Tag: Alfonso X of Castile

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Organizing the Greed for Gain. Alfonso X of Spain’s Law on Gambling Houses

The “Ordenamiento de las tafurerias” is a law code about gambling, established by a certain Maestre Roldan in 1276 or 1277 CE (1314 / 1315 era hisp.)by command of King Alfonso X of Castile. It represents the most detailed and exhaustive regulation of gambling from the Middle Ages, providing useful information about the practice of gambling, the presumed or real problems connected to it, and the measures taken by authorities.

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In Search of Paradise: Time and Eternity in Alfonso X’s Cantiga 103

The story told in Alfonso’s cantiga 103 is not original to his court writers. In fact, as has been made abundantly clear in several studies to date (Hans-Jörg [Aarne-Thomson] 471A (“The Monk and the Bird”),4 Wagner, and Röhrich 124-45), the cantiga story is a variation of a legend that had already existed for at least one hundred years before its inclusion in the Cantigas collection (the compilation of which took place during the years spanning from 1257 to 1283).