[198] In 1980, Joseph T. Snow presented a bibliographic excursion on Cantigas studies, using the geographical metaphor of a mappa mundi, uncharted in 1221 at Alfonso's birth and later beginning to take shape as studies appeared. It would seem appropriate to follow suit for Alfonsine studies generally, this time with another analogy, that of a dormant volcano akin to the majestic Mount Saint Helens. Before it literally blew its top, there was a moderate amount of interest in the volcano, but nothing like that which followed the momentous explosion which was felt around the globe. In another study, Snow illustrates with precision the interest in the Alfonsine legacy of the Cantigas de Santa Maria by a telling graph, wherein he reports 74 Cantigas studies for the pre-1900 period. As he plots subsequent scholarly activity by decade, from 1901 through 1970, there is a gradual increase from twenty studies for the first decade cited to seventy-nine for 1961-1970. In the following decade, 1971-1980, a remarkable rumbling occurs; Snow registers 221 studies in the 1987 Studies on the Cantigas is ducussed below.

Corroborating Snow's findings are James R. Chatham's meticulous bibliographies on dissertations in the United States (cited below) which register twenty-six Alfonsine dissertations for the period from 1876-1966. In a mere fraction of that time, from 1967--1977, the number is nearly duplicated (twenty-five Alfonsine dissertations). The explosion occurs in the 1980s when the entire world celebrates the septicentennial of the anniversary of Alfonso X's death.

Two independent but related publications pertaining to the Alfonsine legacy are part of this eruption. One is the Bulletin of the Cantigueiros de Santa Maria, founded in 1987 by John E. Keller. It is a biannual journal seeking to include studies leading to a better understanding of Alfonso's Cantigas. The other is the Noticiero alfonsí, founded in 1982, a broader-based annual newsletter proposing to include any and all cultural and scholarly interpretations of the Alfonsine legacy since 1 January 1980. The seven [199] volumes printed since 1982 register more than 125 books and more than 600 articles published since 1 January 1980 treating the Alfonsine legacy. The authors of these interpretations are myriad and, like the many scientists who flocked to study Mount Saint Helens once it erupted, bring to the theme a vast array of different, although frequently overlapping, areas of expertise. Omnis analogia claudicat, however, and so does this one; for it is their expertise and the many studies they produce which now become the explosion. To establish another analogy from the natural world, in an essay such as this it seems appropriate to meander through the maze of those studies much as a stream might, following what may seem an erratic yet natural course.

Since January 1980, the main point of departure for this examination, scholars have paid tribute to the Learned Monarch in at least twenty-two major conferences from Los Angeles, California, to Murcia, Spain; from Ottawa, Canada, to Bahía Blanca, Argentina; conferences have been held at major research centers throughout the United States and at centers in Ottawa, San Juan, London, Lisbon, and, of course, throughout the rest of the Iberian peninsula. Several of these have produced major anthologies of studies pertinent to the legacy of Alfonso X. The topics they treat are as varied as the Alfonsine legacy itself. This is exemplified by two of the earliest, held in 1981 on opposite coasts of the United States. On 2-4 April 1981, "The Worlds of Alfonso the Learned and James the Conqueror--An International Symposium" took place at and under the auspices of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies of the University of California in Los Angeles. It treated predominantly the historico-political aspects of the reigns of the two rulers, with other studies--Alfonsine language, Alfonsine Jewish collaborators, and manuscript illumination, costume, and castles--rounding out the repertoire. On 19--21 November of the same year, the Spanish Institute in New York hosted the "International Symposium / Coloquio Internacional on the Cantigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso X el Sabio (1252-1284) in Commemoration of its 700th Anniversary Year-1981. " Presentations at this conference treated the literature and language, the iconography, and the music of the Cantigas. Both symposia have recently borne fruit in two handsome volumes. The first, The Worlds of Alfonso the Learned and James the Conqueror: Intellect and Force in the Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), contains seven chapters felicitously integrated and edited by Robert I. Burns, S. J., who is also author of the first chapter and the excellent epilogue. The other--Studies on the "Cantigas de Santa Maria": Art, Music, and Poetry (Madison, Wisc.: [200] Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, 1987)--comprises twenty-four chapters, including those of the coeditors, Israel J. Katz and John E. Keller, as well as their introduction and a prologue by the latter. It ends with an informative bibliographic epilogue by Joseph Snow treating Cantigas studies.

