ALTHOUGH the Escorial manuscript h. I. 13 (Libro de los huéspedes), copied between the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, has received increased critical attention in recent years, much remains to be done, both in general, with respect to the whole codex, and in particular, regarding each of the nine works that it contains. Several issues may now be considered settled: there are, for instance, excellent descriptions of the manuscript and on several questions a general consensus is emerging. For example, the codex is usually seen now as a coherent anthology and not as a miscellany of disparate materials. According to Spaccarelli, its purpose and composition are the most significant elements of this unity. The main purpose of h. I. 13 was “to provide edification, encouragement, and entertainment to groups of pilgrims on their way to the sanctuary of St. James in Compostela,” and its “structural framework” is composed of several elements that contribute to the unity of the work as a whole (Spaccarelli, A Medieval Pilgrim 16, 23). The contexts of both its production and reception seem quite clear now, though there is still room for disagreement.

The bibliography is growing and the codex is attracting increasingly more interest, but many aspects of the manuscript and its content have yet to be studied. The unity of h. I. 13 and the circumstances of its production and diffusion are critical matters that appear to be more or less settled, but there need to be more studies focusing on the contents of the collection as a whole, on the one hand, and on each of its separate works, on the other. Some of the individual texts, to be sure, have been the subject of several studies, but less attention has been paid to the last text of the compilation, the story of Charlemagne [Carlos Maynes] or Noble cuento del enperador Carlos Maynes de Roma e de la buena enperatris Seuilla, su mugier, to be referred to subsequently as Carlos Maynes.

In order to better understand the discussion in this essay of Carlos Maynes, I offer here a brief summary of its plot, according to Spaccarelli: