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711
The origins of vernacular writing
By 711, when the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula began, Latin spoken there had begun its transformation into Romance. Tenth-century glosses to Latin texts in manuscripts belonging to the monasteries of San Millán de la Cogolla and Silos, in north-central Spain, contain traces of a vernacular already substantially developed. -
Period: 711 to 1492
Andalusi literature
The period of Islamic rule in Iberia from 711 to 1492 brought many new literary traditions to Spain. Most literature at this time was produced in standard Arabic, though poetry and other forms of literature of the Jewish golden age found expression in Judeo-Arabic or Hebrew.
Important literary styles include the muwashah, maqama, and nawba. Important works include Hadith Bayad wa Riyad and The Incoherence of the Incoherence. -
Period: 801 to 1200
The kharjas
The Kharjas, dating from the 9th to the 12th centuries C.E., were short poems spoken in local colloquial Hispano-Romance dialects, known as Mozarabic, but written in Arabic script. The Jarchas appeared at the end of longer poetry written in Arabic or Hebrew known as muwashshah, which were lengthy glosses on the ideas expressed in the jarchas. Typically spoken in the voice of a woman, the jarchas express the anxieties of love, particularly of its loss. -
1000
Start of Medieval Spanish literature
By the end of the 10th century, the languages spoken in northern Spain had developed far from their Latin origins, and can assuredly be called Romance. Latin texts were no longer understood, as can be seen from the glosses used in manuscripts of Castile to explain Latin terms. -
1085
The beginnings of prose
A major influence on prose was exercised by Arabic. Oriental learning entered Christian Spain with the capture (1085) of Toledo from the Muslims, and the city became a centre of translation from Oriental languages. -
1101
Mystery plays
The Auto de los Reyes Magos is the oldest extant liturgical drama (12th century) written in Spanish language. It is a codex found in the library of the Toledo Cathedral and is a mystery play belonging to the Christmas cycle. It is a play about the Biblical Magi, three wise men from the East who followed a star and visited the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. It is believed to have been based on an earlier liturgical Latin play written in France. -
Period: 1101 to 1300
Mester de Juglaría
Medieval Spanish poets recognized the Mester de Juglaría as a literary form written by the minstrels (juglares) and composed of varying line length and use of assonance instead of rhyme. These poems were sung to uneducated audiences, nobles and peasants alike. -
1140
Cantar de Mio Cid
The epic poem Cantar de Mio Cid was written about a real man—his battles, conquests, and daily life. The poet was unknown. This epic represents realism, because nothing was exaggerated and the details are very real, even the geography correctly portrays the areas in which Cid traveled and lived. It has assonance instead of rhyme and its lines vary in length, the most common length being fourteen syllables. -
Period: 1201 to 1300
Mester de Clerecía
This Castilian narrative poetry known as the Mester de Clerecía became popular in the thirteenth century. It is the verse form of the learned poets, usually clerics (hence the name 'clerecía'). The poetry was formal, with carefully counted syllables in each line. Popular themes were Christian legends, lives of saints and tales from classical antiquity. Two traits separate this form from the mester de juglaría: didacticism and erudition. -
1300
Chivalric romance
Amadís de Gaula by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo is a landmark work among the chivalric romances which were in vogue in sixteenth-century Iberian Peninsula, although its first version, much revised before printing, was written at the onset of the 14th century. In the decades following its publication, dozens of sequels of sometimes minor quality were published in Spanish, Italian, and German, together with a number of other imitative works. -
Period: 1300 to 1400
Spanish prose
Spanish prose gained popularity in the mid-thirteenth century when King Alfonso X of Castile gave support and recognition to the writing form. He, with the help of his groups of intellectuals, directed the composition of many prose works including Las siete partidas, the first modern book of laws of the land written in the people's language. Toward the end of the Middle Ages, writer Fernando del Pulgar (1436-1490) created a new type of prose named the verbal portrait. -
1307
The rise of heroic poetry
With the creation of Cantar de mío Cid, because of the poem’s setting, personages, topographical detail, and realistic tone and treatment and because the poet wrote soon after the Cid’s death, this poem has been accepted as historically authentic, a conclusion extended to the Castilian epic generally -
Period: 1400 to
The Renaissance prose
Great part of the narrative subgenera of the 15th century continued to be alive throughout the 16th century. -
Period: 1485 to
The Renaissance poetry
With respect to imitation and originality in the Renaissance poetry, the Renaissance poet used the models of the nature; on this base he did not put into doubt the necessity of imitating, because these procedures were justified by coming not from the reproduction of models, but from the same spirit that gathered other thoughts. If other people's creations, unavoidably dispersed because of being multiple, are recast into a unique creation. -
1492
The Spanish Renaissance
Within this period the first important author is Antonio de Nebrija (1442–1522), with his Spanish grammar. In 1492, he published the first book of grammar in the Spanish language (titled Gramática Castellana in Spanish), which was the first grammar produced by any Romance language. At this time, Castilian became Spanish, the official language of Spain, replacing Latin. -
Period: 1500 to
Religious literature
The Renaissance imposes a division between the natural and the supernatural things, as opposed to the Middle Ages in which they were mixed in such form that God, the Virgin and the Saints took part in all type of worldly subjects with appearances and miracles. The religious literature can be manifested in treaties in prose on spiritual matters, or in poems loaded of spirituality (San Juan de la Cruz). The forms of religious life, denominated "ascetic" and "mystic", were expressed in both ways. -
1554
Picaresque novel
The Lazarillo, was published in 1554 and narrates the life of a boy, Lázaro de Tormes. This book inaugurated the picaresque novel and it stands out within the production of the literature of the Golden Century because of its originality, since it represents a literature based on the reality, as opposed to the idealism or the religiosity of the literature of the time and immediately previous (books of chivalries, sentimental novel, etc.) -
Period: 1557 to
Didactic and religious prose
During the reign of Felipe II, from 1557 to 1597, the religious prose had its greater boom in Spain. The religiosity of the monarch, the spirit of the Counterreformation and the customs of the time were part in the extraordinary importance that this genre reached. The didactic and religious literature is vast. -
1558
Pastoral novel
The pastoral novel is of Italian origin, like the sentimental novel. About the year of 1558 the first Spanish text pertaining to this genre appeared: La Diana, written by Jorge de Montemayor. The success of this type of narrative encouraged great authors of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, such as Lope de Vega (La Arcadia) and Miguel de Cervantes (La Galatea), to cultivate it.