Early modern Spain

Este artículo aborda los Comentarios del desengañado de sí mismo de Diego  Duque de Estrada en el marco de los debates sobre el valor relativo del origen familiar y los méritos individuales en la virtud de la nobleza. A partir del análisis de la representación material y simbólica de la sangre, el significado social de la vestimenta y el ejercicio de las armas propongo que su autor se presenta como sujeto que encarna el ideal de masculinidad española de la temprana modernidad.

This research analyzes the importance of printing in the spread of secular Franciscan way of life in the Iberian Peninsula during the Early Modern Age. Analysing the evolution of print production and its internal characteristics, we see a parallel between the growth of the movement and the rise of publications, from the early 17th century. The 18th century is the height of all that production and the first half of the  nineteenth century, a period of decline. With regard to issues of publications, printed works that predominate are those who talk about the rule and other legal texts, followed by the sermons and funeral prayers, the collections of privileges, the devotional works and the lives of the saints of the order.

En este capítulo de libro abordo el papel de los milicianos de origen ne- groafricano en la defensa de ciudades, pueblos y puertos hispanoame- ricanos, para después relacionarlo con una comedia poco conocida del Siglo de Oro, titulada "El valiente negro en Flandes", de Andrés de Claramonte y Corroy, cuyo protagonista es un esclavo que lucha en los Tercios de Flandes. Se trata de un argumento dramático de gran actualidad, pues desafía los tópicos racistas, planteando la igualdad entre las personas.

For 300 years, Franciscans were at the forefront of the spread of Catholicism in the New World. In the late seventeenth century, Franciscans developed a far-reaching, systematic missionary program in Spain and the Americas. After founding the first college of propaganda fide in the Mexican city of Querétaro, the Franciscan Order established six additional colleges in New Spain, ten in South America, and twelve in Spain. From these colleges Franciscans proselytized Indians in frontier territories as well as Catholics in rural and urban areas in eighteenth-century Spain and Spanish America.

To Sin No More is the first book to study these colleges, their missionaries, and their multifaceted, sweeping missionary programs. By focusing on the recruitment of non-Catholics to Catholicism as well as the deepening of religious fervor among Catholics, David Rex Galindo shows how the Franciscan colleges expanded and shaped popular Catholicism in the eighteenth-century Spanish Atlantic world. This book explores the motivations driving Franciscan friars, their lives inside the colleges, their training, and their ministry among Catholics, an often-overlooked duty that paralleled missionary deployments. Rex Galindo argues that Franciscan missionaries aimed to reform or "reawaken" Catholic parishioners just as much as they sought to convert non-Christian Indians.

This most recent edition of the bibliography contains almost 21,200 titles in English (64%) and French (36%), with an introductory section on historiography. It deals with every aspect of Italian history and culture from the Late Renaissance to the French Revolution.

This article examines a series of proposals for improving silver refining methods presented to the municipal council of Potosí (in current-day Bolivia) in the late sixteenth century as a means of nuancing current understandings of the Iberian state’s pursuit of “useful” knowledge. Historians have argued that the sixteenth century saw the fostering of an empirical culture, one based on experiential and collaborative practices, in the Iberian world. They have stressed that as artisanal experts and royal officials developed a mutually beneficial relationship, this empirical culture became institutionalized in administrative bodies for the pursuit of useful knowledge. This article focuses on the textual production that resulted from the relationship between artisanal experts and royal officials. It probes the motivations of local officials in generating a textual record of artisanal knowledge. Historians have tended to interpret and actors at the time often stated an interest in inscribing, artisanal knowledge as expertise and experience. However, this article demonstrates that what often motivated municipal officials’ inscription of such knowledge was an emphasis on administrative knowledge as rule-following, in particular, a desire to demonstrate one’s competency as an administrator. This conclusion suggests historians should expand their conception of “useful” to better reflect how early modern actors in the Iberian world viewed their pursuit of scientific and technical knowledge. It also indicates the importance of paying attention to the process of bureaucratic knowledge production when interpreting the written traces of the scientific and technical culture of the early modern Iberian world.

