Department of Hispanic Studies

This paper, based on my contribution to a festschrift for Professor Pat Harvey (see fn 16), was first given in a joint lecture with David Abulafia, in the 7th Jewish-Muslim Annual Lecture Series, sponsored by Leo-Baeck College and the Maimonides Foundation, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, on 25 Oct. 2000. It was also given at the Historians of Medieval Spain Conference, at Pollock Halls, Edinburgh, on 17 Sept. 2002, and at a meeting of the Association of Muslim Researchers, London, on 18 Jan. 2003. An abridged version of the paper, without footnotes, was published in History Today, vol. 52, no. 4 (April 2002). This is the unexpurgated version.

The purpose of this paper is to identify three aristocratic ladies of the very late fifteenth century who are addressed or mentioned by poets in the Cancionero general: a lady addressed by Pinar in his canción ‘Quien encendió mis querellas’ (ID 6654; 11CG-882); and two ladies, both addressed as the Countess of Quirra, one for whom Pinar composed a gloss of the canción ‘Desconsolado de mí’ (ID 0780, 11CG-881), and the other mentioned in a poem of eulogy by Francisco Vaca, addressed to the Marquis of Pescara (ID 6106, 11CG-128). From the ‘Cancioneiro da Vaticana’ to the ‘Cancionero General’: Studies in Honour of Jane Whetnall, ed. Alan Deyermond & Barry Taylor, PMHRS 60 (London: Queen Mary, 2007) pp. 89-102.

There are still many Spanish fifteenth-century poets about whom little is known. In the case of the Marquis of Astorga and Puertocarrero, there is no shortage of information in historical and genealogical works because they were not only well-connected aristocrats but also soldiers and courtiers in the service of the Catholic Monarchs. Cancionero Studies in Honour of Ian Macpherson, ed. Alan Deyermond, PMHRS, 11 (London: Queen Mary, 1998), pp. 105-32.

The aim of this paper is to promote better understanding between Muslims and the adherents of other religious traditions, in particular Jews, by discussing some ecumenical aspects of Islam that have not been well explained, or even understood, by many Muslims. It is thus addressed as much to Muslims as to Jews. I begin by distinguishing between true religion, which promotes peace, and militant religious exclusivism, which tends to be violent and divisive. I mention the growth of Islamophobia, which has many parallels with anti-Semitism. I give a brief account of the Jewish character of Medinan society and the scriptural inheritance shared by Jews and Muslims, concentrating on the story of Abraham; I mention some of the theological beliefs and ritual practices shared by Jews and Muslims; I suggest that the “Constitution of Medina” presupposes a concept of social and religious pluralism; I then explain the Qur’anic model of religious pluralism and the inter-faith principles that can be deduced from the Qur’an.

Garcilaso ha tomado de la Arcadia de Sannazaro el episodio de la caza de aves pequeñas en su Égloga segunda. Hasta ahora los eruditos no se han fijado en la analogía entre el cuervo clavado sobre el suelo y la situación de Albanio en varias ocasiones después de ser abandonado por Camila. El estado lastimoso del cuervo prefigura la prostración física y psicológica producida por la desesperanza amorosa. La asociación entre el cuervo y el mal agüero sugiere el problema del libro albedrío y una impotencia ante el destino.

This is an attempt to explore the meaning of a passage in the book that the Chevalier de la Tour-Landry wrote for the edification of his daughters about the strange activities of men and women who dressed up as galois and galoises, linking this institution with the mythology of the wild man who rejoices in the storm, a motif that is found in many places in medieval European literature and in European folklore.

This the translation of the opening section of a refutation of Christianity written in Arabic by Fray Anselm Turmeda alias Abdallah al-Tarjuman, a Franciscan friar from Mallorca who converted to Islam in Tunis, where he became a customs official and interpreter, after studying theology for ten years at the University of Bologna. His master at Bologna who advised him to seek knowledge in Muslim lands has also been identified.

