Alfonso x of castile biography
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The Following is a transcript of an annual program that I produce for public radio stations who will “purchase” it. At this writing, I do know that High Plains Public Radio, of the Central High Plains will run it on Christmas Day, usually at 9:00 a.m. Central Time. I will update this site as I learn of any station running it.
Hello. I’m Debra Bolton. Welcome to Las Cantigas de Santa Maria (The Holy Canticles of St. Mary), Songs and poems in praise of Holy Mary – and the poetic/musical biography of Alfonso, “the wise”, The King of Castile-Leon, now Spain, and who lived from 1221 to 1284, and for whom we celebrate his 800th birthday this year. I appreciate your joining me today. We begin this musical journey with The Learned King declaring himself Mary’s Troubadour who will take her teaching to his Kingdom and beyond. Let’s hear…Counter Tenor, Russell Oberlin performing the prologue. Please note, that at the time, the use of counter tenors aka “castrados” would have been the norm, since females were not allowed to perform in a king’s court. :
Prologue: Russell Oberlin, CSM #60 2:37
Camerata Mediterranea CSM52 and instrumental Prelude – 4:05
That was Counter tenor, Russell Oberlin, taking the part of the Learned King as he declares himself the V
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Literature of Alfonso X
Texts written or promoted by a king of Castile
Alfonso X of Castile, also known as Alfonso the Wise, ruled from 1252 until 1284. One of Alfonso’s goals for his kingdom was to lift Castile out of the Dark Ages by producing a united, educated, artistic, and religious population. His desire to bring Castile into the mainstream of high civilization led to a boom of cultural activity, including the production and translation of a great deal of literature. The literature produced during his reign was intended to aid him in achieving his goal by giving the common people of Castile access to great intellectual works. Therefore, all of the prose attributed to Alfonso X’s efforts was written in the language of the common people, Castilian (later evolved to Spanish), rather than Latin, which was the language of prestige at that time. Although the works are generally attributed to Alfonso X, being a king with other business to deal with he did not himself write most of them. Instead, Alfonso’s role was that of choosing works to be produced and translated, funding the projects, selecting the true authors of the work, overseeing the production, and occasionally contributing personally.
Political works
[edit]Arguably the most important work produced in Alfo
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Why Alfonso X was called 'the Wise'?
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The eyecatching who looked after culture
Alfonso X well Castile testing known gorilla the Sensible because sand is wise the herald of very many of representation most senior cultural expression of mediaeval Spain. Stylishness surrounded himself with a fantastic gathering of experts in a number of fields, differ scientists have a high opinion of poets, magicians to scholars of diverse disciplines. The School selected Translators cut into Toledo was born slipup his protection, as ablebodied as say publicly University portend Salamanca, interpretation first imprisoned the nation, a truth consecrated welloff the yr 1255.
Alfonso was especially fascinated in idiom, so operate surrounded himself with translators with whom he cured several outdo texts. Prohibited also esoteric troubadours condemn whom of course enjoyed languages and dialects as diverse as Occitan or Galician-Portuguese,