
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Sacred Spaces and Places: Constructing the Virgin Mary in Hispanic Literature
- Liturgy and Place
- 1 A Feast of Miracles: Foreign Places, Foreign Spaces in Hispanic Miracle Collections
- Places of Growth and Irrigation
- 2 Hortus conclusus? Virginity and Fruitful Space in Gonzalo de Berceo’s Los Milagros de Nuestra Señora
- 3 Holding and Reflecting the Water of Life in Gonzalo de Berceo’s ‘fuent’: Wellsprings and Fountains as a Figure of the Virgin
- 4 Fountains and their Architecture: Situating Fountains in the Poetry of the Marqués de Santillana and Other Fifteenth-century Poets
- Places of Entry and Exit
- 5 The Temple Gate, the Lions’ Den, and the Furnace: Liminal Spaces in Gonzalo de Berceo’s Marian Poetry
- 6 The Sacred Temple, the Tabernacle, and the Reliquary in the Poetry of Pedro de Santa Fé, Fernán Pérez de Guzmán, Juan Tallante, and Other Late Medieval Poets
- 7 Home is where the Heart is: Christ’s Dwelling Place from Gonzalo de Berceo’s Loores de Nuestra Señora to the Vita Christi of Isabel de Villena
- Spaces of Protection
- 8 Mary as a Strong Defence: The Protective Space of the Virgin from Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria to Jaume Roig’s Siege Engine
- 9 ‘Más olías que ambargris’: Perfumed Spaces of the Virgin in Fray Ambrosio Montesino’s Poetry
- Afterword
- Appendix: Peninsular Hymns to the Virgin
- Bibliography
- Index of Places as Marian Figures
- Index of Objects and Containers
- Index of Plants, Medicinal Substances and Perfumes
- General Index
3 - Holding and Reflecting the Water of Life in Gonzalo de Berceo’s ‘fuent’: Wellsprings and Fountains as a Figure of the Virgin
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 August 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Sacred Spaces and Places: Constructing the Virgin Mary in Hispanic Literature
- Liturgy and Place
- 1 A Feast of Miracles: Foreign Places, Foreign Spaces in Hispanic Miracle Collections
- Places of Growth and Irrigation
- 2 Hortus conclusus? Virginity and Fruitful Space in Gonzalo de Berceo’s Los Milagros de Nuestra Señora
- 3 Holding and Reflecting the Water of Life in Gonzalo de Berceo’s ‘fuent’: Wellsprings and Fountains as a Figure of the Virgin
- 4 Fountains and their Architecture: Situating Fountains in the Poetry of the Marqués de Santillana and Other Fifteenth-century Poets
- Places of Entry and Exit
- 5 The Temple Gate, the Lions’ Den, and the Furnace: Liminal Spaces in Gonzalo de Berceo’s Marian Poetry
- 6 The Sacred Temple, the Tabernacle, and the Reliquary in the Poetry of Pedro de Santa Fé, Fernán Pérez de Guzmán, Juan Tallante, and Other Late Medieval Poets
- 7 Home is where the Heart is: Christ’s Dwelling Place from Gonzalo de Berceo’s Loores de Nuestra Señora to the Vita Christi of Isabel de Villena
- Spaces of Protection
- 8 Mary as a Strong Defence: The Protective Space of the Virgin from Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria to Jaume Roig’s Siege Engine
- 9 ‘Más olías que ambargris’: Perfumed Spaces of the Virgin in Fray Ambrosio Montesino’s Poetry
- Afterword
- Appendix: Peninsular Hymns to the Virgin
- Bibliography
- Index of Places as Marian Figures
- Index of Objects and Containers
- Index of Plants, Medicinal Substances and Perfumes
- General Index
Summary
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst; but the water which I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up into
everlasting life. (John 4.14)
Gardens were life-giving places of refreshment in the dusty desert places of the ancient world and they remained so in the hot lands bordering the Mediterranean. Had the biblical garden at the heart of the Song of Songs not had its own abundant water supply, it would not have flourished as it did. The garden had water from three sources: the sealed fountain, the garden spring or fountain in the garden, and the well of living water (Song 4.12, 15). However, the numerous watercourses in the garden and the fecundity of plant growth made it susceptible to plunder and, therefore, the garden had to be rendered inaccessible to outsiders. It is locked from the inside, while the water supply within its bounds must also be sealed off to prevent intruders diverting its course. It is a sealed fountain within an enclosed garden, separated from the desert lands outside its bounds.
In this chapter, I examine different Marian interpretations of the Song of Songs watercourses, setting them alongside poetic ones, and linking both to understanding springs and the value of water in medieval Spain. I begin by examining one of the most important Hispano-medieval texts, Gonzalo de Berceo's prologue to his Milagros, with its emphasis on springs and water. I will then look at theological commentaries on wellsprings and fountains, as well as at the place of wellsprings or fountains in liturgy. I will also show how springs were depicted by miniaturists and painters, and finally examine how understanding of water and its uses aids the modern reader in interpreting such imagery in Marian poetry from the thirteenth century.
Mary as a Spring in Early Marian Literature
It is within the prologue to the Milagros that Gonzalo de Berceo creates a paradise setting with its clear flowing springs, ‘fuentes claras corrientes’. As discussed in Chapter 2, the prologue is one of the pieces of Hispanic poetry that has most intrigued critics as they seek to interpret his allegory
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- Information
- The Sacred Space of the Virgin Mary in Medieval Hispanic Literaturefrom Gonzalo de Berceo to Ambrosio Montesino, pp. 119 - 146Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2019