La 'Disputa del alma y el Cuerpo': Sus congeneres y su origen

The Disputa del Alma y el Cuerpo, a fragmentary old Castilian poem, dating from the twelfth century, has always been studied as if it were a direct translation of the Old French poem Un Samedi par Nuit. The present thesis posits the idea of eliminating the French poem as the immediate source and tracing the Spanish poem's origin to an older composition, the Royal Debate, a 2,544 verse Latin poem that is the source of the Old French text. The present study consists of three chapters: Chapter One deals with the intellectual environment of the twelfth century, when the poem was composed. The philosophical ideas of that century are reflected not only in the content, but also in the form of the Spanish text. In Chapter Two, the legend of the Body and Soul is presented in terms of its evolution from its first known appearance in Egyptian culture, to the Greek representation of the soul, to the legends and apocalypse of saints and a group of homilies and sermons, and the theme's later transformation in Latin poetry. From this Latin source, the Old Spanish Disputa del Alma y el Cuerpo takes its origin. In Chapter Three, the Castillian fragment is compared to both the Royal Debate and to Un Samedi par Nuit in the following terms: the dates of composition, the first verses of each poem, the tone, the voices embedded within the texts, the narrator and the ubi sunt formula. In this chapter, we also study the Disputa in terms of its own artistic merits as a poem in its own right. The chapter closes with a modern Spanish translation of the poem.;The present study concludes that, while the Castilian poem shares certain traits with its French analogue, it is in some respects closer to the Royal Debate. We recognize the possibility that the Old Spanish poem may not be a direct translation of Un Samedi par nuit, but that both poems, the Samedi and the Disputa, may be reworkings of the Latin Royal Debate.