Medieval Spain

Tra messianismo e convivencia: gli ebrei e la costruzione di al-Andalus

by Aimone Grossato

From the hard treatment under the visigothic kings of Spain to the great cultural experience during the islamic... more From the hard treatment under the visigothic kings of Spain to the great cultural experience during the islamic domination of the Iberian peninsula, this thesis attempts to resume the role of the jews of Spain and Northern Africa in the conquest and construction of al-Andalus.

Alfonso V de Portugal y las demandas por crédito publico a finales de la Edad Media

by Rodrigo Dominguez

"Mujeres, hermanas e hijas: el mecenazgo femenino en la familia de Alfonso VI," Anales de Historia del Arte 147, Volumen Extraordinario 2 (2011), pp. 147-179.

by Therese Martin

« Vers l’exclusion des juifs ? », Structures et dynamiques religieuses dans les sociétés de l’Occident latin, 1179-1434, sous la direction de Marie-Madeleine de CEVINS et Jean-Michel MATZ, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2011, p. 519-536.

by Claude Denjean

« Citoyenneté et fait minoritaire dans la ville. Étude comparée des juifs de Marseille, de Catalogne et des Baléares au bas Moyen Âge », Revue d’Histoire urbaine, 32, décembre 2011, p. 73-100.

by Claude Denjean

en collaboration avec Juliette SIBON

Citoyenneté et fait minoritaire dans la ville médiévale.
Étude comparée des juifs de Marseille, de Catalogne et... more Citoyenneté et fait minoritaire dans la ville médiévale.
Étude comparée des juifs de Marseille, de Catalogne et de Majorque au bas Moyen Âge

L’examen du statut juridique des juifs en théorie et en pratique à l’échelle de la ville au bas Moyen Âge révèle combien la citoyenneté et l’urbanité sont des valeurs partagées avec la société majoritaire. Qu’ils soient explicitement dits civis ou non, les juifs manifestent les qualités du citoyen et participent activement à la vie de la cité. Finalement, la comparaison entre les deux aires considérées exhume des convergences inattendues. Plus généralement, l’analyse invite aussi à s’interroger sur ce que signifie être citoyen dans la ville médiévale.

Citizenship and Minority Status in the Medieval Town.
Compared Study of the Jews of Marseilles, Catalonia and Majorca in the late Middle Ages

In the Late Middle Ages, the citizenship was a value both shared by the Jews and the Christians. Even when the Jews had not citizen’s official status, they participated in the political life of their town. They shared the same feeling of membership in the city as the Christians. Finally, the comparison between Marseilles, Catalonia and Majorca reveals unexpected convergences. More generally, the analysis also invites to understand what was to be citizen, Christian or Jewish, in the medieval town.

Orderic Vitalis: New perspectives on the historian and his world (Call for papers)

by Daniel Roach

9-11 April 2013, St John’s College, University of Durham

Call for papers
Orderic Vitalis:
New Perspectives on the Historian and His World

(9-11 April... more Call for papers
Orderic Vitalis:
New Perspectives on the Historian and His World

(9-11 April 2013, St John’s College, University of Durham)

The organising committee of the Durham University Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies conference 'Orderic Vitalis: New Perspectives on the historian and his world' invite abstracts from prospective speakers. This event, funded by the Durham University IMRS, will provide a forum for the dissemination of new research into the life and works of the monastic scholar, Orderic Vitalis. With plans already in place to publish a 'companion' volume on Orderic, this conference will aim to re-invigorate existing work and open new lines of research around a figure whose legacy has proven vital to scholars of the Anglo-Norman world.

While the conference welcomes papers on a wide scope of topics, we particularly invite abstracts for papers relating to the following areas:

•The manuscript history of Orderic's Historia ecclesiastica.

•Orderic's scholarly and scribal career away from the Historia ecclesiastica.

•Orderic’s travels, administrative activities, and studies away from Saint-Évroul.

•Orderic’s world view and his networks of knowledge-exchange and transfer.

•The 'rediscovery' of the Historia ecclesiastica by early modern audiences, and Orderic's subsequent influence on the development of Anglo-Norman studies.

Prospective speakers are invited to submit abstracts of between 250-300 words, and should also include their contact details (name, affiliation, e-mail address). The deadline for submissions is 1 September 2012. Limited bursaries towards travel costs will be offered to postgraduate speakers. If you wish to apply for one of these, please indicate this when submitting an abstract.

For further information about Orderic Vitalis: New perspectives on the historian and his world or to submit an abstract, please email Charlie Rozier, at: c.c.rozier@durham.ac.uk or Dan Roach at: dr229@exeter.ac.uk, or visit:
www.dur.ac.uk/imrs/conferences/orderic_vitalis/

Bioarchaeological Investigations of health and demography in Medieval Asturias, Spain

by Nicholas Passalacqua

Dissertation

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of political and economic change on the health of people living... more The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of political and economic change on the health of people living in predominantly rural communities of Medieval Asturias, Spain from
~900-1800 AD. This project examines the remains of ~325 individuals recovered from 12 Medieval Christian church cemeteries located within the historically and politically defined
boundaries of Asturias, Spain.

Iberia has a rich written history beginning with the first Romans to enter the peninsula and describe the peoples they encountered (Collins 2000). This history became more detailed as time progressed with multiple histories of events being recorded in the Medieval Period by different parties (Linehan 1993). Unfortunately, as is common in Medieval histories, these documents concern only the key individuals involved in large political events. The average individual has no written history, nor is there an anecdotal summary of what peasant life was like in Medieval Asturias. Due to this dearth of information, this dissertation takes a historical bioarchaeology approach using what information is available from the historical narrative relating to Medieval Asturias, in order to approach issues of the economy, inferred gender, and familial status roles and their relationship to pathological markers found in the human skeletal
remains of this population.

Due to the often rushed nature of salvage archaeological methods, much contextual evidence was lost during excavation of many of these sites. Further the acidic mountainous soils of Asturias often result in poorly preserved skeletal material. Here these pitfalls will be addressed using two unique approaches: (1) this project will examine life histories of the general rural population of Medieval Asturias at the regional level. This will be achieved by aggregating all individuals from the available archaeological sites, and directing hypotheses at regularities at
the regional scale. (2) In order to tackle the issue of poor or differential preservation of human remains, this project will employ new maximum likelihood statistical procedures specifically
designed to handle missing data and generate probability statements. It should be noted that while the robust statistical approaches taken here will focus on region-level analyses, they could also be applied to large well documented sites in future investigations.

Results demonstrate that while historians (e.g. Kamen 1991; Lynch 1992; Ortiz 1971; Ruiz 2007) suggest rampant collapse and crisis throughout much of the later Medieval and Spanish Empire periods, the biology of the individuals from the same time shows no record of significant increases in stress or disease. Many other scholars (e.g. Bennett 2005; Miller 2003; Lopez et al. 2012) suggest the patriarchal nature of Medieval and Imperial Spain resulted in negative health outcomes for females in comparison to their male counterparts, but this is again not detected in the present examination of the skeletal biology. Finally, historians (e.g. Bango Toviso 1992) and mortuary anthropologists (e.g. Naji 2005; Ivison 1993; Effros 1997) alike argue that the practice of ad sanctos burial favored those high status individuals who were most regarded in the community, for prestigious burial locations within churches, but these results found no significant differences in terms of mortality (risk of dying at younger ages) or the development of physiological stress markers.

Identity and Interaction: the Suevi and the Hispano-Romans

by Jorge Arias

Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo, 2011, L’eccezione che conferma la regola? Incastellamento nella valle dell’Ebro nel X secolo: il castello di Treviño, Archeologia Medievale XXXVIII, 2011, pp. 113-136

by Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo

The paper analyzes the formation of the territorial powers in the north of Iberia trough the paradigm of the... more The paper analyzes the formation of the territorial powers in the north of Iberia trough the paradigm of the incastellamento. This paradigm, proposed in 1973 by P. Toubert, provided to the newly formed Medieval Archaeology of the south of Europe a powerful heuristic tools to analyze the spatial dimension of the social processes that characterize the affirmation of the feudal lordships. Whereas in Italy and France this proposal has been discussed in the light of archaeological evidence, in Spain the discussion has been made from the perspective of the Islamic archaeology or the written evidence in the case of the feudal societies.
In this paper it is analyzes the Spanish historiographical and theoretical approaches used in the study of incastellamento in Early Medieval Ages and the results of the Treviño archaeological project. This project shows an occupational sequence among the Xth-XIIIth century, very important to understand the formative processes of the territorial powers of an area located between the Navarre kingdom and the Castilian county. The studies of paleodiet and material culture provide a social characterization of the inhabitants of the castle and the related village. Finally, it is discuss the case of Treviño in the light of the upper Ebro valley context.

