Medieval Spanish literature

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Medieval Spanish literature consists of the corpus of literary works written in Old Spanish between the beginning of the 13th and the end of the 15th century. Traditionally, the first and last works of this period are taken to be respectively the Cantar de mio Cid, an epic poem whose manuscript dates from 1207, and La Celestina (1499), a work commonly described as transitional between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

By the end of the 10th century, the languages spoken in the Iberian Peninsula 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.

Spanish oral literature was doubtless in existence before Spanish texts were written. This is shown by the fact that different authors in the second half of the 11th century could include, at the end of poems written in Arabic or Hebrew, closing verses that, in many cases, were examples of traditional lyric in a Romance language, often Andalusi Romance. These final refrains are known as kharjas (jarchas in Spanish).