Estrategias y fundamentos del discurso alfonsí : una tentativa de romper con el topos literario de la especularidad

Abstract

 Even before he reached the throne, Alfonso X (1252-1284) undertook a large task of compilation, translation and rewriting in order to create legal, historical and scientific works. Many studies have already stressed the fact that the all project is absolutely coherent since it configures a new frame for political relations for the kingdom and also for the court. The purpose of this paper, based on the historical and scientific output created in the royal scriptorium, is to prove that these texts imply a renovation, not only in the political field, but also in a discursive sphere. The reasons for this renovation do not exclusively depend on the fact that the language chosen is Castilian. By analyzing practices such as compilation, rewriting and translation, which could be apparently related to a textual tradition, it is possible on the contrary to realize the qualitative gap produced by the alfonsine work, regarding the meaning of writing itself. My hypothesis is that, even if the process executed by the alfonsine collaborators can be described as compiling, translating and rewriting, the king’s will puts these activities in a new order that means a break with the topos of the mirror. This metaphor contains the medieval thought according to which the book reveals the truth as long as it reveals the world, that is, the divine order.