In this paper, I try to raise some questions concerning the method to adopt in order to implement a study of linguistical, social and cultural phenomena with regards to the intellectual life by using the characteristical means of historical semantics (and of other domains). Thus, I hope to open up a variety of rich possibilities and interpretations, especially when applied to literal texts of the Spanish 13th century. I intent to coherently define a period of time, a geographical zone, a text corpus and to examine a selection of the issues encountered and their occurences.