Spanish in Manuscripts

The manuscript of 'The Poem of the Cid' is preserved in a copy from the 14th century that refers to an earlier original, prior to 1207. This is the most significant work of medieval Spanish literature and the oldest epic poem ever written in Spanish.

The anonymous poem narrates the achievements and difficulties of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, an exiled nobleman who lived in the second half of the 11th century. The manuscript was copied by Per Abad, but it lacks the initial pages and underwent various corrections up to the 20th century.

History of the Indies of New Spain and the Mainland Islands by Diego Durán (1579)

In this manuscript, the Seville-born Dominican friar Diego Durán narrates the social and political organization of Mexico, from its origins to the time of Hernán Cortés.

The text is based on oral sources, pre-Hispanic codices, and 16th-century Spanish chronicles. The illustrations are 117 miniatures that are interspersed in the text, all of them drawn with a thick pen and striking colors.

Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) gave a lecture on children's lullabies at the Student Residence in 1928. In 1930, he repeated this lecture in Havana and at Vassar College in New York.

In this manuscript, we can see the poet's corrections and deletions compared to the first version, as well as his typed version.

"In this lecture I will not, as in former ones, try to define things, but merely emphasize; I wish only to suggest (...) To disturb somnolent birds."