Translation and translatio: 'Nuestro Latin' in Alfonso El Sabio's General Estoria
Abstract
One of the more puzzling aspects of lexical gloss in the General estoria of Alfonso X is the use of the phrase nuestro latin, which is unique to the General estoria within the Alfonsine corpus. Since Antonio Solalinde's study of it in 1936, the phrase has been taken to indicate a vague distinction between Latin and the vernacular. However the term latin has important historiographic implications apart from denoting the Latin language, and nuestro latin is one of several first person plural phrase unique to the General estoria that refers to language, exegesis or doctrine, such as nuestro romanz, nuestro language, nuestros sabios and nos los christianos. This paper examines the use of these first person plural phrases in lexical glosses as historiographic phenomon. Nuestro latin and other first person plural phrases in the General estoria separate Christian Castile from Muslim, Jewish and pagan others while casting Alfonso, his text and his readers as inheritors of imperial authority by establishing ownership of and affiliation with a Latin past.
Citation
Ekman, E. (2015). Translation and translatio: 'Nuestro Latin' in Alfonso El Sabio's General Estoria. Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 93(5), 767-782. https://doi.org/10.1080/14753820.2015.1070546