The debate of charity in Auto de los Reyes Magos and Libro de los tres reyes de Oriente

Particularly in the 12th and 13th centuries, devotion to the Three Kings assumes traits of a more sensitive piety. This goes to determine the basic components of the legend as we know it today. The Hispanic literary manifestation of the legend of the Magi in this time is concentrated only in two testimonies: Auto de los Reyes Magos and Libro de los tres reyes de Oriente. Comparative analysis makes it possible to distinguish the debate as the unifying structural tool from the theme of the search for truth and the practice of charity in both works. The concurrence of scenic, iconographic and specifically literary elements in the representation of Adoration, in addition to enriching manuscript contexts, propitiates the development of this theme associated with the preeminent affective devotion in the period.