Calle de Alfonso X

Behind this short street in Almagro stands Alfonso X of Castile (Toledo, 1221 – Seville, 1284). He is known as the Wise for what he had written down, not for what he conquered. His drive changed the way knowledge was set down in writing. Around his scriptorium he gathered Christians, Jews, and Muslims who rendered into Castilian scientific and philosophical works preserved in Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin. Until then serious learning was written in Latin; Alfonso ordered it done in the vernacular, and the common tongue came to serve astronomy, law, and history as well. He wrote the Cantigas de Santa María himself, more than four hundred Marian compositions. He died in Seville at odds with his own son, with much of the kingdom in revolt against him.