Dictionary.net

A Spanish poet; born in Berceo about 1196; died at the monastery of San Millan de la Cogolla, about 1270; was parish priest of Berceo; and one of the first rhymesters to write in Castilian. He wrote in rhymed quatrains and we have more than 13,000 of his verses on the lives of obscure Castilian Saints, on the Mass, the Dolors of the Virgin Mary, the Judgment Day, etc. His style is rude and inelegant, but the poet writes out of a full simple heart, and he tells a story well. He arrays with wonderful effectiveness the stage properties of the Last Judgment; and his contemplation of Mary at the Cross strikes the chord of human sympathy.