General Estoria facts for kids

The General estoria ("General History") is a huge history book. It was started by Alfonso X of Castile (1252–1284), who was known as "the Wise." This book was special because it was written in Old Spanish, not Latin, which was common for history books back then.

The main goal of the General estoria was to tell the story of the world from the very beginning (like the Creation in the Bible) all the way up to Alfonso's own time. However, the book was never fully finished. The parts we still have cover history from the Creation until the birth of the Virgin Mary in the Bible's story. For other cultures, it goes up to around the year zero.

To write this massive history, many older books were used as sources. Most of these were in Latin, but some were in French and Arabic.

How the General estoria is Organized

The General estoria is split into six main parts, though the last part was never completed. This structure was meant to match the idea of six ages of history, as explained by a thinker named Augustine of Hippo.

• The first part would cover from the Creation to the Great Flood.
• The second part would go from the Great Flood to the birth of Abraham.
• The third part would cover history until the time of David.
• The fourth part would reach the Babylonian captivity.
• The fifth part would go until the birth of Jesus.
• The sixth part would cover from Jesus's birth until Alfonso X's reign.

However, the writers changed this plan a bit. They made the parts similar in length. For example, the first part covers the first two ages and part of the third. Only the very first pages of the sixth part are known, and they might be all that was ever written.

Bringing Histories Together

To tell the entire history of humankind, the writers needed many sources and a complex way to combine both Jewish and non-Jewish history. They used a book by Eusebius of Caesarea, called Canons, to figure out which events happened at the same time in different civilizations.

They would first tell a few years of Jewish history, mainly from the Bible, Flavius Josephus, and Petrus Comestor. Then, they would describe everything that happened in the same years in other cultures, like Egypt, Greece, Carthage, or Rome. For these parts, they used even more sources.

The writers working for Alfonso X didn't strictly separate real history from myths. They treated stories like Ovid’s Metamorphoses as if they were historical events. They believed that gods and goddesses were actually old kings, queens, and heroes who were worshipped after they died. This idea is called euhemerism.

Sections and Chapters

Inside each main "part," the next unit is named after a biblical book. For example, the "Exodus" section in the first part includes the translation of the Bible's Book of Exodus. But it also tells about other things happening around the world at the same time, like the beginnings of Athens.

This way of organizing changes in the fourth part. After the Jewish people lost their independence (around 590 BC), the timeline was no longer based on Jewish rulers. Instead, it followed the ruler of the most important empire, like Babylon, Carthage, Macedonia, or Rome. The biblical book names then only covered the Bible's story, while sections named after "heathen" (non-Jewish) rulers, like Nebuchadnezzar, included other world events.

Within these sections, there are smaller units called "libros" (books), which contain many "capítulos" (chapters). Some biblical books are divided into these smaller books, while others go straight into chapters.

United Stories

The non-biblical history was very important to Alfonso's writers. From the second part onwards, they often included long sections of hundreds of chapters that focused only on one important non-biblical figure or event. These "estorias unadas" (united stories) could be about Hercules, Romulus and Remus, the Trojan War, or the Theban War. These sections were placed at the end of the time period of the current Jewish ruler.

Sources Used and How They Were Treated

Before starting the General estoria, the team carefully found, copied, and translated many books. They probably didn't find all the books they wanted, and some ancient works, like those by Homer, weren't widely known in the Middle Ages.

Some of the most important sources included:

• The Bible
• Petrus Comestor (Historia Scholastica)
• Flavius Josephus (Antiquitates Iudaicae, a Latin version)
• Eusebius of Caesarea (Canons)
• Ovid (Metamorphoses and Heroides)
• Lucan (Pharsalia)
• Pliny (Historia naturalis)
• Flavius Eutropius (Breviarius historiae Romanae)
• Orosius (Historiae adversus paganos)
• Geoffrey of Monmouth (Historia regum Britanniae)
• The Historia de preliis
• The Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César
• Probably the Fet des Romains and several Old French romans (stories).

The writers used these sources extensively. For example, more than half of Ovid's Metamorphoses is included in the General estoria, along with long explanations. Two-thirds of Ovid's Heroides are also in the text. The entire translation of Lucan’s Pharsalia is found in the fifth part.

Combining and Changing Sources

After being translated, the different sources were combined to create the historical narrative. If several sources talked about the same event, the writers compared them. They carefully showed how the stories were similar or different. As mentioned, the Jewish history for a period always came before the events in other civilizations during the same time.

The writers often added their own comments and interpretations. They also made connections to things happening in their own time. Most of the information from the sources was accepted. The writers didn't often censor or change things they didn't like.

However, there were a few times when they did make changes:

• They sometimes left out very poetic language, like personifications or metaphors.
• Physical changes described in the Metamorphoses were explained as symbols or allegories.
• They sometimes removed negative traits, like cruelty or doubts, from descriptions of kings or powerful people.

Copies and Publications

We know of more than forty copies (manuscripts) of the General estoria. Because the work is so large, these copies usually only contain one part, or sometimes two half-parts. Only the First and Fourth Parts have copies that came directly from the royal writing workshop (scriptorium). The other parts are known only through later copies.

Many of these later copies don't have a whole part. Instead, they might have a selection, usually either just the biblical parts or just the non-biblical parts. For the Fifth part, no single manuscript contains the entire text. This suggests that this part might never have been fully completed or combined into one story.

The First and Second parts of the work were published in 1930 and 1957-1961 by different scholars. Many other scholars have also published parts of the text, which has helped us learn more about this important work. In 2009, a team of experts published the entire known work.

See also

In Spanish: General estoria para niños