Spain Archive
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A Moorish Sheet of Playing Cards
Posted on December 9, 2012 | No CommentsExamining medieval playing cards from Spain and Italy. -
“We Have Met Devils!”: The Almogavars of James I and Peter III of Catalonia-Aragon
Posted on December 9, 2012 | No CommentsWho were these Almogavars, who were able to defeat these heavily-armed and highly-trained knights? Why were they consistently effective against all who came before them? How were they utilized by James I the Conqueror (1213-1276) and his son Peter III the Great (1276-1285), count-kings of Catalonia-Aragon, to further the interests of their realm? These are the questions that this paper will attempt to answer. -
Juana “The Mad”: Queen of a World Empire
Posted on December 9, 2012 | No CommentsIt was not until the mid-nineteenth century that scholars discovered new material about Juana in the Spanish and Austrian archives that gave another side to the person of the woman who had been con- sidered “la loca.” -
Abandoned to Love: The Proceso of María de Cazalla and the Mirror of Simple Souls
Posted on December 4, 2012 | No CommentsIn comparing the trial of María de Cazalla with Marguerite Porete’s Mirror of Simple Souls, one of the most notable works of medieval mysticism, the present study aims to demonstrate how the main components of alumbradismo may be discerned in a single normative example of medieval mystical theology. -
Ibn Hazm on homosexuality
Posted on December 2, 2012 | No CommentsThe most commonly used term for homosexual contacts between men in Arabic is fil (or amal) qawm Lût ("the act of the people of Lot"), from which is derived the substantive liwàt. The man who indulges in such acts is called lufl. -
The Curious Career and Uncertain Past of Perkin Warbeck
Posted on December 2, 2012 | No CommentsWas Warbeck just another in a long line of pretenders to the throne of England, or did his appearance in Ireland in 1491 prove the innocence of Richard III, whom most historians accuse of murdering his nephews, the Princes in the Tower? -
Ruthless Oppressors? Unraveling the Myth About the Spanish Inquisition
Posted on October 29, 2012 | No CommentsFrom its inception to the present, critics of the Spanish Inquisition has characterized the institution as omnipotent and oppressive and highlighted its role in the expulsion, forced conversion, and execution of supposed heretics. -
Iberian Uniqueness in the Arab Invasion of Spain
Posted on October 28, 2012 | No CommentsIn the spring of the year AD 711, the Visigothic kingdom of Iberia was invaded and conquered by an army from the nearby Muslim Empire. -
Translators, Interpreters and Cultural Mediators in Late Medieval Eastern Iberia and Western Islamic Diplomatic Relationships
Posted on October 28, 2012 | No CommentsAlthough linguistic competence and language knowledge were essential, rulers often looked for the cultural aptitudes of their official translators to guarantee the success fo the diplomatic missions. -
Daily Life in the Spanish Reconquest: Scenes from Tenth-Century León
Posted on October 26, 2012 | No CommentsBuilt by the Romans to garrison to Seventh Legion, León may also have been the base of the legion's military commander, who was sometimes fully empowered by the emperor to govern Asturias and Galicia. -
The Finest Castle in the World
Posted on October 26, 2012 | No CommentsRobert I. Burns, S.J., and Paul E. Chevedden describe how a much-besieged citadel became the focus for Christian-Muslim co-existence in medieval Spain. -
A Peripheral Matter? Oceans in the East in Late Medieval Thought, Report and Cartography
Posted on October 21, 2012 | No CommentsFocusing in particular on the southern and eastern parts of the Ocean Sea, this article traces the broad contours of a representational and conceptual shift brought about, I argue, by the interplay between geographical thought and social (navigational, mercantile) practice. -
Jewish Lightning Rod: Between Magic and Science
Posted on October 21, 2012 | No CommentsPeople learned how to “tie up a portion of lightning” only recently. We have no information aboutany experiments of medieval scientists with lightnings, and even the fundamental dictionary of thehistory of science by Mayerhöfer is silent about it. -
How Rich a Lawyer, How Poor a Tailor? An Economic Hierarchy of Occupations in Fifteenth-Century Spain
Posted on October 18, 2012 | No CommentsA tax record from the Catalan city of Manresa known as the Liber Manifesti of 1408 provides detailed occupational and capital-holding data for the heads of 640 households. -
The Family of Wilfred I, the Hairy: Marriage and the Consolidation of Power, 800-1000
Posted on October 16, 2012 | No CommentsMy principal objective is to reconsider the system of marriage alliances of the counts of the Marca Hispanica during the generations immediately before and after Wilfred I -
What Kind of Medieval History should be Taught and Learned in Secondary School?
Posted on October 15, 2012 | No CommentsThis study presents a reflection on the teaching of history in secondary education. Specifically, it addresses what topics of the history of the Middle Ages are taught and learned and to what end. -
Slavery and Identíty in Mozarabic Toledo: 1201-1320
Posted on October 7, 2012 | No CommentsRomán Iberia became thoroughly Romanized early in its existenec. Spain adopted the law, the language, the culture, and eventually the religión of clas- sicat Rome. Moreover, Hispania produced some truly stellar figures in the arena of Latin scholarship, including Séneca, Lucían, Quintilian, Columella, and Prudentius. -
King João II of Portugal “O Príncipe Perfeito” and the Jews (1481-1495)
Posted on September 24, 2012 | No CommentsKing João II of Portugal, who reigned over the Portuguese from 1481 un- til 1495, has enjoyed a rather positive posthumous reputation in Portugal and in Portuguese historiography...In Jewish historiography, however, the ruthlessness of King João II has earned him considerable infamy. -
Mystery of the Newport Medieval Ship Solved?
Posted on September 19, 2012 | No CommentsNew evidence suggests that the Newport medieval ship came from the Basque Country -
Jewish Collaborators in Alfonso’s Scientific Work
Posted on September 16, 2012 | No CommentsWhat is remarkable about the Jewish translators whose work was sponsored by Alfonso, following an already old tradition of Jewish translation activity, was their concentration almost exclusively on scientific literature and their significant contribution to the development of the Spanish language. -
Master Mateo – Skilled Artist or Medieval Engineer?
Posted on September 8, 2012 | No CommentsMaster Mateo received his contract as superin- tendent of the works of Saint James in 1168. He undertook in the following decades several major changes in the cathedrals design, the most spectacular of which was the insertion of the famous Portíco de la Gloria. -
The Sufi Influence on Spanish Jews
Posted on September 7, 2012 | No CommentsBy reintroducing true stories of positive interactions between Muslims and Jews, we can begin to change the contemporary dialogue away from the schoolyard "you're either with us or against us" attitude of this young millennia, towards a more Gandhian approach, where a just peace for everyone involved is the only true option... -
The Secret Society: Descendants of Crypto-Jews in the San Antonio Area
Posted on September 3, 2012 | No CommentsThe history of the converso Jews began in medieval Catholic Spain, which was constantly wracked with anti-Semitism that, many times, led to mass conversions or massacres of the Jewish population. -
Dialogues between religions in Andalusia
Posted on August 27, 2012 | No CommentsThe distinctive way of life that developed in the Umayyad and Abbasid periods lasted for eight centuries in the Muslim West, in the fertile lands of North Africa and Andalusia, until 1492. -
Homicidal Pigs and the Antisemitic Imagination
Posted on August 20, 2012 | No CommentsDrawing on evidence from legal history, forensic rhetoric, cultural anthropology, and contemporary analyses of both violence and antisemitism, I suggest that the French criminal prosecution of pigs for homicide betrays three conjoined epistemological strategies which shed an entirely new light on what R. I. Moore has termed the foundations of a persecuting society.