Bofordar en el siglo XIII castellano: entre el entrenamiento militar y el espectáculo caballeresco

by Óscar Perea Rodríguez

El mundo urbano en la Castilla del siglo XIII. Ed. Manuel González Jiménez. Sevilla, Fundación El Monte-Ayuntamiento de Ciudad Real, 2006. 2:247-55

Tal vez uno de los procesos más destacados de la historia de Europa en el siglo XIII sea la configuración de la... more Tal vez uno de los procesos más destacados de la historia de Europa en el siglo XIII sea la configuración de la primera época de esplendor de justas, torneos y todo tipo de espectáculos de riesgo. Aproximadamente entre los años 1170 y 1260, el Viejo Continente asistió a la explosión de estos encuentros, en los que brillaron con luz propia los nombres de algunos personajes que obtendrían imperecedera fama de grandes caballeros, como el Príncipe Negro, Guillermo el Mariscal y Ulrich von Liechtestein. En la Península Ibérica, y como ha indicado el profesor Jean Flori, los elementos caracterizadores de los grandes espectáculos medievales, principalmente las justas y los torneos, parece que son bastante desconocidos hasta muy avanzado el siglo XIV, si bien posteriormente, en la otoñal Edad Media, alcanzarían una gran difusión. Centrándonos en el reino de Castilla, hay que recordar que sería el siglo XV la centuria caballeresca, torneística y festiva por excelencia, con tamaña profusión de torneos y de acontecimientos como el Paso Honroso de Suero de Quiñones (1434), hasta el punto de que el propio Cervantes pondría en boca de Don Quijote de la Mancha, el émulo dorado de aquellos otros afamados aventureros medievales, un encendido elogio a todos los caballeros que participaron en la brillantez festiva de las cortes de Juan II (1406-1454) y de Enrique IV (1454-1474).

"Un modelo monárquico legislativo y jurídico para la Orden de Santiago. El maestre Lorenzo Suárez de Figueroa y los establecimientos de Uclés (1395) y Mérida (1403)" ........... English Title: "A Royal Legislative and Legal Model for the Order of Santiago. Master Lorenzo Suárez de Figueroa and the Statutes of Uclés (1395) and Mérida (1403)"

by Gonzalo Carrasco

Published in 'Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie III, Historia Medieval,' 24 (2011), pp. 13-68.

Lorenzo Suárez de Figueroa, Master of the Order of Santiago, launched a new model of statutes which combined two types... more Lorenzo Suárez de Figueroa, Master of the Order of Santiago, launched a new model of statutes which combined two types of provisions: Spiritual and temporal measures for the brethren, and laws and ordinances for his vassals. Their approval took place in the previously ill-known General Chapter of Uclés in 1395 and in the Mérida Chapter of 1403 and were essentially inspired by laws enacted in the Cortes of Juan I and Enrique III of Castile. This study shows how the Master, an advocate of the royal authoritarian cause, managed to include many characteristics of kingship in his own project of monarchical mastership in the Order. (The edition of the Mérida Statutes of 1403 is included in the appendix along with a reconstruction of those approved in Uclés in 1395).

Solomon, Michael R. (2009) "Spectacles of Erudition: Physicians and Vernacular Medical Writing in Early Modern Spain"

by Michael Solomon

Solomon, Michael R. (2009) "Spectacles of Erudition: Physicians and Vernacular Medical Writing in Early Modern Spain," Digital Proceedings of the Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age: Vol. 1: Iss. 1, Article 6.

This electronic presentation explores the curious typography in the sixteenth-century Brocar edition of Luis Lobera de... more This electronic presentation explores the curious typography in the sixteenth-century Brocar edition of Luis Lobera de Avila’s vernacular hygienic treatise The Garden of Health or Otherwise Called The Knights’ Banquette with a Regimen for Living in Times of Health as Well as in Times of Disease [Vergel de sanidad que por otro nombre se llamava Banquete de cavalleros, y orden de Bivir: ansi en tiempo de sanidad como de enfermedad] ( Alcalá de Henares 1542). Whereas sixteenth-century vernacular medical treatises written for laymen avoided the extensive use of Latin, which vernacular medical authors believed impeded the usefulness of their treatises, the Brocar edition surrounds the Spanish text with abundant commentary and gloss in Latin that often overwhelms the vernacular. I argue that the widespread presence of Latin in this layman-oriented treatise was designed as an indexical device that helped the reader image the physician. Rather than distract or discourage the patient, as many vernacular authors believed, the Latin commentary created a visual residue of the physician/author and an uncanny sense of his lingering presence. This textual presencing of the physician was designed to comfort and reassure non-professional readers, confirming for them that the medical information in the vernacular was grounded in the knowledge of a competent and learned medical professional.

