The Castigos de Caton, written in cuaderna via verse sometime in the thirteenth century, forms part of a long tradition of translations of the popular medieval Latin poem, Disticha Catonis. A collection of pragmatic moral precepts erroneously attributed to Cato, they served not only as a beginning Latin reader, but also as a textbook on ethical behavior in medieval grammar schools throughout Europe. Although a free rendering of its Latin source, the Castigos remain true in spirit to the original. Didactic in nature, they also strive to educate youth in the ways of human nature, giving instructions on how to live successfully and prosper in the world. The Castigos are a creation of the clerecia school of didactic verse. Using the four line stanza rather than the couplet, the Spanish poet often employs the lines to develop an idea in slightly more detail than his Latin source. Of course, the clerecia work also reflects a more Christian perspective on life, stressing the belief that man's efforts alone will not lead him to success, that he is still very much in need of God's assistance and protection.
The Introduction to the dissertation focuses on the Latin text and its far-reaching effect on European education. Its popularity was such that it not only enjoyed major success in Latin in the late Middle Ages, but was translated at an early date into the principal vernaculars and widely circulated throughout Europe. Chapter I is a description of the norms used in preparing the critical edition of the Castigos. Preserved in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century pliegos sueltos, the text has been severely altered in the process of transmission. In an attempt to restore the work to something closer to its original form and working from the supposition that the author intended to write regular alejandrino verse, I have emended the text, taking print variants into account, and employing such metrical options as apocope, contraction, apheresis, syneresis, syncope and dieresis, as well as analogous constructions documented in other cuaderna via works. Chapter II is my proposed reconstruction of the text. Accents and capitalization follow modern practice, and all abbreviations have been resolved. Emendations are identified in the footnotes. Chapter III is a comparison of the Spanish text to its Latin source. The Spanish work, a successful rendering of the original, was highly regarded, as is attested in the many allusions to it in Spanish literature, in its extensive use as a school text and finally, in its longivity. A paleographic transcription of the Castigos, with all print variants indicated in the footnotes, is provided in an Appendix.