Early modern Spain

El V marqués de Laconi tuvo una vida llena de vaivenes: un segundón conflictivo que protagonizó varios enfrentamientos contra el poder real a lo largo de las décadas centrales del siglo XVII. Por azares del destino llegó a heredar el título familiar de forma inesperada y que se convertiría, gracias a las redes clientelares y los lazos familiares, en la voz de los intereses sardos en la corte de Madrid durante la regencia de Mariana de Austria. Tras su regreso al reino de Cerdeña, en 1668, el marqués de Laconi fue asesinado dentro del contexto de las tensiones parlamentarias del reino mediterráneo. Sus provocadoras exequias fueron instrumentalizadas por sus partidarios para acercar a su facción a otros miembros de la nobleza regnícola y atraer a su causa, al mismo tiempo, al pueblo llano, convirtiéndolo prácticamente en mártir del reino. El análisis de la carrera política de Laconi puede ayudarnos a entender los motivos por los que este noble es, aún en el siglo XXI, símbolo de una corriente de pensamiento independentista en Cerdeña.

Presented at "Re-Vision: Myth, Memory, and the Gendered Self," 8th Annual Academic Conference, UC Riverside, Department of the History of Art Graduate Student Association

Abstract of paper: On the afternoon of December 24, 1972 the art collective Asco staged an impromptu procession titled Walking Mural on Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles. Patssi Valdez (b.1951), a member of the four-person group, appeared as the Virgin of Guadalupe. Valdez draped herself in black chiffon and fashioned a mandorla of silver foil, completing the look with platform shoes and glam rock makeup. In her book, Chicana Art, scholar Laura Perez cites Valdez as a progenitor of a proliferation of Guadalupe images by contemporary Chicanx artists.
Perez ties this phenomenon to Amalia Mesa Bains’ theory of domesticana, which sublimates past forces of Latina subjectivity in service of Chicana feminism of the early 1980s. However, the specifics of authorship and critique in Valdez’s Guadalupe have yet to be analyzed. In my paper I connect the mythic origins of the icon, described as the handiwork of the Virgin herself, and Valdez’s contemporary creation.
My project begins by tracing the evolution of the Guadalupe icon from late twelfth century Spanish Catholicism to a twentieth century symbol of Mexican and Chicanx identity. I then analyze the formal elements of Valdez’s Guadalupe in Walking Mural using photographs of Asco’s performance. I consider these two images using Janette Peterson’s “Reproducibility of the Sacred,” to reveal how the ubiquity of the icon increases its cultural value. I also situate Valdez’s methods of appropriation and critique through camp, a tactic of disidentification associated with queer culture. I argue that camping Guadalupe serves Asco’s broader strategy to challenge the heteronormative gender roles in the Chicano civil rights movement. This method, I show, resonates with domenstiana emerging nearly a decade later. Throughout I demonstrate how the narrative of the icon becomes a source of contemporary female agency through Valdez’s self-styling and camping of tradition.

This dissertation aims to depict the daily life of early seventeenth-century common soldiers in as much detail as possible. It is based on intensive statistical study of common soldiers in Electoral Saxony during the Thirty Years War, through which I both analyze the demographics of soldiers’ backgrounds and discuss military wages in depth. Drawing on microhistory and anthropology, I also follow the career of a single regiment, headed by Wolfgang von Mansfeld (1575-1638), from mustering-in in 1625 to dissolution in 1627. This regiment was made up largely of people from Saxony but it fought in Italy on behalf of the King of Spain, demonstrating the global, transnational nature of early-modern warfare. My findings upend several assumptions about early seventeenth-century soldiers and war. Contrary to the Military Revolution thesis, soldiers do not appear to have become more disciplined during this period, nor was drill particularly important to their daily lives. Common soldiers also took an active role in military justice.

The Eighth Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies (June 15-17, 2020) is a convenient summer venue in North America for scholars to present papers, organize sessions, participate in roundtables, and engage in interdisciplinary discussion. The goal of the Symposium is to promote serious scholarly investigation into all topics and in all disciplines of medieval and early modern studies.

The plenary speakers for this year will be David Abulafia, of Cambridge University, and Barbara Rosenwein, of Loyola University, Chicago.

The Symposium is held annually on the beautiful midtown campus of Saint Louis University. On campus housing options include affordable, air-conditioned apartments as well as a luxurious boutique hotel. Inexpensive meal plans are also available, although there is a wealth of restaurants, bars, and cultural venues within easy walking distance of campus.

While attending the Symposium, participants are free to use the Vatican Film Library, the Rare Book and Manuscripts Collection, and the general collection at Saint Louis University's Pius XII Memorial Library.

The Eighth Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies invites proposals for papers, complete sessions, and roundtables. Any topics regarding the scholarly investigation of the medieval and early modern world are welcome. Papers are normally twenty minutes each and sessions are scheduled for ninety minutes. Scholarly organizations are especially encouraged to sponsor proposals for complete sessions.

The deadline for all submissions is December 31, 2019. Decisions will be made in January and the final program will be published in February.

