Lomax, Derek W.

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

A NOTE ON GILIBERTUS POETA
Gilibertus Qoeta is already known to students of mediaeval Spanish
literature from a charter, dated Ucl6s, 3 March 1203, which records the
donation by Count Fernando de Lara of the castle of Carabanchel to
the Master of Santiago, Gonzalo Rodriguez ; at the foot of the charter
is written ((Gilibertus poeta scripsit)), and Menendez Pidal, in his reference
to this, appears to take it as evidence that Gilberto was one of the earliest
juglares or troubadours known to us by name.'
More recent evidence, however, would seem to throw doubt on this
assumption, for, whilst examining, for other reasons, the documents of the
military orders, I came across another charter, dated Toro, i June 1200,
which recorded the exchange of some estates between the same Master of
Santiago and a certain Gutierre Nazareno, and which bore the subscription
ccFrater Guilibertus poeta hanc cartam notuita.' These two subscriptions
suggest that Gilberto was a literate friar of the Order of Santiago, who
travelled about Spain with the Master, and occasionally acted as his scribe
-although no other charters of the years 1190-1210 seem to bear his
subscription. It is therefore unlikely that he was a juglar or troubadour,
despite his French - or English-sounding name; more probably, the title
Poeta implied that he wrote Latin poetry, presumably religious; but a
recent examination of the archives of Ucl6s, where Gilberto was perhaps
a cleric, of San Marcos de Le6n, and of Calatrava, failed to reveal any
documents of literary interest prior to 1284, and, for the moment at least,
Gilberto must remain little more than a name.
Liverpool University.
DEREK W. LOMAX
1. Archivo Hist6rico Nacional . Ordenes Militares . Archivo de Ucl@s, caj6n 205,
nom. x, published by L. DR SALAZAR Y CASTRO , Historia geneal6gica de la casa de
Lara (Madrid 1694-1696), IV, 622; and cited from this edition by R. M&NANDAz
PmDAi„ Poesla juglaresca (Madrid 1957), 9.
2. Archivo Hist6rico Nacional , C6dice 1316, lib. 3, nfim. 7.
169


A Note on Gilibertus Poeta

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Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert