Historia silense

Since Rainerius reigned as Paschal II from 1099 to January 1118 and there is no mention of his death, modern scholars have largely accepted that he was still alive at the time of composition.

A date in the first third of the twelfth century also accords well with certain copyist's errors apparent in the surviving manuscripts that probably indicate that the original was set down in Visigothic script.

[3] The author of the Historia identifies himself as a monk of the domus seminis ("house of the seed"), long identified with Benedictine monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos in Castile, based on a marginal note in the Fresdelval manuscript that read "Santo Domingo de Silos".

The term domus seminis may derive from a misunderstanding of the abbreviation dms scis, which could have stood for Domnis Sanctis ("at the lord saints'").

He suggested that it was a mistaken expansion of sci ihnis, in fact an abbreviation of sancti Iohannis, that is, Saint John's.

Though it suffered several raids from Almanzor, it was restored by Alfonso V (999–1028) and patronised heavily by his daughter Sancha and her husband, Ferdinand I.

The house was thereafter known as San Isidoro de León (though the use of "Saints John and Isidore" for the male community is found in a diploma of Alfonso VI of 1099).

[8] The surviving Historia is a preamble or introduction intended to provide the historical background to the (probably) unfinished Gesta Adefonsi.

The first block (chapters 14–38) is drawn from the Chronicle of Alfonso III, specifically the earlier 'Rotense version' found in the late-10th-century Códice de Roda.

The thirtieth and final chapter of Sampiro does show signs of editing (for which its English translators, Simon Barton and Richard A. Fletcher, numbered it 30*).

Genealogically the Leonese kings are of the stirps regalis Gotorum (royal stock of the Goths), an anachronism since the Gothic monarchy was elective.

These soldiers, the allies of Alfonso's French queen, Constance of Burgundy, were paid handsomely in gold but left Spain having accomplished little against its newest Muslim invaders, the Almoravids.

[14] Queen Urraca's son and heir, Alfonso VII (born 1105), was of the right age for receiving such instruction, but he spent his early years in Galicia, far from San Isidoro and the centre of the kingdom.

Urraca's eldest daughter, Sancha Raimúndez (1095–1159), is a more likely candidate, as she was probably raised in León and was a lifelong patron of San Isidoro, where she received burial.

"[15] This interpretation rests largely on a passage from the seventh chapter, which has been rendered in different ways: Ubi diversis sententiis sanctorum patrum catholicorum regum, sacris idicentibus libris, mecum ipse diu spatiando revolvens.

Wreglesworth interprets this passage as a reference to the "holy Catholic father" Isidore's commentary on the reign of Solomon.

He sees parallels between Solomon (condemned for engaging foreign wives) and Alfonso (whose longest marriage was to the Frenchwoman, the aforementioned Constance, and who also had a relationship with a Muslim, Zaida of Seville).

Annunciation of the Shepherds fresco of the 12th century in Pantheon of the Kings at Basilica of San Isidoro, León , where the Historia legionense may have been written.
The Panteón de los Reyes at San Isidoro, where Ferdinand I and Alfonso VI were buried, and where the Historia silense may have been written.
The Four Horsemen in a manuscript of Beatus of Osma 's Commentary on the Apocalypse made in 1086, the same year as the battle of Sagrajas and probably depicting contemporary Spanish knights.