Cancioneiro da Ajuda

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Musicians in a miniature of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda. The colouring of the figures was left incomplete.
Musicians in a miniature of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda. The colouring of the figures was left incomplete.
Ajuda National Palace, in Lisbon, where the manuscript is kept.
Ajuda National Palace, in Lisbon, where the manuscript is kept.

The Cancioneiro de Ajuda (Ajuda Songbook) is a collection of poems written in the Galician-Portuguese language and dating from the end of the 13th century. It is the oldest of the Galician-Portuguese cancioneiros with secular music.

The Cancioneiro is kept in the library of the Ajuda National Palace, a former royal residence located in Lisbon. It consists of a parchment codex written in Gothic letter by one hand and containing illuminated miniatures. Both the text and the miniatures remained unfinished. The whole codex contains 310 poems, all of them cantigas de amor (love songs). The musical notation for the songs are also missing.

The first modern editions were done in 1824 and 1849, but the first definitive edition was done by scholar Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos in 1904.

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