Food, political elites and cultural invective in the poetry of the Cancioneros

The Cancioneros poetry were one of the most emblematic features of courtly life in Castile. In this chapter, the focus will lie in two of their most well-known examples, the Cancionero de Baena and the poems of Antón de Montoro, and the connotative use made of food. As it will be observed, the function of food varies from complaints or specific requests for food or advice on a diet, to the use of sexual double meanings and political-social criticism. In this sense, the polysemic or symbolic charge of the poems served to denote their authors’ poetic mastery.