Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to study death and death-related themes in the poetic narratives and full-page miniatures of the Cantigas de Santa Maria, a collection of miracles of the Virgin Mary, written under the auspices and direct participation of Alfonso X of Castile . ;By focusing on the way death and its rituals are portrayed in the text and the miniatures, this dissertation seeks to understand how the literary, iconographical, spiritual, and political dimensions of death are woven into the extraordinary fabric of the Cantigas. This approach will add to our knowledge of thirteenth-century funerary rituals and attitudes toward death and it will also reveal the importance of the Cantigas as an instrument of change. ;This dissertation also studies the image of death in the Cantigas as it was shaped both by the spiritual and political needs of Alfonso X, the author/patron, and the cult of the Virgin. One of the objectives of this study is to illuminate the ways in which Alfonso X manipulated the vocabulary of integration provided by the fear of death, the love of life, and the hope of salvation to fulfill a variety of political goals: to favor shrines of the Virgin located in areas under royal control; to attract settlers to newly-conquered territories of al-Andalus; to assimilate and convert the religious minorities; and most importantly to enhance the popular appeal of the monarchy and establish a stronger emotional bond between the king and his people. ;The use of the imagery of death in the Cantigas as a means of promoting the ideals of the corporate state demonstrates the historical connection between Alfonso X's intellectual and political activities. Explaining this connection in Alfonso's life and works can contribute to a larger theoretical understanding of the relationship between cultural phenomena and the power structure and the social and historical matrix from which they develop