For more information or to submit your proposal online go to: https://www.smrs-slu.org/

Los cerramientos, enclosures, en el campo inglés y sus efectos sobre los comunales han sido una práctica controvertida, por lo menos desde el siglo XVI. Discutida su importancia real, son sin embargo un elemento central en las diversas narrativas sobre la acumulación originaria, las revoluciones agrícola e industrial y, en suma, sobre el triunfo del capitalismo en Inglaterra, cuna de su éxito mundial. Este fenómeno ha estado en cambio prácticamente ausente de la historiografía peninsular, sin duda, por considerarlo inexistente o irrelevante en nuestro país. Aunque la política oficial de la Monarquía, al menos desde los Reyes Católicos, fuese favorable a los campos abiertos, la documentación que aquí analizamos desvela como las necesidades fiscales impulsan su apoyo al proceso cerrador que alcanza en algunos momentos una intensidad equiparable a la insular contemporánea.

Il presente incontro intende fare dialogare due progetti di ricerca vicini per le loro tematiche. Il primo, finanziato dalla Sapienza Università di Roma (Circolazione delle élites e percorsi internazionali: mobilità sociale e connessioni culturali fra Italia, Stati dell'Europa e del Mediterraneo, secoli XVI-XVIII), incrocia ad una scala transnazionale diversi percorsi di famiglie o di individui durante i secoli centrali dell'eta moderna. Che siano membri delle aristocrazie inserite in sistemi di clientela o in carriere militari, intellettuali, ecclesiastici o grandi mercanti, lo studio di questi percorsi porta a indagare sulla natura e le caratteristiche proprie della mobilità sociale e della circolazione territoriale delle élites e sulle opportunità di crescita offerte in particolar modo dai sistemi clientelari e dalle parentele. Il secondo progetto, coordinato dall'Ecole française de Rome (ELITESIT. Le élites italiane e le monarchie europee: circolazioni e reti di potere (XVIe-XVIIIe s.) intende seguire les élites italiane integrate nelle monarchie asburgiche alla scala dei gruppi sociali e sulla lunga durata (XVI-XVIII secolo) tramite la realizzazione di un database. L'ipotesi è che la capacità degli individui di allacciare legami con le principali corti europee e di godere delle risorse offerte da esse (uffici politici, militari, alleanze matrimoniali, titoli, pensioni) sia di grande importanza per capire la continuità della presenza di queste élites al vertice della società nei secoli dell'età moderna. Mobilità, circolazione e connessioni culturali delle élites fra Italia, Stati dell'Europa e del Mediterraneo (secoli XVI-XVIII) Époques moderne et contemporaine

Questo libro, che nasce dallo studio dei verbali del parlamento sardo presieduto dal viceré Michele di Moncada nel 1583 a Cagliari, consente di osservare da una distanza ravvicinata le lotte di potere, gli equilibri di forza, le urgenze sociali e le paure individuali che agitano la società sarda nella seconda metà del XVI secolo. Lo studio svela il profilo di un mondo segnato dall’emergere di nuovi protagonismi urbani; dalla stretta esercitata da un ceto feudale geloso dei suoi privilegi e determinato ad ampliarne la portata; dal dinamismo di élite rurali impegnate nel conseguimento di nuove e più mature libertà.
Il Parlamento Moncada è anche lo specchio di una società insulare aperta all’esterno e che dunque si trasforma per effetto della corsa barbaresca, del conflitto tra cristianità e mondo arabo-ottomano e delle pulsioni assolutistiche e riformatrici della Monarchia spagnola retta da Filippo II d’Asburgo.

Este seminario pretende repensar la Villa de Madrid y su condición de urbe internacional en el siglo XVII. Recogerá la amplia tradición de estudios cortesanos sobre Madrid, para recolocar esta ciu-dad dentro de algunos nuevos debates que se están produciendo, por ejemplo, desde la historia urbana. Trabajos como los de Doreen Massey sobre el es-pacio urbano o los de Saskia Sassen sobre las ciu-dades globales invitan a pensar la ciudad como un espacio vivo, resultado de interrelaciones comple-jas, donde coexistieron trayectorias heterogéneas. De manera especial, abordará la dimensión per-formativa y material de las principales embajadas en Madrid, abriendo una reflexión sobre la va-lidez del paradigma cross-cultural: ¿es oportu-no hablar de transferencias culturales y artísticas cuando abordamos espacios complejos, como los de urbes globales en el siglo XVII? ¿Cómo de-bemos afrontar las nociones de diplomacia global y diplomacia material al hablar de Madrid? Pretende también abrir un debate sobre la vali-dez del binomio agentes oficiales/intermediarios y sobre la oportunidad de incorporar nociones como la de familiaridad, que permitan entender mejor la integración de los agentes diplomáticos en las redes locales culturales y artísticas de Ma-drid. Se analizará el espacio urbano de Madrid, para entender cómo se regulaba el acceso de un embajador a los órganos de poder y al soberano.

