November 26, 2004 marked the 500th anniversary of the death of Isabel I of Castile, the most powerful woman in the history of Spain, and a figure of utmost importance in world history. This ephemerid was profusely commemorated during that year in many different ways. Among them, obviously, a number of books have been published (or reprinted, in some cases) with Isabel, the Reina Católica, as main character, including stories and biographies like those written by the Spanish historians Manuel Fernández Álvarez and Luis Suárez Fernandez. Other such examples are groundbreaking and more challenging studies like Isabel Rules, by Barbara Weissberger, or the long awaited and hopefully soon forthcoming results of Nancy Marino's research on Isabel's interest for clothing as a symbolic artifact. One of the entries in the soon-to-be-written bibliographical catalogue of this quinticentennial, and undoubtedly one of the more visible ones, will be the volume reviewed here. Along its pages, eleven professors and researchers from French, Spanish, Canadian and US universities and institutions critically examine Isabel's figure through a plurality of approaches as well as from different points of view.
After a foreword by the series' editor (and maybe it is worth underlining that the series is "The New Middle Ages," already a consolidated one in the field of medieval studies), the volume presents an opening study by the editor of the volume, David A. Boruchoff, entitled "Instructions for Sainthood and other Feminine Wiles in the Historiography of Isabel I" (pp. 1-23). In this, he examines the images of Isabel constructed by historians and scholars from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries, and remarks on the extent to which these constructions are affected by the "pietistic rhetoric" produced around the Catholic Monarchs themselves, whose objective was to construct an "image of piety, incorruptibility and zeal" of themselves, and especially of Isabel; an objective which was ultimately successfully achieved. Therefore, nowadays historians still need to endeavor themselves to distinguish the facts from the fictional constructions when approaching the figure of Isabel. "This endeavor," claims Boruchoff, "is common to the essays of the present collection" (13), which sets out to re-examine critically the life and deeds of Isabel, rather than offering a mere "state of the question." Also considered in this critical re-examination are the "intellectual, spiritual, artistic and cultural traditions that inform Isabel's policies and her historiography" (13).
The first study in the volume, "The World of Isabel la Católica," by Alison Caplan (pp. 25-40) consists mainly of a compilation of facts related in one form or another with Isabel's reign. This presentation offers an opportune and clarifying approach to a number of elements both social and political in Isabel's background that are already known, but often forgotten. For instance, Caplan reminds us of the extent to which the acclaimed unity of the Spanish kingdoms that the Catholic Monarchs created was actually achieved: Castile and Aragon were united because of their marriage, but each kingdom preserved its administrative, legislative, and fiscal autonomy. Caplan also remarks on the distance between the final result of Fernando's and Isabel's design and the ideal concept of "the Renaissance state then taking shape in England under Henry VII, and in France under Louis IX" (27); according to Caplan, this issue is crucial for understanding the construction of Spain's modernity. Equally opportune and worth noting is Caplan's reminder regarding another often misconstrued fact: Isabel and Fernando received their title as "Catholic Monarchs" from Pope Alexander VI not only because of their triumph over the Muslims and the culmination of the Reconquista in 1492; but more explicitly because of their success in expelling the French troops from Naples, which was at that time a feudal territory of the Holy See, in 1494 (29). Caplan's study deals in a satisfactory manner with other interesting aspects of the social, historical, economical, political and dynastical background upon which Isabel developed her policies, favoring Castilian authoritarianism over Aragonese constitutionalism, thereby inclining the bias of power decisively toward Castile, and thus laying the foundations for the modern Spanish state (31-38). In brief, these pages offer an efficient summary about the historical, social and political context in which Isabel reigned, fashioning herself as head of a new political project.
The second study, "Isabel, Infanta and Princess of Castile," is by María Isabel del Val Valdivielso (pp. 41-55). Del Val Valdivielso is author of the most important book on the subject, Isabel la Católica, princesa (1468-1474) (Valladolid, 1974). In this article, in which she surveys a crucial part of Isabel's life (from her birth in 1451 to her proclamation as queen in 1474) Del Val Valdivielso examines a number of facts far from being unknown; however, when scrutinized in context, these reveal both the remarkable ability with which Isabel interpreted political and dynastic situations as well as the cautious prudence and robust determination with which she pursued her goals in this part of her life. Del Val Valdivielso's study, then, depicts the figure of the queen as that of a young woman whose purpose in life was clearly articulated since a young age. The soon-to-be queen displayed an astonishingly powerful ability to negotiate highly sensitive issues such as her rights to the Castilian throne, her marriage, or her loyalty toward her two brothers, both in times of turmoil due to the rebellion of nobility as during an overtly declared civil war.
