Little is known about the author of the Poem of the Cid. Although the closing lines of the original manuscript claim that Per Abbat (Pedro Abad) wrote the poem, scholarly opinion is divided on whether he was its author, as “individualists” contend, or merely its copyist, as “traditionalists” maintain. Evidence suggests that whoever composed the Poem of the Cid was learned, familiar with legal documents and procedures, and probably conversant with French epic poetry. Some have suggested that the author was a monk, while another noted scholar has identified a Castilian lawyer as the most likely candidate for authorship. There has likewise been controversy about the origins and dating of the Poem of the Cid. The traditionalists place the poem’s composition as early as 1140—just over 40 years after the death of the Cid—and argue that the transcribed poem was the...