Gonzalo de Berceo

Anthony J. Lappin (Maynooth University)

Ed. by Andrew M. Beresford, University of Durham
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.2.01: Spanish Literature and Culture from the Beginning to the Golden Age.
Vol. editors: Andrew M. Beresford (University of Durham), Stuart Green (University of Leeds), Juan Pablo Rodriguez (Yale University), Duncan Wheeler (University of Leeds)

Dates

Born c. 1197
Died 1264

Places

Born in Spain
Active in

Activities

Primary

Poet

Resources

Berceo's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Gonzalo (or, as he wrote it,

Gonçalvo

) was a cleric, originating in Berceo, La Rioja, Spain, and active during the first half of the thirteenth century. From his presence as witness in a range of documents of sale and donation, we know he was a deacon there by 1221. If canonical stipulations were followed, his being a deacon then would provide the latest date for his birth as 1198, although it was probably much earlier. Gonzalo was ordained by 1237, and, five years later, his brother was serving as priest in the same church.

Gonzalo died between 1252 and 1264, probably before 1260. He is celebrated as one of the earliest vernacular poets of the Peninsula; all his work is composed in cuaderna vía (“the four-fold way”, referring to the form’s monorrhymed stanzas of, overwhelmingly,

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2051 words

Citation: Lappin, Anthony J.. "Gonzalo de Berceo". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 June 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14023, accessed 19 April 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here