The third contribution to this volume is "Isabel, Myth and History," by Peggy K. Liss (pp. 57-78), author of a monograph on Isabel, Isabel the Queen. Life and Times (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), from which she draws in part for her contribution to this volume (as acknowledged in p. 70, note 1). Her study deals with "three overlapping stories: about the facts of Isabel's life; about how she contributed to the growth of her own legend; and about how her history entangled with myth during her lifetime, and ever since" (57). It is no surprise, then, that the most interesting of these three stories is the second one. This is a story in which Isabel, "clearly wise in the ways of image-making, highly respectful of the power of public opinion" (60) engineers her own public image as well as that of a legitimate monarchy supposedly driven by a purpose dictated by God and Divine Providence. Such presentation of "her policies as religious imperatives proved broadly effective" (60), as much as messianic and eschatological discourses, that often propagated the main concepts of her "political theology" (64) in chronicles, sermons, poems, and other texts and artistic artifacts. Obviously, the conquest of Granada, the expulsion of the Jews, and Columbus' discoveries were the best proof of the truthfulness of that compelling messianic and imperial vision of Spain and its destiny, as masterminded by Isabel and her "organic intellectuals."
Chapter 4, "Isabel and the Idea of America," by José Luis Abellán (pp. 79-89), examines the actual involvement of the queen in the Columbine enterprise of the discovery and exploration of America. After highlighting, and rightly so, that in 1504--the same year in which Isabel died--no one had any idea of the newly discovered territories, Abellán carefully examines the reasons for and the manner in which Isabel supported Columbus' apparently far-fetched proposal to reach the Indies following a westward route. In this way, he foregrounds the important role that Isabel's personal trust in the Columbine project played in its development. According to Abellán, there were two key reasons for Isabel's interest in the proposal set forth by Columbus. First, after the conquest of Granada, Castile was in need of further territorial expansion, a goal that the other two peninsular kingdoms were already achieving. Since Aragón was exploiting the possibilities offered by Mediterranean expansion, and given the fact that Portugal was expanding its possessions along the African coast and in India, apparently there was no way in which Castile could achieve a significant territorial expansion using marine navigation as a resource. Perhaps this seemingly hopeless situation would explain why Isabel, "with a certain providentialist and missionary spirit" (82), decided to support Columbus' project of a western navigation toward the Indies. A second reason was the possibility that the land reached by the Columbine expedition might not be the Indies they knew (or thought they knew), but rather a heretofore unknown and new territory. The way in which some papal bulls refer to the land found by Columbus show, if not the complete certainty, then at least the reasonable possibility of having discovered an unsuspected new frontier for the expansion of Castile and of Catholicism. Isabel's most important personal contribution to the American enterprise (without, of course, ever underestimating the role of Fray Hernando de Talavera, the queen's confessor) was the conflation of politic expansion and evangelization that she envisioned as the most desirable program for the New World. For Abellán, it does not matter if, when she died, she did not know that the territories west of the Atlantic were a new continent.