Alonso, P., Díaz-Andreu, M., González, A. and Pérez, T. 1991. El Covacho de Las Pintas (Carrascosa de la Sierra, Cuenca). Un abrigo con grabados rupestres. Revista Cuenca 38: 4-20.

by Marga Díaz-Andreu

Estudio de unos grabados encontrados en la Serranía de Cuenca datados probablemente en época medieval y post-medieval... more Estudio de unos grabados encontrados en la Serranía de Cuenca datados probablemente en época medieval y post-medieval

Study of a rock art engraving site located in the Mountain range of Cuenca. They are dated in the Medieval and Post-Medieval period

BOOK REVIEW: Fernando de la Torre. Libro de las veynte cartas e quistiones y otros versos y prosas. Ed. María Jesús Díez Garretas. Segovia: Junta de Castilla y León – Fundación Instituto Castellano y Leonés de la Lengua, 2009

by Óscar Perea Rodríguez

eHumanista. Journal of Iberian Studies 20 (2012): 661-65

De entre la plétora de poetas cuatrocentistas que permanecieron en el ostracismo académico al que fue condenada la... more De entre la plétora de poetas cuatrocentistas que permanecieron en el ostracismo académico al que fue condenada la poesía de cancionero durante buena parte de la pasada centuria, el del burgalés Fernando de la Torre representa un caso verdaderamente insólito. La indudable valía y calidad literaria de sus escritos, a la altura de los mejores trovadores de su época, hace realmente incomprensible que, salvo la vetusta edición de su cancionero individual (uno de los escasos conservados en el Medievo hispánico), efectuada por Antonio Paz y Melia en 1907, hubiera que esperar al último cuarto del siglo XX para que, en primer lugar, Nicasio Salvador Miguel anduviese presto a rescatarlo de ese “sueño de una noche de verano” que era entonces el conocimiento global de la lírica cancioneril. En segundo lugar, pocos años más tarde, María Jesús Díez Garretas acometió la primera edición de la obra de Fernando de la Torre con los necesarios y modernos criterios de rigurosidad científica que exige la filología

" 'Anse Maravillado que muger haga tractados': Defensa y concepción de la escritura en Teresa de Cartagena (Siglo XV)"

by Rocío Quispe-Agnoli

En: "Actas de la Asociación Hispánica de Literatura Medieval." Alcalá de Henaress: Universidad de Alcalá, 1997. Vol. 2, p. 1227-1239

"Teaching, Learning, Reading, and Writing: Educational Tool from Women for Women in Fifteenth-Century Spain

by Rocío Quispe-Agnoli

In "Magistra. A Journal of Women's Spirituality in History. Volume 7, Number 1 (Summer 2001): 31-51

Rex strenuus valde litteratus. Strength and Wisdom as royal virtues in Medieval Spain

by Manuel Alejandro Rodríguez de la Peña

Published in "Princely virtues in the Middle Ages (1200-1500)", ed. Cary Nederman/stván Bejczy (Turnhout, 2007), pp. 33-51

Rodrigo Díaz el Campeador y el Cid mítico

by Domingo Escarlati

Biografía del Rodrigo Díaz histórico escrita a la luz de las últimas investigaciones

Serafín Moralejo: La Poética del Humanismo

by Francisco Prado-Vilar

"Serafín Moralejo: La Poética del Humanismo," Anales de Historia del Arte, Volumen Extraordinario 2 (2011): 7-10

Enclosed in Ivory: The Miseducation of al-Mughira

by Francisco Prado-Vilar

"Enclosed in Ivory: The Miseducation of al-Mughira,” Journal of the David Collection 2.1 (2005): 138-63.

In response to the publication of SOPHIE MAKARIOU's rambling criticism of "Enclosed in Ivory" in her... more In response to the publication of SOPHIE MAKARIOU's rambling criticism of "Enclosed in Ivory" in her lackluster and derivative "The al-Mughira Pyxis and Spanish Umayyad Ivories: Aims and Tools of Power," in Umayyad Legacies: Medieval Memories from Syria to Spain, ed. A. Borrut and P. Cobb (Leiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 313-35, here I invite more intelligent readers to peruse "Enclosed in Ivory" again in its manifold dimensions of analysis, waging its historical, iconographic, and literary arguments, as well as its wider methodological implications. Curiously enough, this article, conceived an "ekphrasis" that mimics the structure and rhetoric of the object it describes, anticipates, as does the al-Mughira pyxis with its target audience, Makariou’s ethically and hermeneutically challenged response, beginning with the opening quote all the way through its various layers of moral commentary.
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