[44] Castro, Biblioteca, Tom. II. p. 632, where he speaks of the MS. of the Cántigas in the Escurial. The one at Toledo, which contains only a hundred, is the MS. of which a fac-simile is given in the “Paleographía Española,” (Madrid, 1758, 4to, p. 72,) and in the notes to the Spanish translation of Bouterwek’s History (p. 129). Large extracts from the Cántigas are found in Castro, (Tom. II. pp. 361, 362, and pp. 631-643,) and in the “Nobleza del Andaluzia” de Argote de Molina, (Sevilla, 1588, fol., f. 151,) followed by a curious notice of the king, in Chap. 19, and a poem in his honor. [45] Mondejar, Memorias, p. 438. [46] Mondejar, Mem., p. 434. His body, however, was in fact buried at Seville, and his heart, which he had desired should be sent to Palestine, at Murcia, because, as he says in his testament, “Murcia was the first place which it pleased God I should gain in the service and to the honor of King Ferdinand.” Laborde saw his monument there. Itinéraire de l’Espagne, Paris, 1809, 8vo, Tom. II. p. 185. The Galician, however, was originally an important language in Spain, and for some time seemed as likely to prevail throughout the country as any other of the dialects spoken in it. It was probably the first that was developed in the northwestern part of the Peninsula, and the second that was reduced to writing. For in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, just at the period when the struggling elements of the modern Spanish were disencumbering themselves from the forms of the corrupted Latin, Galicia, by the wars and troubles of the times, was repeatedly separated from Castile, so that distinct dialects appeared in the two different territories almost at the same moment. Of these, the Northern is likely to have been the older, though the Southern proved ultimately the more fortunate. At any rate, even without a court, which was the surest centre of culture in such rude ages, and without any of the reasons for the development of a dialect which always accompany political power, we know that the Galician was already sufficiently formed to pass with the conquering arms of Alfonso the Sixth, and establish itself firmly between the Douro and the Minho; that country which became the nucleus of the independent kingdom of Portugal.