Other volumes resulting from conferences are worth noting: (1) Cádiz en el siglo XIII (Cádiz: 1983) contains eleven studies essentially grouped around the theme of Alfonso X and his varied relationship to Cádiz. (2) Estudios alfonsíes (Granada: 1985), edited by José Mondéjar and Jesús Montoya Martínez, involves the studies generated in 1984 at the University of Granada on linguistic, lyrical, esthetic, and political aspects of Alfonso's reign. (3) De astronomia Alphonsi (1987), edited by Mercê Comes, Roser Puig, and Julio Samsó, contains fourteen studies, including seven presented on the first day (dedicated to Alfonso X), from the Seventeenth International Congress of the History of Science held in August 1985 at the University of California at Berkeley. Two notable conferences of 1984 were: (4) "Alfonso X, jornadas organizadas por el Centro de estudios sociales del Valle de los Caídos" (in press) and (5) "Alfonso X el Sabio: vida, obra, y época, " held successively at seven Spanish cities (in press). (6) La lengua y literatura en tiempos de Alfonso X el Sabio was edited by Fernando Carmona and F. J. Flores (Murcia: 1986). (7) Alfonso X y Ciudad Real: conferencias pronunciadas con motivo del VII centenario de la muerte del Rey Sabio, 1284-1984 was edited by Luis Rafael Villegas, et al. (Ciudad Real: 1986). (8) Homenaje a Alfonso X el Sabio (1284-1984) includes twelve of the several studies presented at the international congress at Carleton University in Canada and appeared in Revista canadiense de estudios hispánicos 9 (1985). (9) Romance Quarterly 33 (1986) contains many of the studies on Alfonso presented in his honor at the "Thirty-Seventh Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference. " (10) The Homenaje a Alfonso X el Sabio was edited by Maria B. Fontanella de Weinberg, Graciela R. de Brevedán, et al. (Bahía Blanca, Argentina: 1985). Others--the Harvard conference (see above, ch. II, n. 8) and the session at Westfield College, for example--are still to be published.

Several journals, in addition to those cited above, have dedicated entire volumes to studies treating the Alfonsine legacy, among them the Revista de occidente 43 (1984), Fragmentos 2 (1984), Thought 6o (1985), Cuadernos de historia 16 (1985), Revista de la Facultad de derecho de la Universidad complutense de Madrid, monográfico 9 (1985), Miscelánea medievalia murciana 13 (1986), and Revista de musicología 10 (1987). Alfonso X Toledo 1984[201] offers an example of a volume sponsored municipally with the collaboration of the Spanish Ministry of Culture, emerging from the exposition held in Toledo in 1984 and including studies on science, music, law, art, economics, and culture.

A number of recent audiovisual packages have examined Alfonso and his times. The Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, with Diodoro Urquía Latorre, for example, produced in 1984 a magnificent audiovisual treat titled "Alfonso X el Sabio" consisting of 195 color slides, sixty-seven minutes of narration on cassette, and an accompanying transcription in a seventy-page booklet. Less ambitious projects of the same ilk include "La España del Rey Sabio" (Madrid: 1984), a thirty-minute cassette tract, pamphlet, and twenty slides; and "Alfonso X el Sabio" (Madrid: c. 1985), a cassette, text, and eighty slides. Finally, Françoise Micheau and Michel Zimmerman have produced teaching units in French (Paris: 1980), consisting of slides, photographs, and occasionally records, with explanatory text. Their unit Vivre au moyen âge d'après un manuscrit du Xllle siècle comprises nine color slides with details from the Cantigas (El Escorial codex T. I. i), illustrating scenes from daily life in the Middle Ages. The accompanying text treats the miniatures in the slides not only as works of art but also as documents for an interdisciplinary comprehension of the period.

Providing an even greater visual impact than slides are the Edilán (Editora Internacional de Libros Antiguos) facsimiles of the Cantigas in the El Escorial codex T. I. 1 (Madrid: 1979), and of the first book of the Lapidario in the El Escorial codex H. I. 15 (Madrid: 1982). In 1984, Edilán also published, for the Bank of Alicante, the Alfonsine Privilegios otorgados a la ciudad de Alicante, a total of thirty-nine folios with a forty-nine-page study by Juan Manuel del Estal, María Luis Cabones, and Francisco Gimeno Menéndez. Also by Estal is the more sober Documentos inéditos de Alfonso X el Sabio y del infante su hijo don Sancho (Alicante: 1984) with study, transcription, and facsimiles of several Alfonsine documents. To these must be added the two-volume edition (I: Estudios introductorios, 2: Edición facsímil) of the Libros de ajedrez, dados y tablas, by Vicent García Editores (Valencia: 1987), and the Fuero real facsimile (Valladolid: 1979).

