Medieval Spain Research Articles

Modernité "orientale"

Oriental influences present in Polish culture since the Middle Ages and incarnated by the idea of “sarmatisme” were re-evaluated or outright rejected by the young modernist generation. In fact, at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century the traditional Polish “Orientality” was replaced by a wave of interest for the aesthetics of Islamic art, a reflection of the European “Oriental renaissance”. The Polish imaginarium had long associated the art and culture of Islam uniquely to the Middle East and its craft. The romantic epoch brought with it a new interest for medieval Spain, Granada in particular, its history and monuments, reflected in the poetry of Adam Mickiewicz and the museographic realisations of Izabela Czartoryska at Puławy or Tytus Działyński at Kórnik. If architectural projects, principally of “Moorish” synagogues and internal decorations for aristocratic and bourgeois palaces still belong to a nineteenth century oriental current, they do however already reveal a will typical of pre-war decades by virtue of granting significance to Islamic decorative principles. In the first decades of the twentieth century, “à l’orientale” motifs recurrent in fashion and the visual universe, as witnessed by contemporary novels, found a sort of counterpoint in propositions made by representatives of the Polish applied art revival movement, successful hybridization of European, oriental and popular models: fabrics, carpets, metal and leather objects of artists from the Warsztaty Krakowskie (Cracow workshops, founded 1913) such as Józef Czajkowski, Wojciech Jastrzębowski, Bonawentura Lenart, and Karol Tichy, “javano-cracovian” batiks of young workshop apprentices or even the glazed ceramics of Stanisław Jagmin. Displayed at the 1925 Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, the Cracow Workshop adherent’s productions draw the attention of the European public and critics on this peculiar breed of national “primitivist” style tainted with Orientalism.

Rape, sex, violence, and disgrace in the legends and epic texts of medieval Spain

This article identifies and explores two ways in which sex and violence are manifested in several medieval Spanish texts. In the first group of stories analyzed, rape and sexually-related violence are condemned as treacherous affronts that result in the dishonor of the female victim as well as a male figure in her orbit—namely, her father or her betrothed. Nevertheless, these episodes shed light on the admirable qualities of key female characters and often contribute to the heroic construct of the male protagonist. In the second group, the victims’ roles are limited to enduring a sexual indignity—concubinage or rape—and bearing the illegitimate child who will restore lost order. The narrators celebrate the degradation of these noblewomen as a manifestation of heroic prowess, and they either delight in her family’s disgrace or disregard the matter of honor entirely. All the episodes in question, some of which are violent in nature, add a layer of dramatism to the narration, and perhaps struck a chord with the audience on a human level. Considering some similarities between details in the stories and documented cases of sexual violence, we might imagine that the female characters inspired women who comprised a reading or listening public to act with equal bravery and resilience while navigating the dangerously male dominated world in which they lived.

Kevin Ingram, ed., The Conversos and Moriscos in Late Medieval Spain and Beyond, Volume Four: Resistance and Reform

Kevin Ingram, ed., The Conversos and Moriscos in Late Medieval Spain and Beyond, Volume Four: Resistance and Reform

Joseph F. O’Callaghan. Alfonso X, The Justinian of His Age: Law and Justice in Thirteenth-Century Castile. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press, 2019, xiii, 374 pp.

Abstract: Joseph O’Callaghan is one of most eminent and respected scholars of medieval Spanish history. Researchers studying the reign of Alfonso X have profited immeasurably from his earlier works, such as his 1993 book The Learned King: Alfonso X of Castile, Alfonso X and the Cantigas de Santa Maria: A Poetic Biography (1998), and Alfonso X, the Cortes and Government in Medieval Spain (1998). This volume, dealing with Alfonso’s law codes, addresses the evolution of the Learned King’s law-making and the impact that his legal treatises have had on the history of jurisprudence. The book is meticulously referenced, written in a clear and accessible style that makes it suitable for both students and scholars of the reign of Alfonso X.

