In the early twentieth century, Zacarías García Villada discovered the Nodicia de kesos on the backside of a tenth-century parchment recording a gift to the monastery of San Justo y Pastor, which was located in either Chozas de Abajo

Chozas de Abajo

Chozas de Abajo is a municipality located in the province of León, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2010 census , the municipality has a population of 2,424 inhabitants....

 or Ardón del Esla in the Kingdom of León

Kingdom of León

The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...

. It is a list of the cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

s used up by the monastery in various activities, either as food or as payment. Its orthography is reflective of early Iberian Romance pronunciation and diverges sharply from classical Latin

Classical Latin

Classical Latin in simplest terms is the socio-linguistic register of the Latin language regarded by the enfranchised and empowered populations of the late Roman republic and the Roman empire as good Latin. Most writers during this time made use of it...

. It is of interest as being perhaps the first surviving text in the Leonese dialect

Leonese language

The Leonese language is the endonym term used to refer to all vernacular Romance dialects of the Astur-Leonese linguistic group in the Spanish provinces of León and Zamora; Astur-Leonese also includes the dialects...

, but more probably it represents an Iberian Romance predating any useful distinction between Leonese and Castilian. The conventional title of the list comes from its first three words (incipit

Incipit

Incipit is a Latin word meaning "it begins". The incipit of a text, such as a poem, song, or book, is the first few words of its opening line. In music, it can also refer to the opening notes of a composition. Before the development of titles, texts were often referred to by their incipits...

) and means "list of cheeses", similar to modern Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 noticia / lista / relación de (los) quesos.

The document was made in 959 or 974 and shows the evolution of Latin to a Romance language by the Leonese words mixed with the Latin ones. It talks about some cheeses and a monastery. The document is currently in the Cathedral of León, known as Manuscript 852.

Text

1st column
Nodicia de /kesos que /espisit frater /Semeno: jn labore /de fratres jn ilo ba- /celare /de cirka Sancte Ius- /te, kesos U; jn ilo /alio de apate, /II kesos; en [que] /puseron ogano, /kesos IIII; jn ilo /de Kastrelo, I; /jn ila vinia majore, /II

List of /cheeses that spent friar /Semeno: in the work/ of the friars in the vi /neyard /near Saint Just,/ 5 cheeses; in the /other of the abbot, /2 cheeses; in [the one that]/ they put this year, / 4 cheeses; in the one /of Castrillo, 1; /in the main vineyard, 2

2nd column
/que lebaron en fosado, /II, ad ila tore; /que baron a Cegia, /II, quando la talia- /ron ila mesa; II que /lebaron Lejione; II /..s...en /u...re... /...que... /...c... /...e...u /...alio (?) /... /g... Uane Ece; alio ke le /ba de sopbrino de Gomi /de do...a...; IIII que espi- /seron quando llo rege /uenit ad Rocola; /I qua salbatore ibi /uenit

/that they took as war tribute, /2, to the tower; that they took to Cea

Cea

-People:* Eusebio Rodolfo Cordón Cea , Salvadoran politician* José Pedro Cea , Uruguayan footballer* José Roberto Cea , Salvadoran novelist and poet-Places:* Cea River, Spain...

, /2, when they car- /ved the table; 2 that /they took to León

Kingdom of León

The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...

; 2/..s...en /u...re... /...que... /...c... /...e...u /...other (?) /... /g... Uane Ece /another that to /ok Gomi's nephew /de do...a...; 4 that they spe- /nt when the king

Ramiro II of León

Ramiro II , son of Ordoño II, was King of León from 931 until his death. Initially titular king only of a lesser part of Asturias, he gained the crown of León after his brother Alfonso IV abdicated in 931...

 /came to Rozuela; /1 when Salvador /came there.