The Mester de Clerecía: Intellectuals and Ideologies in Thirteenth-Century Castile

A fresh approach to the mester de clerecía , a group of narrative poems (epics, hagiography, romances) composed in thirteenth-century Spain by university-trained clerics for the edification and entertainment of the predominantly illiterate laity. In the thirteenth century, profound changes in Spanish society drove the invention of fresh poetic forms by the new clerical class. The term mester de clerecía (clerical ministry or service) applies to a group of narrativepoems (epics, hagiography, roma