Pertinent to this, although not Alfonsine per se, is Julio González's Reinado y diplomas de Fernando III in three volumes (Córdoba: 1981-1986), volume one as Estudio and volumes two and three as Documentos 1217-1253, which bear directly on Alfonso's own reign and chancery inasmuch as Alfonso inherited the chancery and its practices from his father.

Following in this vein is the nascent and blossoming interest of other [202] Spanish municipalities in their connection with King Alfonso, such as Murcia, Alicante, and Ciudad Real, as well as the monographic work being done by historians in this area, such as Carlos de Ayala Martínez, La Orden de Santiago en la evolución política del regnado de Alfonso X (1252-1284. ) (Madrid: 1983) and his La monarquía y Burgos durante el reinado de AlfonsoX (Madrid: 1984), or Alfredo Cid Rumbao, Afonso o Sábio e Ourense (Orense: 1980).

Ninety-four monographs in the form of dissertations can be found in three meticulously edited compilations by James R. Chatham, et al.: (I) Western European Dissertations on the Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Languages and Literatures (Mississippi State University, 1984); (2) Dissertations in Hispanic Languages and Literatures in three volumes, the two U. S. volumes covering 1876-1966 and 1967-1977, respectively (Lexington: 1970 and 1981), which contain in sequence forty-three, twenty-six, and twenty-five dissertations. Another source for Alfonsine dissertations is David J. Billick's "Graduate Research on Alfonso X, " La corónica 8 (1979): 67-72 and 9 (1980): 55, together comprising seventy-seven items (sixty-eight and nine, respectively), including both doctoral and master's theses.

Other bibliographies include the oft-cited list in José Sánchez Pérez's Alfonso X, el Sabio (Madrid: 1935), 119-76, and Gardiner H. London's in Boletín de filología española 6 (1960): 18--31. A sine qua non for Cantigas studies is Joseph Snow's monumental compilation The Poetry of Alfonso X, el Sabio (London: 1977), with his updates in La corónica II (1983): 248-57, in Studies on the Cantigas, 475--86, and in the Bulletin of the Cantigueiros de Santa Maria I (1987): I-10. This same issue of the Bulletin contains useful bibliographic studies on aspects of the Cantigas by Connie L. Scarborough (miniatures: 41-50), Israel J. Katz (music: 51-60), and a fascinating study, "The Cantigas de Santa Maria as a Research Opportunity in History, " by Robert I. Burns (11-22).

A concise overview, "Alfonso, prosa y verso, " is in "Hispano-Medi-evalismo, " Revista de la Universidad complutense 2-4 (1984 [1988]): 171-94-Appropriate sections of The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies constitute a bibliographic source not to be overlooked.

Vying in importance with Snow's 1977 Poetry is another definitive bibliographic compilation, Jerry R. Craddock's The Legislative Works of Alfonso X, el Sabio: A Critical Bibliography (London: 1986). Less ambitious, but useful especially in its coverage of items subsequent to Craddock's bibliography, is Luis María García-Badell Arias's "Bibliografía sobre la obra jurídica de Alfonso X el Sabio y su época (1800--1985), " Revista de la [203] Facultad de derecho de la Universidad complutense de Madrid, monográfico 9 (1985): 288--319, which contains over 500 items. Minor in scope by comparison but nevertheless useful, in that they treat areas largely untouched by the above-cited bibliographies, are Daniel Eisenberg's 76 items in "Alfonsine Prose: Ten Years of Research" and Anthony Cárdenas's 71 items in "A Survey of Scholarship on the Scientific Treatises of Alfonso X, el Sabio, " both in La corónica II (1983): 220-30 and 231-47, respectively. Similar to these is the annual Westfield College Medieval Hispanic Research Seminary Newsletter (founded in 1985), with Alfonsine items easily accessible by means of its index. Finally, reference must be made to the Spanish dom of bibliography, José Simón Díaz and his nearly 800 items (nos. 519-1313) treating Alfonso X--bibliographies, codices, editions, and studies--in the third edition (corrected and updated) of his Bibliografia de la literatura hispánica, volume two of Literatura castellana: edad media (Madrid: 1986).