The Conversos and Moriscos in late medieval Spain and beyond, IV: Resistance and reform. Edited by Kevin Ingram. (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 225; Converso and Morisco Studies, 4.) Pp. viii + 284 incl. 5 colour ills. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2021. €129. 978 90 04 44727 1; 1573 4188

The Conversos and Moriscos in late medieval Spain and beyond, IV: Resistance and reform. Edited by Kevin Ingram. (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 225; Converso and Morisco Studies, 4.) Pp. viii + 284 incl. 5 colour ills. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2021. €129. 978 90 04 44727 1; 1573 4188 - Volume 73 Issue 1

СULTURAL EPOCHS AS TEXT IN LESIA UKRAINKA’S DRAMAS

Based on Lesia Ukrainka’s dramas “Iphigenia in Tavrida”, “Cassandra”, “The Orgy”, “Ruphin and Priscilla”, and “The Stone Master”, the paper highlights peculiarities of cultural and historical codes of the Antiquity and the Middle Ages in the writer's works as well as literary manifestation of the world-view features of European and Ukrainian Modernism in the antique and medieval images and motifs.
 Lesia Ukrainka reconsidered the heritage of archaic and late Antiquity, Hellenistic period, Galilee at the time of Jesus, Early Christianity, and Medieval Spain. Each of these epochs has its own dichotomy of social and biological phenomena, parameters of the world model, and dominant fundamental points.
 Lesia Ukrainka’s dramas transform the material of various cultural epochs, providing polysemantic images that transfer the cosmos of a certain period into the neo-romantic and neo-classical system of images and symbols. In the dramas, the writer raised the issues recurrent in her works, such as love and sacrifice; beauty and ugliness; prophet, artist and ‘revolt of the masses’; reality and dream; good and evil; truth and benefit; nostalgia for chivalry; nostalgia for the Absolute; psychological and moral freedom and violence; spirit, soul, and body; spiritual nobility and the rule of brutes; nature and culture, etc. 
 Numerous issues and characters, multifunctional ontological, cultural, and historical phenomena, cultural codes, symbols, and mythologems acquire an existential meaning in the author’s dramas fitting not only into various cultural contexts but also into the modern reconsideration of mythopoetics.

Conversos, Moriscos, and the Eucharist in Early Modern Spain: Some Reflections on Jewish Exceptionalism

Sacrilegious attitudes toward the Eucharistic host are one of the most commonplace accusations leveled against Jews in premodern Europe. Usually treated in Jewish historiography as an expression of anti-Judaism or antisemitism, they are considered a hallmark of Jewish powerlessness and persecution. In medieval and early modern Spain, however, Jews and conversos (Jewish converts to Christianity and their descendants) were not the only proclaimed enemies of the Eucharist. Reports about avoidance, rejection, criticism, and even ridicule and profanation of the consecrated host were similarly leveled against Muslims and moriscos (Muslim converts to Christianity). This essay seeks to assess the parallels and connections between the two groups through a comparative examination of accusations of sacrilegious behavior towards the host. The first part of the essay analyzes religious art, legal compendia, and inquisitorial trials records from the tribunals of Toledo and Cuenca in order to show some evident homologies between the two groups. The second part of the essay focuses on the analysis of the works of Jaime Bleda and Pedro Aznar y Cardona, two apologists of the expulsion of the moriscos, and draws direct connections between Jewish and morisco sacrilege. By exploring the similarities and differences between accusations against conversos and moriscos, this essay aims to offer a broader reflection on Jewish exceptionalism.

Introduction of sugarcane in Al‐Andalus (Medieval Spain) and its impact on children's dental health

AbstractThe introduction of sugarcane in Europe by the Arabs in the 10th century AD brought about a drastic change in gastronomy and oral health. In Southern Spain (Al‐Andalus), sugarcane was mainly consumed by the elite, although its consumption became relatively widespread during the Nasrid Kingdom. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of the introduction of sugar on human diet and oral health by comparing patterns of caries in deciduous teeth between nonadult skeletal samples from two Nasrid populations (La Torrecilla and Talará) and a comparative set representing various Iberian populations without access to sugarcane (from Bronze to Medieval Ages). We analyzed 770 teeth from 115 nonadults divided into three groups: infants under 2 years of age, nonadults presenting only deciduous teeth, and nonadults presenting mixed deciduous and permanent dentition. The frequency of caries is high in the Nasrid individuals and very low in the comparative sample. This finding is in agreement with contemporaneous written sources on the utilization of sugarcane in the diet and as a pacifier for infants during weaning. Differences in the frequency of caries between the Nasrid samples (higher in Talará) are likely related to the socioeconomic differences between these populations.

