f "Vocalidad y textualidad en el Libro de Apolonio"

Medieval modes of 'literary' composition, transmission and reception substantially differed from those of today. This difference explains that the only extant text of the Libro de Apolonio, like the texts of many other medieval works, shows a somewhat startling mixture of elements, some characteristic of textual transmission and others typical of primarily vocal dissemination. This paper analyses in detail the intermingling of textual and vocal features in the Spanish Libro de Apolonio. By means of a systematic comparison with its Latin source (the Historia Apollonii Regis Tyri) and on the basis of what the very Libro de Apolonio has to tell us, the paper also offers a suggestion regarding the Libro de Apolonio's primary modes of delivery and reception, and the kind of audience it addressed. In light of the analysis, it seems that the poem was intended to be read aloud to a homogeneous audience in a closed and learned context (perhaps clerical, but more likely courtly), which would allow the public to have direct or indirect access to the poem as a whole, through visual contact with the codex and/or through attendance in successive reading sessions.