The 1980s have witnessed new Alfonsine studies not only in the form of articles and books, but also as new editions of Alfonsine works. In addition, several earlier studies and editions have been reprinted. Kenneth Vanderford's edition of the Setenario (1945; repr. Barcelona: 1984) is one example. Three editions, five with the Edilán facsimile and the microfiche noted below, of the Lapidario have appeared: Diman-Winget, the most reliable (Madison: 1980); Rodríguez M. Montalvo (Madrid: 1981); and for Odres Nuevos, a reprint of María Brey Mariño's modernization of the first book (1968; repr. Madrid: 1980). Walter Mettmann's edition of the Cantigas (1959-1972; Vigo: 1981) constitutes another example of these reprints, along with his paperback version for Clásicos Castalia (Madrid: 1986). Another recent version, including profane poems, is Cantigas, by Jesús Montoya Martínez (Cátedra: 1988). Montoya Martínez with Juárez Blanquer has also produced the Historia y anécdotas de Andalucía en las "Cantigas de Santa Maria" de Alfonso X (Granada: 1988). Two of the studies accompanying the facsimile editions of the Lapidario and the Cantigas have been reprinted as monographs: Ana Domínguez Rodríguez, Astrologia y arte en el "Lapidario" de Alfonso X el Sabio (Madrid: 1984), and José Filgueira Valverde's Spanish prose translation of the Cantigas from the Edilán facsimile.

Another useful reprint is Gregorio López's glossed Las siete partidas (1555; repr. Madrid: 1985), as is the Real Academia de la Historia 1807 edition of the Siete partidas (Madrid: 1972). Other editions of the Partidas, complete or partial, have appeared. Notable among them for its thoroughness, and for taking on the plethora of problems any critical edition of the entire Partidas would have to confront, is Dwayne E. Carpenter's Alfonso and the [204] Jews: An Edition of and Commentary on "Siete partidas" 7. 24. "De los judíos" (Berkeley and Los Angeles: 1986). Individual codices containing a portion of the Partidas have been edited: Juan Antonio Arias Bonet, Primera partida (Valladolid: 1975), as contained in the British Library codex Add. 20. 787; and Francisco Ramos Bossini, Primera partida (Granada: 1984), as contained in the Hispanic Society of America codex HC. 397/573. Gonzalo Martínez Díez's edition of the Espéculo: leyes de Alfonso X, vol. 1 (Avila: 1985) was found deficient by Robert A. MacDonald (Journal of Hispanic Philology 10 [1986]: 253-55), who is on the verge of producing his own edition of this work.

Two editions of Alfonsine Latin works have appeared recently: Emmanuel Poulle, Les 'Tables alphonsines" avec les canons de Jean de Saxe (Paris: 1984), and David Pingree, Picatrix: The Latin Version of the Ghãyat al-Hakïm (London: 1986). Also related to Alfonsine science are the two 1978 editions of Alfonso's Cañones de Albateni, one by Georg Bossong (Tubingen) and the other in the Concordances and Texts.

The Concordances and Texts of the Royal Scriptorium Manuscripts of Alfonso X, el Sabio (Madison: 1978), edited by Lloyd Kasten, John Nitti, et al., is perhaps the most significant current editorial venture in Alfonsine studies. An eleven-page introductory booklet precedes no microfiches containing all the vernacular prose texts extant in bona fide Alfonsine Royal Scriptorium codices, and even the texts of the Estoria de Espanna in the El Escorial codex X. I. 4 and the text of the Libro del fuero de las leyes in the British Library codex Add. 20. 787, that is, two texts apparently written immediately subsequent to Alfonso's reign. These microfiche editions serve first and foremost as linguistic research tools, and have already begun to bear fruit in two recent and excellent studies: Jerry R. Craddock's "The Tens from 40 to 90 in Old Castilian: A New Approach, " Romance Philology 38 (1985): 425-35, and Ralph Penny's "Derivation of Abstracts in Alfonsine Spanish, " Romance Philology 41 (1987): 1-23. These editions constitute the basis for the soon-to-be-published dictionary of Alfonsine prose of the Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies at the University of Wisconsin.