The fifth contribution to this volume is Elizabeth Teresa Howe's "Zenobia or Penelope? Isabel la Católica as literary archetype" (pp. 91-102). This chapter examines a topic of utmost importance: the representations of Isabel's persona in a number of literary texts written in the late fifteenth and the sixteenth century and beyond, as well as the underlying ideology of those texts. The representations oscillate between two extremes: Isabel, the woman warrior, or the Amazon; and Isabel, the model mother and wife; in other words, representations of Isabel as a woman of manly courage and depictions of her as a model of feminine virtue (in this last case often with a religious component in the foreground). It is regrettable that the survey made by Howe misses a number of important texts (the omission of Diego Guillén de Ávila's Panegírico a la reina doña Isabel is particularly surprising; it is also worth noting the virtual omission of texts by Fray Íñigo de Mendoza, Juan Barba, and other cancionero poets). It is also regrettable to note the presence of other inaccuracies in this text. For instance, --and this is a most blatant slip--1446 was not the date of the composition of Boccaccio's De claris mulieribus, as stated on p. 91, since Boccaccio died in 1375. It is also quite debatable that Álvaro de Luna would write his Libro de las virtuosas y claras mujeres in vernacular instead of in Latin out of a desire to make the text accessible to a wider reading public, as Howe states on p. 92. Rather, the most likely reason for such debate is the fact that Luna did not know enough Latin, if indeed any, to undertake a literary enterprise as ambitious as composing a gallery of portraits--in Latin--of exemplary women, especially in the wake of Boccaccio's famous compilation. Howe's remarks, on p. 95, about the messianic, prophetic, and figural discourses elaborated in Isabel's praise when Prince Juan was born, omit any reference to the long-lasting tradition of such discursive constructions in fifteenth-century Castile, at least from Pablo de Santa María's Siete edades del mundo, where the young Juan II (Isabel's father, by the way) is presented as the messiah who will save and redeem Castile. Lastly, the author purports that Fernán Pérez de Guzmán presents Zenobia in his Generaciones y Semblanzas as an example of illustrious woman (pp. 94-95); however, this is not true, since Zenobia does not belong to the canon of illustrious Castilian personalities presented in Pérez de Guzmán's text (in which, incidentally, the only female example is Queen Catalina). The explanation for this oversight is that Howe mistakenly considers the chapter on Zenobia from Mar de Historias, edited by Tate in an appendix to his edition of Generaciones y Semblanzas by Pérez de Guzmán, as belonging to the latter work.
The next study in succession is the one by Chiyo Ishikawa, "La llave de palo: Isabel la Católica as Patron of Religious Literature and Painting" (pp. 103-119). The starting point of this study shows a serious error in judgment by saying that Isabel's world was "a world that had virtually no other female role models" (103) besides that of the Virgin Mary: this statement is clearly contradicted by the information presented in the previous chapter of the book that deals with works by Boccaccio, Luna, Valera, and others. At the same time, Ishikawa's study contains valuable remarks on the queen's interest in art, or, more specifically, religious art. The author examines here (as she had done in detail in her 1989 doctoral dissertation) an altarpiece commissioned around 1496 by Isabel and painted by Juan de Flandes and Michel Sittow, her court painters. Ishikawa reads this altarpiece as the sum of "solid and narrowly defined Christian values that marked her entire reign" (104). After examining the history and remarkable whereabouts of the altarpiece--both as a whole and in the separate elements that comprised it (pp. 104-107)--Ishikawa interprets this as "a visual summation of [Isabel's] Christological beliefs" (108). She then remarks on the relevance of the strong emphasis on the life of Christ presented by the altarpiece, and links this to the revival of Christological literature en vogue in the last decades of the fifteenth-century in Castile. Isabel herself was not alien to such a revival, and was clearly indebted to the Franciscan connection that permeated late medieval spirituality (113). The representative texts of this Christological literature have in common with the altarpiece a number of important traits, among them their gôut for stringency, clarity and simplicity of expression, and the importance that both the texts and the altarpiece confer to visual description (114-115). This last feature, which is intrinsic to the merits of an altarpiece, has been considered lately as crucial to the formulation of a contemplative program shared by all these artistic artifacts, both visual and textual, as Sol Miguel-Prendes recently highlighted (and brilliantly so) in a most meritorious article, "Reimagining Diego de San Pedro's Readers at Work: Cárcel de Amor," La Corónica, 32.2 (Spring 2004), 7-44. Ishikawa's conclusions, however interesting as they may be, would have greatly benefited from the inclusion of Miguel-Prendes' ideas in her study.
Chapter 7 of this volume is dedicated to Marcelino V. Amasuno Sárraga's "The Royal Physicians as Alcaldes and Examinadores Mayores: Royal Interference in Medicine and Law in Castile under Isabel and Ferdinand" (pp. 121-153). Basing himself on the critical appraisal of a vast amount of archival materials, Amasuno examines the way in which the Catholic Monarchs, in creating a new institution, completely changed medical practice and its legal status in the Iberian Peninsula; the new institution being that of the Alcalde y Examinador Mayor. It is worth noting, as Amasuno does, that this position had already been created in the fourteenth century, and was intended to be a means of controlling and supervising medical practices on behalf of the crown. Hence, Isabel and Fernando "firmly committed themselves to making the role of these royal officers more effective," and in doing so, they extended their royal presence and influence to the domain of the medical profession (122). Amasuno interprets this as one more step in the process of rivalry between local (namely municipal) and royal power that underlies so many of the policies instituted by the Queen and King as they set out to pursue--and finally achieve--the consolidation of a centralized modern state power against local councils and nobility. Amasuno duly examines the life and professional profiles of the officials that occupied the position from its inception, the rights and duties related to that position, and the repercussions of his actions in the territories of medical practice and pedagogy.
The eighth text of the volume is "Isabel la Católica and the Jews," authored by Joseph Pérez (pp. 155-169). After tracing a brief but precise outline of the anti-Semitic trends and movements on the rise in the Iberian Peninsula during the late Middle Ages, as well as the so-called converso problem (pp. 155-57), Pérez examines her attitude, which was fully shared by the King himself, toward the Jewish and converso minorities from a threefold perspective: as a social problem, as a religious problem, and as a political problem. The Catholic monarchs' concern over these three factors led them to take two capital measures against Jews and conversos: the institution of the Inquisition in 1478 and the expulsion of these people from Spain in 1492. The abovementioned infamous organism originated when the Holy See delegated one of its prerogatives--the defense of Catholic orthodoxy--to the Castilian civil powers, in order to put an end to irregular situations in Castilian society, like that of the so-called marranos--conversos who kept secretly practicing their former Jewish religion. This mixture of religious and political components, says Pérez, "is the innovation of the Spanish Inquisition, the aspect that distinguished it from the medieval institution, which was entrusted to the bishops" (158). The creation of this institution provided the Spanish monarchy with an almighty and unparalleled weapon of social control that turned out to be crucial for the ulterior success of the Monarquía Hispánica along the sixteen and seventeen centuries. The expulsion of the Jews in 1492 (the same year in which the last Moor stronghold in Spain was finally conquered, as well as in which Colón reached America) has been widely discussed by generations of historians. Pérez contrasts his ideas on the reasons for the expulsion (presented in detail in his 1993 book) to those of other historians, such as Netanyahu and Kamen. He then concludes that the only feasible reason for the expulsion was to create a situation in which, by means of eliminating Judaism, any conversos who might consider secretly practicing their former religion would be discouraged from doing so (160-163). Towards the end of the essay, Pérez downplays the consequences of the expulsion for Spain's economy and political destiny (164-65). Instead, he elaborates on the true reason behind the Catholic Monarchs' policies against Jews and conversos: that is, the need to establish religious unity in order to build a strong modern state (mirroring the homogeneous religious landscape of other countries in Europe). As Pérez states, "the modern state was not prepared to recognize the right to difference and the different rights of religious minorities" (167). In short, Pérez offers no new information, facts nor conclusions in this chapter, but his contribution is a succinct, accurate, and useful summary of his own ideas on this important topic.
The next chapter presents a counterpart to the previous one: "Isabel and the Moors," by Miguel Ángel Ladero Quesada (pp. 171-193), is also a summary of ideas previously developed in depth by a renowned expert in the field. As a result, the reader will not find new ideas or facts in this chapter, but instead will find an accurate and informative overview of the issue at hand. After a detailed--perhaps overly so, given the scope and size of the volume itself--examination of the demographic distribution of the Muslim population in Castile, specifically the so-called mudéjares (172-179), Ladero enters into a discussion of the most significant aspects of Isabel's politics toward them. He begins by pointing out how well-acquainted she was, from at least 1477 onwards, with the reality of the Andalusian mudéjares, and the extent to which she was involved in the initiatives for the restoration of a number of Moorish buildings in Seville, Cordoba, Granada, and Saragossa. Ladero thus illustrates, on the one hand, the queen's interest in Spanish Muslim architecture and art (178) and for Moorish attire (189-90, something that strikingly connects her with her half-brother Enrique IV, often criticized by his enemies for his maurofilia); on the other hand, he shows how Isabel's policies toward Muslims were determined by the model of relationship with Muslims then prevalent in the rest of Europe: that of Crusade. After all, the campaign against Granada was, above all, a crusade--"the final Medieval crusade," as Ladero writes (181); and, as chroniclers like Hernando del Pulgar put it, the conquest of Granada "began at the Queen's behest, and continued by her diligence until the entire realm of Granada was won" (181). Once the crusade part was over, Isabel and Fernando approved the establishment of pacts--or capitulaciones-- with the defeated, thereby opening the door to future peaceful coexistence of Muslims and Christians (182-83). The strategy of the crown was to achieve a sincere conversion to Christianity, to be followed by a complete assimilation of the converted population. Reality showed a different outcome, however: soon the hopes for coexistence vanished due to a number of social and religious tensions that were finally resolved against the weakest party: pressures exerted by the Inquisition, popular revolts, and the subsequent reaction to these, lead to massive conversions in Granada in 1500-1501 (185-186). These resulted, in the following year, in the promulgation of edicts asking Castilian mudéjares to convert or emigrate (188). Such tensions would continue until 1571, when the moriscos were expelled from Granada. The missionary policies envisioned by the Catholic Monarchs resulted in unmitigated failure, and historical facts prove--as Ladero concludes-- that the Moorish problem was beyond the confines of Isabel's will--and extended far beyond the years of her reign. "There is no racism or rejection," states Ladero, speaking of Isabel's strategies in dealing with the Moorish population, "but instead the will to integrate, insofar as this then seemed possible" (189). A will that remained, as we all know, unfulfilled.
