Datation of the Lybro of magyka (Ms. 5-2-32, Colombina Library, Sevilla)

Abstract

The objective of this work is to identify the approximate date of the production of the text of the manuscript Lybro de magyka, the third part of a work on astrology, in Spanish, purchased by Hernando Colón in 1527, which is preserved today in the Biblioteca Colombina, Seville, Spain, under the registration Ms. 5-2-32. Our hypothesis is that the text was written between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, and is a copy of a Catalan translation. Therefore, the theoretical basis is constituted by works of internal and external history of the Spanish language that bring representative characteristics of the medieval Spanish. The characteristics below allow to elaborate criteria for the analysis that would verify or not the initial hypothesis: 1) the formation of adverbs with the suffix -mientre ; 2) the masculine ones made in -a that adopt feminine concordance; 3) the change of the copulative et to y; The results show that the language of the manuscript probably dates from the fifteenth century, which is in accordance with the hypotheses of authorship proposed by the works on the Lybro de Magyka so far. Thus, the present study contributes to the reconstruction of the history of the codex and to the studies about the Spanish language.