Knowledge transmission in medieval Spain

Knowledge transmission in medieval Spain

Knowledge transmission in medieval Spain

Knowledge transmission in medieval Spain

Sunshine, Cucumbers, Mothers, The Dawn, Speed, Bacon, Pears, Walnuts, Mice, Beached Whales, Paper Tigers, Arabic Texts, Romance Words, and the Bottom of the Ninth Inning: Revisiting the Kharja Debate of the 1980s

Abstract: The present article reviews the series of studies on the muwashshaḥāt and the kharajāt (strophic poems and their final couplets) that appeared, in conversation with each other, in La corónica during the 1980s. This series of articles was foundational in the study of these poems in the English-speaking world, representing a hashing out of the role of bi- and multilingualism in Andalusi literature. Vituperative as they were path-breaking, the articles represent an important turning point in the historiography of medieval Spain.

The Lost Literature of Medieval Spain: Excerpts from a Tentative Catalogue

Abstract: This article, based on Alan Deyermond's project to catalogue the so-called lost works of medieval Castilian literature, first appeared in volume 5, number 2 of La corónica in 1977. He would go on to publish over the next 20+ years a series of articles on the subject, including a book-length study of lost epic and ballads in 1995.

Lost and found : Alan Deyermond y "The Lost Literature of Medieval Spain"

Abstract: Alan Deyermond published in 1977 in the pages of La corónica "The Lost Literature of Medieval Spain: Excerpts from a Tentative Catalogue," a groundbreaking article in which he offered a glimpse of a work in progress. The present article provides an analysis of that piece, puts it in the wide context of Deyermond's research production on that particular topic, examines the trajectory of that research line in Deyermond's wider research, and offers some information and conjectures about the ending of that particular research line.

Jewish Poetry and Cultural Coexistence in Late Medieval Spain, by Gregory B. Kaplan

This is an original study that offers a new critical perspective on a canonical and foundational genre of medieval Spanish literature, cuaderna vía poetry. This genre consists of poems written in quatrains of Alexandrine verses (lines of 14 syllables) that use consonantal rhyme. Gregory Kaplan here virtually writes the history of Jewish cuaderna vía poetry in medieval Spain. The book begins with an overview of the genre’s origins, and goes on to examine examples of cuaderna vía poetry composed by Jews in the Peninsula and to explore the form’s survival among Sephardic Jews in the Diaspora. The study is comprised of an overarching historical narrative in which Kaplan includes close readings of key texts. While important medieval Castilian texts such as the Libro de Alexandre and the Libro de buen amor have long been studied as representative of the poetry written in cuaderna vía, which is almost exclusively associated...

Arabic-Speaking Christians and Toledo, BCT MS Cajón 99.30 in High Medieval Spain

This article interprets the Arabic notes of a Christian who made a primer of Latin grammatical texts—primarily Donatus’ Ars grammatica—in order to shore up his Latin vocabulary. The copyist on the whole offers excellent evidence for Latin learning among Iberia’s Arabic-speaking Christians, who thrived in much of the peninsula between the tenth and thirteenth centuries

Arabic-Speaking Christians and Toledo, BCT MS Cajón 99.30 in High Medieval Spain

This article interprets the Arabic notes of a Christian who made a primer of Latin grammatical texts—primarily Donatus’ Ars grammatica—in order to shore up his Latin vocabulary. The copyist on the whole offers excellent evidence for Latin learning among Iberia’s Arabic-speaking Christians, who thrived in much of the peninsula between the tenth and thirteenth centuries

