It is highly probable that Spanish poetry began by commemorating the heroic deeds of Pelayo and other heroes who fought against the Moors; but we can trace nothing to that period. The earliest compositions which have reached us are, a “Charter of Oviedo,” 1145 (the “Charter of Aviles,” 1155, has been proved to be a forgery), and two poems on the Cid, the favorite hero of popular Spanish poetry, 1040-1099. The best of these poems is the one beginning: El mio Cid (vide Ticknor). Though incomplete, it constitutes a real epic poem, and if examined in detail appears to have been written at the beginning of the twelfth century. Three contemporary works have reached us: “La Vida de Santa Maria Egipciaca,” “El Libro de los tres reyes d’Orient,” and “Los tres reyes magos.” The first two were evidently written under a French influence; “Los tres reyes magos” was written for recital in a church. The same intellectual development appears in Spain in the thirteenth century as in Italy and France. The universities of Palencia and Salamanca contributed toward it. The tendency of the writers of this period is to imitate classic authors. A priest, Gonzalo de Berceo, is the first poet of any importance in the thirteenth century, 1230: he wrote a large number of verses on religious subjects. His poem to the Virgin contains some poetical passages. Two poems appeared shortly afterward, “El Libro de Apollonio” and “El Libro de Alexandre,” by J. Lorenzo Segura, adapted from the history of Alexandre Le Grand, by Chatillon. The poem “Fernan Gonzalez” is of the same period: it is free from foreign influence. Prose is improved at the beginning of the century by the translation from Latin of the “Fuero Juzgo,” and other historical and didactical works. Don Alonso el Sabio, 1221-1284, absorbs the scientific and literary life of Spain during his time: the most eminent of his countrymen, Spaniards, Jews and Moors, gathered round him. So many works have appeared under his name that it is incredible they should all have been written by him. Probably only the poems, “Las Querellas,” written in the Castilian dialect, are his. An extensive Universal History, the first written in Europe in a vernacular language; the “Leyes de Partidas,” a series of legal works; “El Saber de Astronomia,” a cyclopedia of this science as it stood at that time; the “Cantigas,” a poem containing upward of four hundred compositions to the Virgin, written in the Galician dialect and in the Provençal style, and several other works, have passed hitherto as proceeding from his pen.