Martín Codax

Who is Martín Codax?

Martín Codax or Martim Codax was a Galician medieval joglar, possibly from Vigo, Galicia in present day Spain. He may have been active during the middle of the thirteenth century, judging from scriptological analysis. He is one of only two out of a total of 88 authors of cantigas d'amigo who uses only the archaic strophic form aaB. And he also employs an archaic rhyme-system whereby i~o / a~o are used in alternating strophes. In addition Martin Codax consistently deploys a strict parallelistic technique known as leixa-pren. His dates, however, remain unknown and there is no documentary biographical information concerning the poet.