La cantiga 343un caso di indemoniato loquace

Resumo

In the Galician-Portuguese Cantigas de Santa Maria, written at the court of Alfonso X in the second half of the XIIIth century, the Devil has an important role. In one cantiga, where a case of possession is narrated, the Devil gives a talkative possessed girl the power of revealing the unconfessed sins of the people who stand in front of her. We do not know of a direct source for this particular narrative in the field of Marian miracles. However, the theme of the diabolical revelation of sins is shared by some exempla, such as some stories in Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum or Etienne de Bourbon’s Tractatus de diversiis materiis predicabilibus. Through a contextualized reading of cantiga 343 and a comparison with these other narratives showing the working of the talkative possessed, this paper aims to show the strict relations between the cantiga and the beliefs of the time, as well as Alfonso’s shrewdness in incorporating topical themes into the cantigas, as part of his overall aim of conveying a doctrinal message while contributing to the entertainment of his Court.