Reprints and translations have made several important Alfonsine studies readily available to scholarship. Among them are Evelyn S. Procter's Alfonso X of Castile (1951; Westport, Conn.: 1980), Francisco Rico's Alfonso el Sabio y la "General Estoria": tres lecciones (1972; repr. Barcelona: 1984), and Antonio Ballesteros Beretta' s Alfonso X el Sabio (1963; repr. Barcelona: 1984 with the added and welcome indexes of Miguel Rodríguez Llopis). Still others not only reappear, but reappear translated into Spanish. John E. [205] Keller's Pious Brief Narrative, the fourth chapter of which treats the Cantigas (Lexington: 1978), Hans- Josef Niederehe's Die Sprachauffassung Alfons des Weisen: Studien zur Sprach- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte (Tubingen: 1975), and Evelyn S. Procter's Curia and Cortes in León and Castile (Cambridge: 1980) have metamorphosed into, respectively, an updated Las narraciones breves piadosas (Madrid: 1987), Alfonso X el Sabio y la lingüística de su tiempo (Madrid: 1987), and Curia y Cones en Castilla y León (Madrid: 1988).

Alfonsine anthologies have proliferated in the 1980s. Antonio G. Solalinde's fundamental anthology in the Colección Austral (Madrid: 1941) was in its seventh printing in 1980. Solalinde's work was essentially reproduced in slightly different form in Margarita Peña's anthology (Mexico: 1973 and 1976). Two other anthologies are Alejandro Bermúdez's Vivas (Barcelona: 1983) and Francisco J. Díez Revenga's Obras de Alfonso X el Sabio (selección) (Madrid: 1985); the latter is unfortunately sometimes based on very faulty editions, when in fact other more reliable ones are available. Three recent anthologies treat Alfonsine historiography exclusively: Reinaldo Ayerbe-Chaux's selection from the Estoria de Espanna (Madrid: 1982), Milagros Villar Rubio's selection from the General estoria (Barcelona: 1984), and Benito Brancaforte's Prosa histórica, which selects from both Alfonsine histories (Madrid: 1984). Ayerbe-Chaux's and Brancaforte's introductions are outstanding. Brancaforte has the honor of presenting for the first time hitherto unpublished portions of the General estoria.

Similar to the marrying of municipal interests to Alfonsine studies is the interest of Galician scholars in Alfonsine works because of their Galician form, which in part accounts for the above-mentioned reprint of Mett-mann's edition of the Cantigas de Santa Maria (Vigo, Spain: 1981). Other publications include José de Azevedo Ferreira's editions of the Primeyra partida (Braga, Portugal: 1980) and the Galician Fuero real (Braga, Portugal: 1982); Ricardo Carballo Calero's Alfonso X, o Sabio: pequeña antología (Santiago: 1980), and in collaboration with Carmen García Rodríguez, Alfonso X o Sabio: cantigas de amor, de escarnio e de louvor (La Coruña: 1983); Alvaro Cunqueiro's Cantigas de Santa Maria selection (Vigo: 1980); and José Filgueira Valverde's Alfonso X e Galicia e unha escolma de "cantigas" (La Coruña: 1980).

It would be fitting to close with a neat synopsis of the many articles treating myriad aspects of the Learned king and his legacy. Their profusion makes this an impossibility, however, and the following closing statements must suffice.

In historiography, Alfonsine studies have concentrated [206] overwhelmingly on the Estoria de Espanna, sometimes referred to by Ramón Menén-dez Pidal's appellation Primera crónica general, almost to the exclusion of the General estoria. Notable exceptions are Francisco Rico's 1984 reprint (cited above) and studies by M. Morreale, W. Jonxis-Henkemans, J. González, D. Romano, M. Alvar, J. Dagenais, and A. Cárdenas. D. G. Pattison's From Legend to Chronicle: A Treatment of Epic Material in Alphonsine Historiography (Oxford: 1983) seems to have set the tone in the 1980s, since studies examining the relationship between epic and chronicle constitute the most frequent topic in Estoria de Espanna research. Another area, prompted principally by Olga Impey, is the study of Dido in the Estoria de Espanna. In number, linguistic analyses seem to follow. Miscellaneous themes follow in turn.

