Berceo's "La Casulla De San Ildefonso": Thematic Transformation Through Rhetoric (Gonzalo De Berceo) (Critical Essay‪)‬

ANY reader of medieval literature is aware of the heavy degree of intertextuality that often exists between narratives. In his work Barbarolexis, Alexandre Leupin describes the medieval concept of writing as "a constant and endless transformation of the obsolete, a perpetual relaunching of the old" (21) that fulfills an author's needs and aims. Yet this transformation of the already written was not haphazard and random. Rather, the author's reworking was guided by the ars rhetoricae and the ars poetriae that he had studied during his formative years (Kennedy 174). Gonzalo de Berceo (1198?--1268?) was no exception to this rule. Since Richard Becker discovered in 1910 what was probably Berceo's source (Ferreiro Alemparte 266), or at least a close approximation to it (Snow 2), modern critics have attempted to explain how the Spanish poet reworked the original material. Joseph Snow, for instance, offers a detailed analysis of "El milagro de la casulla de San Ildefonso," and concludes that The arrangement of [Berceo's] version is given depth of contrast, dramatic force of presentation, the personal involvement that comes from author / listener in personal, literary contact, and a pleasing, planned proportion that fully complements its didactic purpose. (9)