Spanish secular music in the vernacular grew directly out of the tradition of French troubadours from Provence and other parts of southern France. They infiltrated Italy and the Iberian peninsula, bringing with them the culture of courtly love. The earliest examples of Spanish monophonic song can be found in the seven Cantigas de Amigo by Martin Codax. Codax hailed from the Spanish town of Vigo in Galicia, close to Portugal, and may have had connections with the court of Don Dinis of Portugal. Known only in two manuscripts containing only the texts, the music was discovered early in the twentieth century by a Madrid bookseller. All three settings present the songs in the same order, suggesting that although there is no narrative, they were intended as a cycle devoted to a single subject: love. All are sung by a girl waiting on the seashore near Vigo for the return of her lover. Although much simpler in structure than troubadour songs, these tiny gems are filled with a melancholic longing that make them, in the words of one of their interpreters, "among the most passionate and moving pieces we have ever performed" (Philip Pickett).

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