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For the purposes of the new edition, every poem has been assigned a unique short title. The original short titles, taken eclectically from a number of sources, are retained as alternative short titles.
Links to the miniatures of the Códice Rico are now live on the Miniature section of this page, as well as on the MSS pages for that manuscript. Links to the miniatures of the Florence MS are currently being added.
Links to Ms T display individual pages; links to Ms F open the document viewer which displays double page spreads (users have the option to select single pages in the viewer).
For new critical texts of the poems, return to the listing page and click on the poem number, or go to the archive of texts .
For epigraphs and layout information click on the appropriate manuscript location.
For information on Latin and vernacular sources of miracle stories follow the links to Miracles and collections.
Follow the links to the appropriate pages of Todd McComb and Pierre Roberge's online discography, to the BITAGAP archive, and to linked entries in the Bibliography.
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| CSM Number : 201 | |||
| Short name: | The Woman who Swallowed a Spider | Alternative: | Woman Saved from Suicide [swallows spider] |
| Incipit: | Muit’ é mais a piadade de Santa Maria | ||
| Refrain: | Muit’ é mais a piadade de Santa Maria/ que quantos pecados ome fazer poderia | ||
| Summary of narrative | |||
| Setting: | unspecified | Protagonist(s): | a young woman |
|
A beautiful noble woman promised to guard her virginity. The devil tempted her to take a lover, and she lived with her godfather and became pregnant by him. When the baby was born she killed it. She became pregnant a second time and killed her newborn baby yet again. Then she did this a third time. Overcome with despair, and hating herself, she tried to commit suicide. She stabbed herself in the breast, but the knife missed its mark. Then she swallowed a spider, but it was not big or poisonous enough to kill her. She ate another bigger spider and her body swelled so much she was near death. As she lay dying, she repented and asked the Virgin to forgive her sins. The Virgin appeared to her and stroked her body, making her more beautiful and fit than she had ever been. The woman entered an order and lived virtuously from that time forth. |
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| Metrical data | |||
| Stanza: | 13' 13' 13' 13' | Refrain: | 13' 13' |
| No. of Stanzas: | 13 | ||
| Rhyme scheme: | AA | bbba | Zejel: | Yes |
| MS locations: | |||
| F2, E201 | |||
| Poncelet reference | |||
| None | |||
| Keywords | |||
| apparition, chastity, devils, fornication, infanticide, spider, stabbing, suicide, virginity, vow | |||
| Discography | |||
| Click HERE for a list of recordings of this poem | |||
| BITAGAP ID | |||
| 3954 | |||
| Bibliography | |||
| Cantigas de Santa Maria — El Cantar de los cantares — Sonetos — Coplas que hizo por la muerte de su padre D. Rodrigo Alfonso X el Sabio and others | |||
| La pecadora penitente en el teatro español: Sus fuentes y evolución Sánchez Castañer y Mena, Francisco | |||
| A Psalmic Theme in the ’Cantigas de Santa Maria’: ’Averte faciem tuam a peccatis meis’ as ’Non cates aos meus pecados’ Schaffer, Martha | |||