The Project aims to study, edit and make known the final section of Crónica Geral de Espanha de 1344, a Portuguese historiographical text by Count Pedro de Barcelos, son of king Dinis. This chronicle was critically edited and published by L. F. L. Cintra (1954-1990) and Diego Catalán (1970); nevertheless, its final section was not included in either edition. The textual transmission of Crónica de 1344 (reformulated around 1400, abbreviated and continued shortly before 1460, and twice translated into Castilian) was bilingual and lacunar. These circumstances affected negatively the text’s dissemination.

No Portuguese testimony of the 1st redaction has survived, and the two extant Castilian ones (manuscripts M and E) are lacunar, so that the text is lost from the reign of Alfonso VII on. As for the 2nd redaction, none of the Portuguese manuscripts L and P (15th c.) represents its text adequately after the death of Fernando III: L features chapters of the Crónica de Alfonso X; P further continues the history of the kings of Castile and León with a text of its own. Castilian manuscripts U, Q, S and N, deriving from a highest point of textual transmission, are the only that preserve the integrity of Crónica de 1344 final section. In those manuscripts, the Castilian dynasty is taken through the reigns of Alfonso X, Sancho IV, Fernando IV and Alfonso XI until the battle of Salado (1340).

Lindley Cintra’s critical edition targeted the Portuguese text of the 2nd redaction, based on manuscript L and corrected with P, U, Q and M. After the reign of Fernando III, the editor's choice was to terminate his edition of Crónica de 1344 and present as an annex the defective final sections of manuscripts L and P. Therefore, the authorized account of the history of the kings of Castile and León from Alfonso X to Alphonso XI according to the 2nd redaction of Crónica de 1344 remains inedited.

Except for a few philologists, this is a source unknown to the scientific community.  It is, however, an important piece in the complex interweaving of Portuguese and Castilian medieval historiographical texts that stands out by its historical and cultural significance and has in recent years drawn the attention of international scholars. It stands out by its historical and cultural significance. The chronicle was written during the troublesome decade of 1340 by the most preeminent Portuguese nobleman, with notorious connections with mighty Castilian aristocratic sectors. Since it focused on the recent past, from Alfonso X to Alfonso XI, contemporary with the author, it provides a privileged vision of the relations among peninsular kingdoms and between aristocracy and monarchy at a complex turning point of Iberian History that made obsolete a whole set of medieval values and from which modern states emerged. It is expected that it will elucidate aspects of the sought for social balance and of the assayed political trends and strategies. Its link with the battle of Salado – a key element in Count of Barcelos writing and a decisive event for the conceptualization and pragmatics of the interaction with the Moorish world – is of relevance to the area of intercultural studies.

The textual and cultural issues arisen by this text demand expertise in several technical and scientific domains that encompass comparative, philological and hermeneutical methodologies, essential for the study and edition of historiographical medieval texts, as well as a thorough knowledge of 14th century Iberian historical and cultural context. The project endeavoured to gather a team of philologists who are proven experts on medieval Iberian historiography. The Project’s most visible achievements will be the publication, on-line and on paper, of the critical edition of this inedited text that is a part of Portuguese and Iberian cultural heritage, and also of a monographic volume of studies. This will bring innovative perspectives to the study of intertextuality between the cultural milieus of Portugal and Castile-León, and will contribute to further enlarge the knowledge of historiography and its context of production in Medieval Iberia. The dissemination of the results progressively achieved by the team will be accomplished through the participation of team members in international scientific meetings and the publication of the corresponding papers, as well as by posting of transcriptions of the relevant manuscripts and sharing of work in progress in this website.