middle Ages, many texts were copied simultaneously with their glosses in the margins or between the lines.
Biblioteca de Silos (2023) by Monsterio de SilosOriginal Source: Monsterio de Silos
The glosses alone could also be copied: these were the glossaries, which served as a dictionary of synonyms.
Yuso MonasteryOriginal Source: La Rioja Turismo
The so-called Glosas Emilianenses and the Silenses are the first example of a gloss from Latin to Romance: the original Latin text incorporates marks, words, and calls that clarify the content by translating or explaining concrete words from Latin.
Yuso MonasteryOriginal Source: La Rioja Turismo
The glosses are said to mark the symbolic birth of the Castilian language. It is symbolic, because languages are not born, but the Glosas Emilianenses are the first testimony of the writing of Spanish and Basque.
Sermones et homiliae - Glosa 42 (1000)Original Source: Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia
In fact, there are two glosses within the Glosas Emilianenses written in Basque that are the oldest testimony of Basque written in this format.
Yuso MonasteryOriginal Source: La Rioja Turismo
What were the glosses for?
They were most likely written to facilitate studying for the faithful, or could have been the personal notes of a student of Latin. The glossator translated liturgical Latin, which was not used orally in the everyday life of the monastery, into Romance.
Yuso MonasteryOriginal Source: La Rioja Turismo
Why do glosses matter?
The Glosas Emilianenses and the Silenses are a clear example that, already in the 10th century, not all Latin was understandable, although it was used in official and formal contexts. They are the first written sample, albeit primitive, of the Castilian language.
Let's learn more about the Glosas Emilianenses and the Glosas Silenses.
Sermones et homiliae - Glosa 31 (1000)Original Source: Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia
The Glosas Emilianenses
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The Glosas Emilianenses are a set of handwritten notes on a Latin text. The annotations were made in three languages: Latin (a Latin more accessible than that of the glossed codex), Basque, and a peninsular Romance of the central area of Rioja.
Guarda - Portada del Códice 60 (1000)Original Source: Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia
They are preserved in a codex known as Aemilianensis 60, kept today in the Library of the Royal Academy of History, in Madrid, Spain. They are included in a book written in Latin with a religious theme, containing up to 1,007 glosses.
The Yuso and Suso MonasteriesOriginal Source: La Rioja Turismo
It is estimated that they were written between the 10th and 11th centuries. They were discovered by the archeologist Manuel Gómez Moreno (1870-1970), from Granada, and were first studied by the philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869-1968).
Yuso MonasteryOriginal Source: La Rioja Turismo
They owe their name to the Latin Aemilianus, the origin of the name of the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla in La Rioja, where they were likely written.
Suso MonasteryOriginal Source: La Rioja Turismo
The monastery is located between the mountains of Navarre and the Ebro Valley, where Basques and Castilians lived together in the Middle Ages, and Navarrese-Aragonese was spoken, among other languages.
The glosses are written in Romance
Suso MonasteryOriginal Source: La Rioja Turismo
Romance can be classified as Riojan or Rioja Castilian. As a transition zone, La Rioja had its own form of speech, with features that included characteristics of Spanish and Aragonese. The Romance of Rioja disappeared after the Castilianization during the 12th and 13th centuries.
Sermones et homiliae - Glosa 89 (1000)Original Source: Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia
The glossator must have been a bilingual Riojan, something normal in the region where the Basque language and the Romances coexisted in the 10th century. The presence of the Basque language was common in the upper part of La Rioja until the 13th century.
Gloss 89: the Beginnings of Spanish
Normally the glosses are small annotations. Within the Glosas Emilianenses, we find an exception in Gloss 89: a sentence that shows the final formula of a sermon paraphrased in Romance. This gloss is considered the "cradle of the Spanish language."
Visión de Monasterio (2023) by Monsterio de SilosOriginal Source: Monsterio de Silos
The Glosas Silenses
The Glosas Emilianenses (X century)Fundación Antonio de Nebrija
The Glosas Silenses were written in the monastery of Silos, in Castile, in an area of Burgos heavily influenced by the monastery of San Millán and were written after the Glosas Emilianenses. These are kept at the British Library in London.
This article is based on the research of César Hernández Alonso, Emilio Alarcos, Francisco Rico, José J. Bustos Tovar y Manuel C. Díaz y Díaz.
We would like to thank the Library of the Real Academia de la Historia for the images of the Glosas Emilianenses that they have provided for this report. We would also like to thank Fray Angel from the Monastery of Silos and La Rioja Turismo for the photos they have provided us with.
Content curation: Aina Arbona
Graphic Editor: Carmen García
Consulting and review: Lola Pons (Universidad de Sevilla)
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