Chapter 10 of this collection is "The poetic and dramatic construction of Isabel La Católica in the theater of Lope de Vega," by Jesús Pérez-Magallón (pp. 195-223). The author's purpose is to explore Lope de Vega's dramatic production and to search for the image that Lope had constructed of Queen Isabel. After surveying six of Lope de Vega's plays, in which Isabel, or both of the Catholic Monarchs, appear as characters (196-208), Pérez-Magallón concludes that Lope constructs an Isabel that is, in his own words: an "unfailing and tireless champion of Catholic faith," "a fervent believer," "the most enthusiastic promoter of war against the Moors and the expulsion of the Jews," "a sensitive woman, capable of tenderness, deep feelings, and superior emotions," "cultured enough to perceive the transcendence of the discovery of America," "a loving, supportive, and considerate spouse," "the ruler who perceives the need for religious as well as political unity in the kingdom," "an astute ruler concerned for the historical image of both monarchs," "fearless, loyal to her half brother, Henry IV, and faithful to her husband, Ferdinand." Finally, Pérez-Magallón states that "her generosity is never questioned" (all quotes from p. 209). Next, the author compares this literary image built by Lope with the historical Isabel, and with other visions of Isabel constructed "by historians and other writers" (209). He concludes, on the one hand, and as one would have expected, that "Lope has followed his usual practice of taking various details from here and there" (210). The "here and there" are most likely found in the writings of Diego de Valera, Alonso de Palencia, Hernando del Pulgar, Andrés Bernárdez, Juan de Mariana, Pietro Martire d'Anghiera, Melchor de Santa Cruz, as well as popular beliefs. Still, "it is also clear that he did not follow these historical narratives ad pedem l[i]tterae" (210). On the other hand, Pérez-Magallón states "it is very evident that Lope combined these elements with others drawn from his own imagination" (210); this statement, however, is proffered without providing any specifics. From this point, Pérez-Magallón arrives at an engaging conclusion: "We are, therefore, quite justified in considering Lope de Vega as the creator of Isabel's image in the popular imagination, and, if we wish to describe his achievement, we can call him the most consummate propagandist of what he considered as her achievements" (211). Regrettably, the reader is provided no evidence supporting this sensational affirmation; the fact that Lope follows in the most part--as Pérez-Magallón himself acknowledges-- previous formulations presented in older textual sources, seems to stand against this critic's conclusion. Nevertheless, I fully agree with the more moderate statement with which the author concludes his text: "Furthermore, by emphasizing these features in his overall characterization of the queen, Lope greatly assisted in making Isabel larger than life (or history), raising her to the level of myth" (216).
To conclude, Pérez-Magallón examines the reasons why Lope was so interested in Isabel, almost a century after her death. He rightly finds those reasons in the social reality of Lope's time, and in the social function of the comedia in seventeenth-century Spain as the most powerful ideology-building tool and as a key resource for building a certain national identity (211). In this context, "as the key author in the process of founding a Spanish national theater, Lope de Vega provided the recurring themes that structured both the dramatic production of this period, and the form that this theater would take. In this pattern, we find the glorification of the figure of the king and the themes of religion, love and honor" (214). In such a context, Lope's interest in Isabel (and in Fernando, or in both) clearly fits well, since they were the most prestigious rulers of Spain, and they set the basis for the Spanish Empire, and for the mix of Monarchic power and Catholic faith that served as its ideological foundation. Furthermore, and interestingly enough, Pérez-Magallón identifies a number of political and social issues during Lope's lifetime that could be easily related with similar or equal issues in Isabel's times: the expulsion of the moriscos, the culmination of the Catholic monopoly in Spain, tensions among the aristocracy and the monarchy and the subsequent weakening of royal authority, tensions between Castile, Catalonia and Portugal. These issues, and the way Isabel handled them, would ultimately serve to elevate Isabel's figure (and that of Fernando) as a model and to an exemplary status; a status that would allow Lope's fellow countrymen to learn from Isabel's deeds lessons that could then be applied to events and situations of their own times (215-216).
