Marian Representations in the Miracle Tales of Thirteenth-Century Spain and France

The Marian miracle tale of thirteenth-century Spain and France is an unusual thematic genre comprising tales, songs, poems, plays, and sermons dedicated to miraculous occurrences attributed to the Virgin Mary. While there are scholarly articles on particular aspects of this large and important body of literature, there has been no attempt to bring its principal authors together into a single scholarly study. Bringing five well-known thirteenth-century authors together-Gonzalo de Berceo, Gautier de Coinci, Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, Rutebeuf, and King Alfonso X of Spain-the book shows how each used the Marian collections for individual purposes.

Mary is portrayed in a variety of manifestations, as Mediatrix, Monitrix, Mater Dei, National Patroness, and even as something close to the troubadour's desired or unattainable Lady. Berceo was a secular priest who found an older collection of tales useful as an instructive tool. Gautier, an aristocratic monk of intellectual refinement, had a nearly exclusively artistic interest in his Marian materials, while Cardinal Jacques de Vitry-an eminent churchman and eloquent reformer-sought with his carefully chosen tales to bring Marianism into the fold of doctrinal orthodoxy. Rutebeuf, a minstrel, accepted the tales as popular piety and returned them to his audience in a spirit of reproach to the sometimes heavy-handed didactic use made of the material by churchmen with vested interests. Finally, the personal voice and directing presence of Spain's King Alfonso X makes of his famous Marian collection, the Cantigas de Santa Maria, a part of his social and religious program for Spain.

Additionally, a reflection upon the formalist criticism of Bakhtin and Todorov suggests new possibilities for seeing within some Marian tales of the period a subtle tool for the subverting of perceived Church excesses.