The importance of history to the Alfonsine cultural project is evident in the Wise King's two extensive historical compilations: the Estoria de Espanna, a history of the rulers of Spain, and the General estoria, a massive universal history. 1 Alfonso was deeply interested in establishing direct links with the past and its textual tradition, and both histories legitimate his authority in Spain as king of Castile and Leon and abroad as part of his bid to become Holy Roman Emperor, having been elected King of the Romans in 1256. 2 However, it is the General estoria, compiled in the 1270s from translations of the Vulgate, the Historia Scholastica, the Jewish Antiquities, the Metamorphoses, and many other texts that offers the best opportunity to examine the Alfonsine concept of history because of its use of marginally historical texts and its close ties to the exege tical tradition. Like other medieval historical compilations and translations it offers an excellent opportunity to examine attitudes toward the past, and academic reading and writing practices brought from the Latin tradition to the vernacular. The process of selection and adaptation of source materials on the part of the compilers involves reading and interpretation as much as it does writing and composition. This is especially true for the General estoria, which mixes source text and gloss to make texts