The eleventh and last chapter of the volume, "Historiography with license: Isabel, the Catholic Monarchs and the Kingdom of God," is presented by its editor, David A. Boruchoff (pp. 225-294; 264-294 contain endnotes). This study is the most ambitious and the most interesting one of this collection. It is also the longest, although it would have benefited from a more concise approach, especially in the opening section. It is also true that it relates in the least direct manner to the figure of Queen Isabel; nevertheless, this is not necessarily a negative point. The main goal of Boruchoff's study is--using his own words-- "to look back on the role that historiography had in shaping an understanding of the monarch and the nation" (229), given the fact that during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, a number of authors developed new ways to write historiography. This was done most conspicuously by Hernando del Pulgar, to whom Boruchoff pays special attention. These new ways were created with the purpose of constructing historiographical discourses limited not only to documenting the bare facts of historical events, but also to offering, along with the facts and the documents, elements of philosophical nature linked to exemplary and ideological goals. Boruchoff states that during the years of the Catholic Monarchs historiographical writing in the Iberian Peninsula became more linked with poetic issues--in the Aristotelian sense--and less related to factual or documentary materials. As such, historiographical discourse dealt more with universal themes, the issue of exemplarity, essential factors and ideology, and less so with facts. In other words, the philosophical and politological issues prevailed over actions (226-227). Emphasis was therefore placed less on what happened, but rather the reasons for how and why it happened (and sometimes, how it should had happened): instead of a mere enumeration of facts, we find the architectural structure of events, ordered by certain organizational and transcendent principles. As Boruchoff states:"It is characteristic of the [historiographical] works written in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, under Isabel I, that they proclaim the significance of seemingly individual events with an air of certainty informed by hindsight. Epistemology is infused in the fabric of history itself, allowing the writer to combine the apparatus of dialectical and rhetorical study, the means by which one might not only attain systematic knowledge, but be persuaded of the author's own, perhaps less explicit, perspective" (230).Boruchoff centers his survey in the examination of a group of historiographical texts produced in Isabel's times, namely Diego Enríquez del Castillo's Crónica de Enrique IV and Hernando del Pulgar's Crónica de los Reyes Católicos. One of the aspects he scrutinizes is the concept of "militant piety" traced throughout the abovementioned texts, a concept understood as a key element for the success of a monarch. The idea--nihil novum sub sole--is to intertwine religion and politics, and to turn the former into a central element in the actions and developments of the latter. Boruchoff examines a speech, purportedly presented by Enrique IV and reproduced in Enríquez's Crónica, in which Isabel's father underlines the importance of engaging the entire kingdom in a fight that "shall destroy the enemies that besiege our faith," an invocation presented in the context of aristocratic disobedience and Muslim presence on Spanish soil. The justification to do so is clear, for "first, we are moved by a just cause; second, justice is clearly in our side; third, our aim is holy. The zeal of God guides us" (231). It is clear, as the author says, that these words are written more with Isabel in mind than her father, and that they carry--in the form of a historiographical text--the seeds of a program for future political action that would eventually be carried out and fulfilled by the Catholic monarchs themselves. Other authors, such as Pulgar, Palencia or Nebrija, would later elaborate on different aspects of a "political theology" (235) in which ideas of holy war, national unity, and God-given rights were absolutely central toward creating a new idea of kingship and government. In the context of a political inheritance like the one received by Isabel, "the crown understood the benefits of recasting civil conflict in terms of divine law and sectarian difference" (236). The idea, then, was to divert the energies of the noblemen into the enterprise of driving the Moors from Spain. But that was only a phase of a longer-lasting strategy, as Boruchoff points out: "This pietistic concept would continue to underwrite the expression of the Catholic Monarchs and their chroniclers after the fall of Granada in 1492, although it was evident that the national interest could no longer be cast as a territorial initiative or, indeed, as a war with foes external to the Christian faith" (236). The solution to this apparent dead-end was to transform this pietistic core into the main ideology of the newly unified patria and its collective identity, creating a state based mainly on a central pillar: the power of a strong monarchy assisted and guided by Christian religion. Of course, certain figures such as Machiavelli and Pulgar considered, as the author recalls, that "theological ideals and the promise of lasting glory are used as a palliative to political self-interest" (242).
