Cantar de Mio Cid - Authorship and Composition Date

Authorship and Composition Date

The whole work is anonymous. There was a theory to which few subscribe that it was composed by two people. That theory is no longer supported.

The linguistic analysis allows the reconstruction of a 12th century previous text, which Ramón Menéndez Pidal dated circa 1140. Date and authorship are still open to debate ).Certain aspects of the conserved text belong to a well-informed author, with precise knowledge of the law in effect by the end of the 12th century and beginning of the 13th, who knew the zone bordering with Burgos.

The language used is that of a cultured author, a lawyer who worked for some chancellery or at least as a notary of some nobleman or monastery, since he knows accurately the legal and administrative language with technical precision, and he dominates several registers, among them, the proper style of the medieval cantares de gesta.

Only one copy is conserved from Cantar de Mio Cid that was made in the 14th century (deduced from the date of the manuscript), from another copy that was made by a copyist named Per Abbat. The copy made by Per Abbat is dated 1207 «MCC XLV» (for the Hispanic period, that is in the actual date system, from which must be subtracted 38 years). In the medieval forms, the copyist would sign and date at the end of the document after finishing writing the document.