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La Segunda Partida y su proceso compositivo: el ms.43-11 de la Biblioteca Capitular de Toledo y su marginalia
The author analyses the text of the "Second Partida" fixed in the ms.43-11 of the Toledo's Cathedral's Library. The manuscript was made by Juan Alfonso Trujillo, a subordinate of Toledo's archbishop Pedro de Luna, the nephew of the Anti-Pope Benedict XIII. The author affirms that the Archbishop was a direct customer of this manuscript and that he had a plans to make a gift to his vassal and younger friend, the dean of the Toledo Chapter, Juan Martinez de Contreras. The present should include all the Seven "Partidas," but an unexpected death of Pedro de Luna interrupted the work with the manuscript. Having as his goal to fix the place of the ms.43-11 within the frame of the manuscript tradition of the "Second Partida" and of all the "Seven Partidas" as a whole, the author analyses the problem of the existence of these manuscripts before and after the 1348 AD. This year the king of Castile Alphonse XI, being at the Cortes at Alcala-de-Henares, proclaimed the Partidas as one of the official sources of law of his kingdom and ordered to "collect and concord" all the evidence of this text for prepare its official version. The author concludes that one of the primary results of this order became an appearance of the many manuscripts which contained the text of two or three (or even more) Partidas at once. Until 1348 the Partidas usually existed as separate books. The analysis of the transcription of "Second Partida" fixed in the ms.43-11 and also of its marginal notes allows fixing one more consequence of the king Alphonse's order. Until 1348 the text of Partidas suffered multiple changes and variations. In particular, there were three (as a minimum) major versions of the "Second Partida," that the author marks as a "versio primitiva," "versio primitiva-1" and "versio elaborata." The main difference between them was a distinct arrangement of the laws in the third part of the text, known as a "treaty on the war." The decision of Alphonse XI fixed the "versio elaborata" as an official text due to its readiness. However, the analysis of the manuscript 43-11 shows that the realization of this royal decision was a long and arduous process: a copyist that had written this text took before his eyes some manuscript with the "versio primitiva" and wanted to make its copy. However, the major scribe, who controlled his work, compelled him to change the text into the "versio elaborata" as an established by a royal will and, therefore, an official.