Cancioneiro

a collection of love poems and satirical poems of Spain and Portugal. Compiled in the 12th to 14th centuries in the Portuguese Galician dialect.

The oldest preserved cancioneiros are Cancioneiro da Ajuda; Cancioneiro da Vaticana (late 13th century); and the most complete compilation, Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional (or da Colocci Brancuti), 16th-century copies of 14th-century originals. The collections brought together approximately 200 poets, whose verses paradoxically combine the traditions of Portuguese folk poetry with the influence of Provengal chivalrous lyric poetry.

Cancioneiros of poets writing in Spanish were first compiled in the 15th century: El cancionero de Baena (published 1851), compiled by Juan Alfonso Baena circa 1445; Cancionero de Stúñiga, published 1872; and Cancionero general, 1511, collected by Hernando del Castillo. In 1516 the Portuguese poet and humanist Garcia de Resende published an anthology of lyric and satiric works from the mid-15th century to the early 16th century in Portuguese and Spanish called Cancioneiro Geral.