Como todo nacionalismo el español se basa en relatos fundamentados en interpretaciones de hechos históricos más o menos documentados. Durante el siglo XIX se elaboraron diferentes relatos estéticos y literarios que devinieron en iconos del nacionalismo español.
Relatos literarios y pictóricos, en este último caso muy escorados con el movimiento romántico, que son una referencia ideológica a la hora de abordar una definición práctica de lo que denominamos España. En esta presentación mostraré algunos de esos cuadros.
La utilización de imágenes, ya sean estas cuadros pictóricos o meras marcas son de gran interés en la enseñanza de las lenguas extranjeras porque en ellas se sintetizan poéticas/estéticas, ideologías, momentos históricos, emociones, manifestaciones culturales y sociales etc. y facilitan la comunicación espontánea con el alumnado, basta con hacer una pregunta simple: ¿Qué es lo que estamos viendo?, para establecer el diálogo en clase. Además son textos perfectamente integrables en explotaciones didácticas de varios tipos y diferentes niveles.

In 1587, the Milanese cartographer Urbano Monte wrote a treatise aiming to show the physical, geographical and ethnological features of the known world, as well as the historical facts that happened shortly before his time. In this work, the author included a planisphere, designed with a projection as seen from the North Pole. In this map, he represented a huge amount of information taken from a variety of historical, literary and cartographical sources. Among them, Monte included a textual and graphic representation of Phillip II of Spain and his control of the Atlantic Ocean. This depiction has a profound level of significance, which will be analysed in this article, as well as its sources and methods. Thus, our aim is to study and explain the role of the Hispanic Monarchy’s Atlantic expansion within the ideological and textual discourse of this map.

Borja Franco Llopis y Francisco J. Moreno Díaz del Campo, Pintando al converso. La imagen del morisco en la península ibérica (1492-1614), Madrid, Cátedra, 2019, 479 págs. En 1989 Fernando Marías llamó la atención sobre la sombra en que habían quedado los moriscos para la Historia del Arte en su muy conocida obra El largo siglo XVI. Los usos artísticos del Renacimiento español: "Si tradicional era para el siglo XVI el arte de mudéjares, hemos de preguntarnos si apareció en esta misma época después de 1500 y 1525, un arte para moriscos, un arte cuyo fin primordial fuera preci-samente servir de instrumento al adoctrinamiento de la población morisca forzada a la conversión al cris-tianismo y condenada, por lo tanto, en los primeros momentos a la práctica islámica de la taqiyya, del disi-mulo". Treinta años después, el volumen objeto de este comentario responde en cierto modo a aquel recla-mo, pero no apunta precisamente a las imágenes orientadas a la evangelización de los mudéjares, forzados a un bautismo tan precipitado como sospechoso de poca sinceridad por haber sido impuesto. Mientras que el reciente libro de Antonio Urquízar examina en profundidad las actitudes ante el patrimonio edificado de al-Ándalus (Admiration and Awe: Morisco buildings and Identity Negotiations in Early Modern Spanish Historiography, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017), la obra conjunta de Borja Franco Llopis y Francisco J. Moreno Díaz del Campo se ocupa de la imagen-en el doble sentido de figuración visual y de percepción-de los moriscos en el largo siglo XVI, que se extiende desde la conquista de Granada hasta el final del proceso de expulsión en 1614. Como el subtítulo aclara, la referencia al converso se limita a los bautizados que provenían de aljamas mudéjares, no a los judíos cristianizados, que por otra parte ofrecen un término de comparación interesante para un estudio complementario. No figuran en el título dos conceptos que, sin embargo, son fundamentales en el libro: identidad y raza en cuanto una y otra se construyen a partir de percepciones, imágenes y estereotipos culturales. Estas cate-gorías y otras se tratan en la primera parte de la obra, muy notable por la amplia reflexión teórica previa a la exposición de la materia, que ocupa más de ochenta páginas y entra en conversación con la bibliografía española e internacional sobre cuestiones como la alteridad, la raza, la identidad, el orientalismo sazonado por la maurofilia o la maurofobia y, en definitiva, la representación de aquellos que son tenidos por dife-rentes en un momento de fragua de la monarquía católica con vocación imperial y enconada conflictividad religiosa en Europa. El énfasis no se pone en el proceso de conversión, sino más bien en la visibilidad del resultado en la percepción de los moriscos desde una mirada vigilante y confesionalmente cristiana. Quienes se interesan por la construcción de identidades y las imágenes de los otros en la Edad Moderna encontrarán, por tanto, motivos de interés y reflexión en este volumen genuinamente interdisciplinar y escrito a dos voces bien armonizadas. Si Francisco J. Moreno es un historiador modernista, atento al mundo morisco y su cultura material, Borja Franco se ha distinguido en la Historia del Arte por sus traba-jos sobre las imágenes para moriscos, tanto o más que por la visión de los mudéjares convertidos. Las miradas cruzadas de ambos autores pintan en la segunda parte del libro ("El morisco descrito") un cuadro que parte del examen sagazmente combinado de la documentación textual, de los objetos asocia-dos a los moriscos españoles, y de la imagen construida y transmitida por fuentes menos subjetivas, pero también cargadas de intenciones y sesgos de los observadores cuando estos recogen la información en una encuesta o la plasman en la literatura "morisca" o en el arte efímero del siglo XVI. El estudio de las imá-genes aborda un sustrato distinto del elemento textual discursivo que contiene el registro escrito, el cual va desde las actas inquisitoriales a las novelas de Cervantes o al romancero de abencerrajes y cautivas; con el arte nos aproximamos a componentes de otro tipo, simbólico y comunicativo: algunos apenas racionales, otros narrativos o elocuentes incluso, pero que contienen un mensaje casi inefable, que no es fácil traducir al lenguaje verbal porque se expresa mediante la figuración, campo de trabajo de la Historia del Arte como disciplina humanística.

