now been discredited. His purpose in writing he declares in the seventh chapter to describe "the deeds of the lord Alfonso, the orthodox emperor of Spain", that is, Alfonso VI. He also testifies to the "wisdom and goodness" of Urraca of Zamora, Alfonso's sister and ally, "more by experience than by report". Urraca was a noted patron of San Isidoro, where she was buried and where her donation of the Chalice of Doña Urraca survives to this day. Besides the Christian Bible, the author quotes liberally from Ovid, Virgil, and Gregory the Great, but his favourt authors are Sallust (the Bellum Catilinae and Bellum Iugurthinum) and Einhard (the Vita Karoli magni). Contents and structure The surviving Historia is a preamble or introduction intended to provide the historical background to the (probably) unfinished Gesta Adefonsi. Pérez de Urbel divided it into chapters for his 1959 edition. The first six chapters describe the Visigothic kingdom and introduces the themes that will be developed in the rest of the work. The seventh chapter is a description of the author's purpose in writing, and it contains the most important clues to his identity. Chapters eight through thirteen narrate the opening of Alfonso VI's reign and his conflict with his brothers, Sancho II of Castile and García II of Galicia. The author mentions the death and burial of García in 1090 and then announces that he will "unravel the kingdom's origin" in the next chapters. The text comes (mostly) in blocks of edited text taken from older historical works. The first block (chapters 14–38) is drawn from the Chronicle of Alfonso III, specifically the earlier 'Rotense version' found in the late-10th-century Códice de Roda. It covers the period from the reign of Wittiza (694–710) to that of Ordoño I (850–866). The second (chapters 39–47) narrates the reigns of Alfonso III, García I, and Ordoño II from 866 to 924. It ends in mid-sentence and may have been the original work of the "monk of Silos". The third is taken from Sampiro and corresponds with the first thirty chapters of his work (as numbered by Pérez de Urbel in his 1952 edition and not re-numbered by him in 1959). These chapters cover the years from 866 to the death of Alfonso V (1028), but differ from the preceding chapters with respect to the years up to 924. Sampiro's text, as incorporated into the Historia, shows little