"Semeja esti prado egual de paraíso" : Gonzalo de Berceo : Milagros de nuestra señora

Abstract

The present article analyses some of the features that characterise Mariology. First of all, it
focuses on the history of this peculiar area of theology, as a literary and epistemological code.
The text itself, designated to illustrate the formation of a new literary and philosophical
discourse, is the well known compilation Miracles of Our Lady by Gonzalo de Berceo, with
special regard to the allegoric Introduction to the same work. Allegory was the most widespread
narrative figure of social cultural texture in the Middle Ages. The Marian cult was an
extraordinary literary revelation in the Europe of the 11-13th centuries. The chain of
metaphors defining the Introduction to the Miracles implies a universal theological allegory
concerning the role of the Virgin in the salvation of humanity. The interpretation of some
landscape elements means not only the polysemic allegory for the creation of a cultural home but
also signifies the conception of a new symbolical rational order and the combination of cultural
registers. What is meant is the embedding of Christian narrative and a serious attempt to
create a specific national and culturalpattern.