Another principal topic surveyed in this chapter is the formulation, in chronicles and histories, of a theory of royal authority that placed utmost importance on the concept of mercy. Such a theory relates in an interesting way to Isabel herself, since, according to historians, she was always an implacable advocate of extreme rigor in the application of justice, as Pulgar states in his chronicle (242). It is interesting to note, as Boruchoff does, that "while Isabel takes an equal or leading role [as that of Fernando] in each and every decision in pursuit of religious uniformity, and in the war against Granada, she is conspicuously absent from those entailing mercy" (242). This fact, in addition to pleasing feminist and gender studies scholars, is significant because "the distinction made in these sources [i.e., texts written by Pulgar, Martire d'Anghiera, and Palencia] is a reflection of that in religious and legal philosophy between the actions of law and justice" (243). The ideal of a merciful, prudent, gracious, flexible monarch, raised on ideas expounded by Thomas Aquinas and ultimately based on the vision of "the ruler's status as an agent of divine concerns" (244), was very popular among those involved in the construction of a theory of Spanish monarchy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as Boruchoff proves (243-247, and before pp. 231-33).
Surprisingly, however, Isabel's chroniclers tend to underline a lack of piety and mercy as one of her major flaws (242-248). Therefore, it is less surprising that "this tension between the rigor of law and the mercy of justice is especially salient in Pulgar's history of the Catholic monarchs" (245). It is clear that, at least in a certain way, there were tensions between the ideal of a Christian prince constructed by historiographers and Isabel's practice of kingship; according to this, and to some of the formulations massively quoted by Boruchoff, it turns out that Fernando was, at least on paper, a much more Catholic monarch than his wife was. There are many other aspects of Boruchoff's text that cannot be examined here, without exceeding the limits prescribed for this review. I would like to finish this survey with a quote that encapsulates the main idea: "although some dismiss the historiography of the Catholic Monarchs as propaganda for a nation that did not exist in fact, one may more rightly conclude that their chroniclers envisioned an ideal toward which all Christians are admonished to aspire: the transcendent city of God." The quote then immediately adds, and not exactly to Isabel's credit: "If Isabel's chroniclers bear witness to policies that are intolerant of difference and often rigorous in its suppression, so too do they reveal the inadequacy of intolerance and rigor as a foundation for the Christian nation" (263). Both statements propose a significant change of perspective for the examination of the historiographical production during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs.
To conclude, I would say that this volume offers different degrees of interest, as is often the case in multiple-authored collections of scholarly texts. Only Boruchoff's contribution could be labeled as new and groundbreaking, while Ishikawa's sheds light on Isabel's interests as pious art collector, an aspect not frequently examined. Amasuno's text is appealing because it deals with apparently marginal issues that nevertheless reflect in a (medical) nutshell a significant portion of the ideas of the modern state according to Isabel and Fernando, thus exemplifying to what extent the royal control extended to different aspects of Spanish life. The rest of the volume, while it is informative, interesting, and well presented, does not add much to our previous knowledge of Isabel's life, deeds, and times. I also feel that some of the contributions to this volume share an important flaw: rather than directly exploring the primary texts related in one way or another with Isabel's times and figure, they explore these through previous studies or collections of texts (like Rodríguez Valencia's Isabel la Católica en la opinión de españoles y extranjeros). This fact, quite visible in Elizabeth T. Howe's and Alison Caplan's contributions, limits the results of the research, since no new relevant texts are identified, examined, or discussed. The resulting contrast with Boruchoff's final contribution, then, is overwhelming.
Those readers interested in in-depth information about Isabel, her time, and her facts might be somewhat disappointed by this book. The brevity of the chapters--with the exception of Boruchoff's-- impede the authors from analyzing in greater detail the different issues under scrutiny. Nevertheless, those who are interested in finding sound, rigorous information concerning the main aspects of Isabel's reign and its historical context, will be satisfied with this volume and its contents.