f “La sección de Medea y su interpretación en la General estoria”

The allegorical glosses of Arnulf of Orléans and Johannes of Garland are the basis of chapters 468, 475, and 476 of the General estoria II, in which Alfonso X develops his interpretation of the Ovidian myths relating to the story of Medea. After identifying the sources of the Medea section used by Alfonso X, the motives for their inclusion in the interpretive chapters will be examined based on commentaries on the Metamorphoses by these two Latino-Medieval authors. Each of the exegetic glosses of the aforementioned chapters are then reviewed, contrasted with the the corresponding ones in the Allegoriae and the Integumenta and the modifications made by the authors of the General estoria II are noted. By comparing the Alfonsine text with its models it is possible to arrive at a greater understanding of the tales taken from the Metamorphoses in the historiographical work, the way in which Alfonso’s team of scribes collate their sources and the manner in which they use them. It also helps us to understand the way in which the incorporation of the exegetic chapters alters the meaning of the Ovidian tale, the hermeneutic methodology used, the amplificatio techniques or motives underlying the selection of some sources over others, the origin of the Alfonsine team’s familiarity with the Allegoriae and the Integumenta and the repercussions of the incorporation of this type of exegetic chapter side by side with the Ovidian material. Other matters related to the formal and thematic originality of the General estoria are clarified by this comparison.