During the 15th century, several of the best hispanic poets—Juan Rodríguez del Padrón, Carvajal, the Marquis of Santillana, and Joan Roís de Corella—wrote poems about love in which they identify themselves with the siren that sings in the storm and laments in the fine weather. This paradoxical image does not derive from medieval bestiaries or from classical sources. It would seem that it is a folkloric motif that belongs to the mythology of the wild man. The figure of Winter in one of Gil Vicente's plays, dressed in furs like a wild man, and accompanied by three sirens who sing that fine weather will come after the storm, fits in with this hypothesis.

The story of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar y Mendoza, Marquis of Zenete, Cardinal Mendoza's eldest son, and his second wife María de Fonseca would furnish a writer with ample material for an exciting novel and certainly deserves to be better known, especially in the Anglophone world. Among other things, this article sheds some light on the vulnerable status of women in late medieval and Renaissance Spain at a time when noble ladies had greater educational opportunities, and castes doubt on the myth of the role played by Queen Isabel in championing the freedom and the rights of women; and it discusses how the Marquis of Zenete expressed his personality through jousting invenciones and inscriptions in Latin on the walls of his palace of La Calahorra, and introduced many features of Italian art and architecture into Spain almost in defiance of the status quo. I explain why he wrote the words NULA SECUNDA on a harp that he gave as a present to Prince Juan, I discuss the possible significance of a quotation by Ovid formerly in the Salón de los Marqueses in the Palace of La Calahorra, and I draw attention to the appearance of the Fonseca sisters in the anonymous Carajicomedia. La historia de Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, marqués de Zenete, el hijo primogénito de Cardenal Mendoza, y su segunda mujer María de Fonseca podría proveer un escritor con materia más que suficiente para escribir una novela apasionante, y ciertamente merece ser mejor conocida, sobre todo en el mundo anglófono. Entre otras cosas, este artículo arroja algo de luz sobre la condición social vulnerable de la mujer en España durante la baja Edad Media y el Renacimiento cuando había más oportunidades educativas para las damas de la nobleza, y pone en duda el mito del papel jugado por la reina Isabel en defensa de la libertad y los derechos de la mujer; y discute como el marqués de Zenete exprimió su personalidad en letras y invenciones y en inscripciones en latín sobre los paredes de su palacio de La Calahorra, y introdujo en España muchas características del arte y arquitectura italiano casi a despecho del status quo. Doy una explicación de las palabras NULA SECUNDA escritas sobre una arpa que dió como regalo al príncipe don Juan, discuto la posible significación de una citación de Ovidio antiguamente en el Salón de los Marqueses en el Palacio de La Calahorra, y llamo la atención sobre la presencia de las hermanas Fonseca en la anónima Carajicomedia. Fig. 1. Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, Marquis of Zenete (CC0 1.0). Fig. 2. Castle of La Calahorra, CC-BY-NC-ND Miguel Bueno Jiménez [http://miguelbueno.blogspot.co] Magnificat Cultura i Literatura Medievals, 3 (2016)

I examine a short cycle of poems on folios 62r-64v of the manuscript known as the Cancionero de la British Library (LB1-192-201). I have strong grounds for suspecting that the poems on these folios are associated with King Afonso V of Portugal and his courtship of Princess Isabel of Castile and that they were composed for the entertainment of the young princess circa 1468.

This paper explores in what way the poetry of the troubadours and European love-poetry in general could have been influenced by Arab poetry either directly or indirectly, and considers the theory that 'courtly love' was influenced by Arab culture.

I examine a short cycle of poems on folios 62r-64v of the manuscript that has come to be known as the Cancionero de la British Library, or more simply LB1 (LB1-192-201). I have strong grounds for suspecting that the poems on these folios are associated with King Afonso V of Portugal and his courtship of Princess Isabel of Castile and that they were composed for the entertainment of the young princess circa 1468.