Until recently, studies in the architectural history of medieval and early modern Europe have assumed an all-male labor force on the construction site and in the related building trades.  Historical chronicles and manuscript illuminations of construction sites support this notion, purporting the total exclusion of women from this complex industry.  This chapter demonstrates the true nature of women's contribution to construction sites from the 13th to the 17th centuries in western Europe, uncovering a wide range of occupations in which they engaged: poor women hired for manual labor, women working as slaves, women working with their husbands and fathers in the building trades, widows continuing the workshops of their deceased husbands, and women supplying building materials for particular sites.  There is a history to be told of women's repeated participation in and subsequent denial from working in the building trades that echoes a theme between towns and across language barriers and indicates a common experience shared by women in this era.

This book explores women as book collectors in Spain from c. 1500 to the end of the eighteenth century. There is a presentation on the problems women collectors had for developing this passion. Then some of the most famous women's libraries are considered.
Limited number of pages

Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman is the first study of Mariana of Austria (1634–1696), who ruled the Spanish Empire while her son Carlos II, was a minor. Mariana employed successful political, diplomatic, and military strategies at a difficult juncture for the Spanish global monarchy in the later seventeenth century. Establishing her role in European international politics, this investigation reveals the authority she wielded as a Spanish Habsburg queen and mother, even during her court exile.

