Fragment and Referent in Material Texts Identified as the Libro de buen amor

In the context of both substantial and brief material texts identified as the Libro de buen amor (Libro), "fragment" has been used to refer to a wide variety of material texts that range from loose citation to near direct excerption. In identifying these texts as fragments of the Libro, the meaning of Libro is often left ambiguous: does Libro refer to a given manuscript text, a work, which could be defined as a critical presentation of the text, or rather as a means by which to refer to the Archpriest or a characteristic of a work? The unmoored quality of the brief texts identified as fragments of the Libro makes it possible that they are not properly fragments at all. Just as choosing to call a medieval work didactic obliges the critic to say what that work teaches, if a text is a fragment, it becomes necessary to identify the possibilities for its referent(s).