Following a well-established tradition from the nineteenth century onwards, historians of the Spanish Monarchy have considered the 1640s as the major turning point in a long phase of an irremediable decline. The decisive decade would have then precipitated the dismantling of the Spanish Empire. Such a phenomenon was attributed to the failure of State centralization, in stark contrast to what happened in France. The provincial revolutions of Mexico, Catalonia, Portugal, Sicily and Naples has been interpreted as a peripheral resistance movement to the centralization promoted by the Count-Duke of Olivares. An opposite argument is now being made as it turns out that the crisis was actually caused by the inadequacies of the vice-regal system and an excessive decentralization. Far from being a reaction against a greater intrusion of Madrid in Mexico, Barcelona, Lisbon, Palermo and Naples, the crisis stemmed rather from the disengagement of the metropolis. The Count-Duke’s policy was to transform the Spanish monarchy into a confederate state of Viceroyalties under the Madrid guardianship. However, the weakness of the links between its rticle on members led the independence of Portugal and many other uprisings elsewhere. Far from rejecting the king, most subjects asked for a stronger royal presence and the dismissal of the compromised governors who were supposed to represent him.

El presente ensayo estudia la fijación de los cristianos viejos españoles de la Temprana Edad Moderna por la genealogía y la limpieza de sangre. Para ello, propone el concepto de “ansiedad por la igualdad” como fenómeno cultural que parte de la inseguridad y de la angustia que estos –como grupo dominante– experimentaron al ver violados los límites que los separaban y diferenciaban de los principales grupos marginados: judeoconversos, moriscos e individuos de baja cuna. La ansiedad por la igualdad brota en el imaginario social de este tiempo como resultado de los esfuerzos por homogeneizar la cultura en los siglos posteriores a 1492, tras la desaparición del cuerpo político de los judíos y los musulmanes; y en un momento en el que todos los españoles eran “oficialmente cristianos”. Esta es una ansiedad que pronto adquirió la forma de una obsesión por el fraude identitario y, más concretamente, por el fraude genealógico. Sin embargo, también es una ansiedad que emergió en una sociedad gobernada por un orden que permitía grietas y hendiduras permeables, por las que el/la indeseable entraba y se hacía pasar por un miembro legítimo, hasta el punto de dejar de ser un/a infiltrado/a y “convertirse” literalmente en uno/a más. Este ensayo, por tanto, se centra en responder las siguientes preguntas: ¿cómo reaccionaron aquellos individuos cuyo linaje se asumía que era puro a la amenaza de la infiltración?; y ¿cuáles fueron las tácticas específicas que emplearon en sus intentos de proteger su identidad y sus espacios sociales?

Palabras clave: cristiano viejo, (judeo)converso, morisco, individuo de baja cuna, infiltrado.

This essay studies the fixation of early modern Spanish Old Christians with genealogy and blood purity. It proposes that the concept of “the anxiety of sameness” may be used to understand this cultural phenomenon that sprouts from the dominant Old Christians’ insecurity and anguish of knowing that the boundaries that separated and distinguished them from marginalized groups—Conversos, Moriscos, and commoners—were being breached. The anxiety of sameness blooms in the Spanish social imagination as the result of the efforts for cultural homogenization in the post-1492 period, after the Jew and the Muslim disappear from the body politic and at a point when all Spaniards were officially Christians. It is an anxiety that takes the form of an obsession with identity fraud, and, more specifically, genealogical fraud. This anxiety, however, emerged in a society governed by an order that allowed for permeable cracks and crevices, through which the undesirable could enter and pass as a legitimate member until s/he stops passing and literally “becomes” one. Hence, this essay aims at answering the following questions: How do those who are presumed to be pure respond to the threat of infiltration? And what are the specific tactics they employ in their attempts to secure their social spaces and identities?

Keywords: Old Christian, Converso, Morisco, commoner, passer.

RESUMEN: Desde una metodología archivística, es decir, desde la investigación so-cas, se ha trazado el objetivo de analizar los registros de escribanos de la siglo XVI y principios del XVII en relación a su actividad relacionada con el-ciales de esta proveeduría, como el tenedor de bastimentos o almacenista y los pagadores, conservadas en el Archivo General de Simancas (fondo de la Contaduría Mayor de Cuentas, órgano interventor), de lo que ha resultado la observación de una gran dinámica entre 1587 y 1621 y en épocas posterio-res. Se ha podido detectar la continuidad de una atracción mutua en forma de intercambios de personas, productos y transportes, en un ámbito territorial extendido a Alicante y Valencia, ciudades más importantes del Reino conjunta o imbricada entre comerciantes genoveses, bretones e ingleses de una y otra ciudad, que se manifestó en esta actividad de suministro, lo que resulta muy interesante. ABSTRACT: From an archival methodology, that is to say, from the research on iden-analyzing the records of notaries of the Proveeduría de Armadas y Fronteras of Cartagena and others from the late 16th century and early XVII in relation to its activity related to the Kingdom of Mallorca, and the same has been de bastimentos and the payers, preserved in the Archive General of Simancas