If we reject the claim of Lope de Moros to be the author of the _Razón feita d'Amor_, the first Castilian poet whose name reaches us is GONZALO DE BERCEO (?1198-?1264), a secular priest attached to the Benedictine monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, in the diocese of Calahorra. A few details are known of him. He was certainly a deacon in 1220, and his name occurs in documents between 1237 and 1264. He speaks of his advanced age in the _Vida de Santa Oria, Virgen_, his latest and perhaps most finished work; and his birthplace, Berceo, is named in his _Historia del Señor San Millán de Cogolla_, as in his rhymed biography of _St. Dominic of Silas_. His copiousness runs to some thirteen thousand lines, including, besides the works already named, the _Sacrificio de la Misa_ (Sacrifice of the Mass), the _Martirio de San Lorenzo_ (Martyrdom of St. Lawrence), the _Loores de Nuestra Señora_ (Praises of Our Lady), the _Signos que aparecerán ante del Juicio_ (Signs visible before the Judgment), the _Milagros de Nuestra Señora_ (Miracles of Our Lady), the _Duelo que hizo la Virgen María el día de la Pasión de su hijo Jesucristo_ (The Virgin's Lament on the day of her Son's Passion), and three hymns to the Holy Ghost, the Virgin, and God the Father. In most editions of Berceo there is appended to his verses a poem in his praise, attributed to an unknown writer of the fourteenth century. This poem is, in fact, conjectured to be an invention of Tomás Antonio Sánchez, the earliest editor of Berceo's complete works (1779). The chances are that Berceo and his writings had passed out of remembrance within two hundred years of his death, and he was evidently unknown to Santillana in the fifteenth century. But a brief extract from him is given in the _Moisén Segundo_ (Second Moses) of Ambrosio Gómez, published in 1653. With the exception of the _Martirio de San Lorenzo_, of which the end is lost, all Berceo's writings have been preserved, and he suffers by reason of his exuberance.