Gonzalo de Berceo and the Latin Miracles of the Virgin. A Translation and a Study by Gonzalo de Berceo, ed. by Patricia Timmons, Robert Boenig (review)

The theme of this new book is simple and pervasive: Gonzalo de Berceo was a creative artist and his versions of his Latin source(s) in the case of his Milagros de Nuestra Señora (MNS) amply provide us with solid evidence of this claim. The volume will be welcome to all Berceo students and scholars as it will make working with the Milagros de Nuestra Señora far less complicated and time consuming, at the same time providing important information about Berceo as a true artist.

How often when reading the MNS has one wondered how to access the originals Berceo was almost certainly working with? That is, Thott 128, which contains fifty-three Marian miracle accounts in Latin, of which Berceo adapted twenty-four (of its first twenty eight), adding one (not in Thott 128) to make his twenty-five. This handy volume provides us with a full transcription of the twenty four miracles adapted by the monk of San Millán (145–173). The editors follow Richard Becker’s standard 1910 edition of Thott 128 but have accepted most all of the emendations provided in the 1980 edition of the MNS by Brian Dutton. Although Thott 128 has long been Berceo’s source of choice for most all scholars, Miguel Ibáñez Rodríguez suggests other options, showing that, for example, the anonymous Latin collection La deuxieme collection anglo-normand contains 23 of the 25 miracles in the MNS. Adgar (1150–1170) in his Le Gracial has 18 of the 25, and Gautier de Coinci coincides with 15 of Berceo’s miracles. Fernando Baños compares the MNS to MS 110 held in Madrid’s Biblioteca Nacional in his respected edition.

Not prepared to tackle the Latin? The editors and translators, both from Texas A & M University, have provided us with a full English-language translation of Thott 128 and offer helpful, informative notes on each of the MNS (29–65). (There is a previous English translation of Berceo’s Spanish MNS, by Mount and Cash, which the editors make use of as well.) Both of these sections mark this volume as essential for all medievalists interested in the art of transformation (not simply translation) in Berceo’s work with Latin texts. A key statement from the Preface makes this goal clear: “we are convinced that Berceo reacted creatively to his source text and also that changes in Church culture and governance between the composition of the Latin Miracles and Berceo’s own thirteenth century helped form those reactions (emphasis added)”.

The remaining two sections of the volume are dedicated, first, to an introduction to the Latin Miracles (3–25) which the editors rightly claim to be “a work worthy of study in and of itself ” (from the Preface), and second, a longer section (85–142) on “Berceo′s Milagros” in which they analyze five miracles, comparing them with the source miracle. The well-chosen five are: “The Fornicating Sexton” (MNS 2), “The Wedding and the Virgin” (MNS 15), “The Jews of Toledo” (MNS 18), “The Little Jewish Boy” (MNS 16), and “The Pregnant Abbess” (MNS 21).

In the introductory chapter, we learn that Berceo’s work shows a knowledge of jurisprudence (earthly practices are reflected in the court hearings in heaven), biblical doctrine, law and even grammar and music. In San Millán, Berceo had an audience not limited to clerics as it was very near to the Camino Francés and therefore was constantly flowing with foreign pilgrims (an idea proposed by Brian Dutton earlier) who brought their own cultures and left their imprint on many areas of Spanish culture, a process that was ongoing over centuries. But the pilgrims also needed to be entertained and such was one of the purposes of Berceo’s recounting of the Virgin...