In the 1980s, the Barcelona school at the Instituto "Millas Vallicrosa, " headed by Juan Vernet, has dominated the topic of Alfonsine science, especially as regards its Arabic sources, with its most prolific member being Julio Samsó. This group's output is matched, if not in quantity, certainly in quality by the work of several individual historians of science who bring a more pan-European perspective to the subject. These include O. Gingerich, B. Goldstein, J. D. North, and D. Pingree. Emmanuel Poulle has concentrated on the Alfonsine Tablas and offers important contributions there. N. Roth and D. Romano have pursued the question of Alfonsine Jewish collaborators. G. Bossong has not only edited the Cañones de Albateni but also provided useful insights into the problem of translation in Alfonso's court, in his masterful Probleme der Übersetzung wissenschaftlicher Werke aus dem Arabischen in das Altspanische zur Zeit Alfons des Weisen (Tubingen:1979).

The dom of Alfonsine legal studies has been Alfonso García Gallo, though Jerry R. Craddock has made serious inroads into his positions. Along with Robert A. MacDonald, Craddock is one of the most meticulous and scholarly of Alfonsine researchers on law. Dwayne E. Carpenter has seriously pursued the Jewish and Moorish question in the Siete partidas. This magnum opus of Alfonso, encompassing as it does nearly every aspect of daily life, readily lends itself also as a reference for literary studies treating non-Alfonsine medieval works. For that same reason, its all-encompassing nature, the Partidas is the focal point of scholarly investigation regarding Alfonsine law, and other Alfonsine legal treatises are usually examined, if at all, in relationship to it. An important and welcome exception can be found in Jean Roudil's edition of Jacobo de la Junta (el de las Leyes), Summa de los nueve tiempos de los pleitos (Paris: 1986), and Roudil's plan to edit all of [207] Jacobo's writings. Finally, apparently because of the stated emphasis of the Partidas on linguistic clarity, linguists too have been drawn to it in order to analyze its language.

The least examined Alfonsine treatise of all is his book on games, the Libro de acedrex & dados & tablas. Its magnificent assortment of miniatures has been incorporated into the various audiovisual packages cited above, but its text remains grist to be exploited by willing mills. Perhaps the recent two-volume edition of 1987 cited above will encourage further research in this area, as will the new study edition (Madrid: 1987).

Sheer numbers suggest that the most popular area of Alfonsine study is the king's Cantigas de Santa Maria. Several reasons account for this. The miniatures of the "Códice Rico" offer an attractive source of investigation; the music itself provides a fascinating field for cultivation; the miracle stories lend themselves to quick literary analysis; and Mettmann's edition of the Cantigas makes them accessible for analysis. The topics examined by the Cantigas are so varied that a meaningful synopsis is difficult to achieve, and one is best advised to consult the previously cited analyses by Joseph Snow. Before leaving the Cantigas, however, it is worth noting that Stephen Parkinson has raised some fundamental and interesting questions concerning the often-touted definitive nature of Mettmann's edition. Parkinson's observations, while they do not detract from the inherent merit of Mettmann's own achievements, are intelligent and pervasive and will lead ultimately to a more accurate understanding and appreciation of Alfonso's Marian achievement and the manner in which it accrued. Finally, Roger Tinnell's An Annotated Discography of Music in Spain before 1650 (Madison: 1980), which he updates periodically, is a worthy contribution to Cantigas studies.

As in the case of the Acedrex, the profane poems authored by Alfonso were notable by their near-absence from Alfonsine poetry studies. Although they have been studied effectively by several scholars, they remain fertile Alfonsine literary ground also awaiting further tillage. A new beginning of such studies includes three anthologies featuring the profane works: Carlos Alvar and Vicente Beltrán (Madrid: 1985), Jesús Montoya Martínez (Madrid: 1988), and Juan Paredes Núñez (Granada: 1988).

Assuredly, numerous other studies and other areas of investigation might have been mentioned, but were not--not because they lack merit but because of individual limitations of perspective. For just as one scientist is incapable of analyzing every implication of the Mount Saint Helens explosion, so too is one researcher incapable of encompassing completely the [208] Alfonsine explosion. It is patent from this limping analogy, however, that Alfonsine studies flourish and deservedly so. Have we, then, drawn closer to a truer picture of this Learned Maecenas? The answer is: most assuredly. But just as miniature depictions of Alfonso vary over the centuries and according to the artist, so too the studies or intellectual depictions of Alfonso reflect the times and the ability of the researcher. Just as Alfonso's essence must rest somewhere within these depictions, so too does the artist's in his sketch and the researcher's in his gloss.