Sources and context of the eucharistic miracles of the Cantigas de Santa María 128 and 208

Abstract

The Cantigas de Santa María 104, 128, 147, and 208 present Eucharistic miracles where the hosts undergo a transfiguration. Their sources have not yet been well defined by scholars. This study aims to offer new hypotheses on the precedents of Cantigas 128 and 208, centered on the motif of the adoration of a consecrated host by some bees. If for Cantiga 128 the influence of a version contained in a miraculous collection of Catalan origin is highlighted, as it bears details shared exclusively with the medieval Galician text, for Cantiga 208 the presence is reiterated, at the base, of the work of the Cistercian monk Cesario of Heisterbach, with some innovations to be attributed to the same court of the sovereign to perhaps some doctrinal needs of his time.

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