This volume examines political and diplomatic relations, as well as cultural exchanges between Tuscany and Spain from a new perspective that has overcome traditional approaches and has contributed to the opening of new historiographical currents on diplomacy and political history.
The role of the Medici Grand Dukes and that of their agents and ambassadors between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is considered not only through the analysis of the networks of relations established in the Spanish court and in the areas of politics, but also of the examination of information circuits and cultural exchange channels.
In this way, a universe of complex relationships is reconstructed, in which the individual abilities of sovereigns, princes, ministers and ambassadors constituted the background of the relations between the Medici Grand Dukes and Spain in the Habsburgs age.                                                                                                                                                           
En este volumen se examinan las relaciones políticas y diplomáticas, así como los intercambios culturales entre Toscana y España desde una nueva perspectiva que ha superado el enfoque tradicional y ha contribuido a la apertura de nuevas corrientes historiográficas sobre diplomacia e historia política. Se considera el papel de los Grandes Duques Medici y el de sus agentes y embajadores entre los siglos XVI y XVII no solo a través del análisis de las redes de relaciones establecidas en la corte española y en los espacios de la política, sino también del examen de los circuitos de información y los canales de intercambio cultural. Se reconstruye, así, un universo de relaciones muy complejas, donde las habilidades individuales de soberanos, príncipes, ministros y embajadores constituyeron la trama de fondo de las relaciones entre los Medici y la España de los Habsburgo.                                                                                                                                                 
Nel volume sono esaminate le relazioni politiche, diplomatiche e gli scambi culturali fra Toscana e Spagna da una nuova prospettiva che ha superato gli approcci tradizionali e ha contribuito all'apertura di nuove correnti storiografiche sulla diplomazia e la storia politica.
Si prende in considerazione il ruolo dei granduchi, dei loro agenti e degli ambasciatori fra i secoli XVI e XVII non solo attraverso l'analisi delle reti di relazione stabilite alla corte spagnola e negli spazi della politica, ma anche grazie all'esame dei circuiti di informazione e ai canali di scambio culturale. Si ricostruisce in questo modo un universo di relazioni complesse, in cui le abilità individuali di sovrani, principi, ministri e ambasciatori costituirono la trama di fondo delle relazioni fra i Medici e la Spagna degli Asburgo.

Around the 1485 was born in Villaescusa de Haro Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal (c. 1485-1547), in a family which has dedicated all its best men in the progress of the Kingdom of Castilla. Sebastián Ramírez will life to see the transformation of this Kingdom in an Empire under the government of Carlos V, and to be one of the most trustworthy men of the emperor. After being the responsible of the civil an ecclesiastic government in Santo Domingo (1528-1531) and the president of the Real Audiencia de Nueva España in Tenochtitlán (1531-1535) before the existence of the Viceroyalty; he returned to Spain to be the president of the Real Audiencia de Granada (1536-1539), after of the one in Valladolid (1539-1542) and also the president of the commission responsible to create the laws of the spanish territories in America (1542); at last at the same time he was the bishop of Tuy (1537-1539), León (1539-1542) and Cuenca (1542-1547).
    In this city he decided in the end of 1544 to begin the construction of a new cloister in the cathedral which was almost in ruins, and -after the repeated refusal of the Cathedral Chapter- decided to support at least the building of its hallway. To design and to make it, he chose a singular french man who had been working with the best artists in the Iberian Peninsula since 1535 and for men as important as Francisco de los Cobos: Étienne Jamet (c. 1515-1546) known as Esteban Jamete. The union of these two special men made of the entrance to the cloister of the Cuenca cathedral an exceptional space where the art of Jamet –full of quality, diversity, elegance and pathos- was used to advertise the wishes of the Carlos’ V court to reach the universitas christiana, through a triumphal arc which memorializes the hoped catholic triumph; and inside, the hallway conceived as a meditation’s place for the Christian who is spur on to the virtue’s way of wisdom and fight against the vice to achieve the eternal life in Jesus Christ. Thereby they became the ruins of this space in a stair to God along the religious wars and the inner struggle of citizens, they made the Arco de Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal (1546-1550).

Edition: Paula Velasco Grijalbo.
Press: Diputación Provincial de Cuenca.
ISBN: 978-84-16161-40-9.

Best known for his works on the mystical practice of meditative recollection, Franciscan friar Francisco de Osuna published his candid manual for lay life, Norte de los estados (North Star) in 1531 before leaving Spain to reside in Antwerp. True to its title, the book was intended as a North Star that would dependably guide readers through the stages of youth, marriage, and widowhood. Although the historical literature on these themes is dominated by the works of his humanist contemporaries, Erasmus of Rotterdam and Juan Luis Vives, Osuna’s close attention to women’s experiences and his critical awareness of social class are distinctive. This first modern edition, with a comprehensive introduction, restores Osuna’s reformist voice and expansive vision to the animated conversations on marriage and family in which he engaged. His detailed attention to practical questions and his intense spiritualization of spousal love make it an invaluable resource for understanding conjugal relationships in the popular imagination of the early modern world.