Directing the Comedia Conversation with Bárbara Mujica

Isaac Benabu, professor emeritus, holds the Louis Lipsky Chair in Theatre Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. He is a theater director, and has directed plays in several languages both in Israel and abroad. His current areas of research center upon the theory of theater. He has published widely in the following areas: European theater of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Hispano-Hebraic poetry in medieval Spain, and the theater of Federico García Lorca. He has published several books, the most recent being Textos “ilegibles” (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2019), as well as numerous articles. He is a member of several editorial boards and has been a visiting professor at universities worldwide. Since his retirement in 2016, he has given annually an MA seminar on the composition of Shakespeare’s plays in the English department at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Chivalry and the Jews in Late Medieval Spain

A long standing tradition posits an opposition between the Jews and the ideals and reality of medieval chivalry (i.e., before 1492). The article argues against such generalizations. It begins by noting the research on chivalric imaginaire amongst Jews in Franco-German areas. In the case of Hispanic Jews, oral literature, particularly ballads, includes points of contact with Libros de caballería. Even (neo-) Aramaic mystical texts from thirteenth-century Castile use images and metaphors from chivalric literature. Culturally hybrid representations are also relevant, in specific visual cases such as the iconography of the Arragel Bible - and also its texts - or the texts of the (probably converso) poet Pero Ferruz. Late medieval Hebrew MS illuminations show the Hispano-Jewish patrons’ taste for the representation of knights and scenes of knightly life. Fragments from Inquisition and other archival evidence confirm the taste for chivalric literature amongst Iberian Jews. Material culture from late medieval Spain also supports the article’s claim in various ways - Jewish artisans are involved in crafting memorable items of knightly accoutrement; and towards the later decades of the fifteenth century there are attempts to incorporate Jews into urban caballería.

중세 스페인의 재정복 담론과 (여)성적 공간으로서의 무어인 도시

중세 스페인 무어인 여성의 성적 이미지는 기독교 사회 내의 식민지적 권력 관계 속에서 역사적으로 형성되어온 성적 침탈에 기원을 두고 있다고 볼 수 있다. 성적 욕망의 대상으로서 무어인 여성의 이미지는 기독교도 남성의 관점에서 성적 판타지를 이들 여성에게 투사한 결과물이다. 기독교도와 무어인 간의 접경 지대에서 불려진 문학 장르인 로만세(romance)는 재정복 과정과 변경 지역의 상황을 충실히 반영하는 스페인 기독교 사회의 담론이다. 로만세에서 기독교권에 편입되지 않은 무어인 도시들은 여성화ㆍ성애화되어 있다. 기독교 사회에 투영된 무어인 도시는 신앙과 권력, 그리고 섹슈얼리티가 만나는 접점이다. 에로틱한 무어인 도시에 대한 성적 욕망은 기독교 권력이 확장할 수 있는 기제로 작용한다. 섹슈얼리티와 전쟁은 지배와 정복의 전략적 구성 요소라 할 수 있다. 무어인 여성의 성적 이미지는 재정복이 종결되면서 약화한다는 점에서 역사성을 갖는다.

Traces of Late Medieval Jewish Scotism: A Catalan Translation in Hebrew Script of De distinctione predicamentorum by Petrus Thomae

Abstract Jewish-Christian intellectual relations in late medieval Spain are discussed in light of a curious fragment in Hebrew script from the Vatican Library. The fragment contains an unknown translation from Latin to Catalan (in Hebrew characters) of the work of the Catalan Franciscan monk Petrus Thomae, De distinctione predicamentorum. This translation is also compared with Thomae’s Tractatus brevis de modis distinctionum as it demonstrates an intermediate version between these two works by Petrus Thomae, though it resembles the first more closely. These traces invite a discussion on the existence of “Jewish Scotism” among the Jews of Catalonia, and after the expulsion, among their descendants, who probably made their way to Italy. The text is among the latest evidence of the use of Catalan in Hebrew characters on the cusp of the sixteenth century.