Constructing Iberian Identities, 1000-1700-- a volume dedicated to the memory of the esteemed Hispanist Sir John H. Elliot--was inspired by an international conference, “Iberia, the Mediterranean, and the World in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods,” organized by Thomas Barton, Marie A. Kelleher, Zrinka Stahuljak, and Antonio M. Zaldívar, and hosted by Teofilo Ruiz and UCLA’s Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. The book was edited by three of the organizers and includes contributions by a group of participants whose work focuses on the topic of identity loosely defined as “a multivalent concept, the product of the intertwining of individual and community, of Self and Other, and unconscious processes and deliberate strategy” (11). The richness and range of the topics covered in this book are such that a short review cannot do justice to the complexity of the historical arguments presented. Thus, what follows is merely a brief overview.
This collection comprises twelve articles “on disparate topics spanning seven centuries” (11), divided into four sections framed by a brief introduction from the editors and a foreword by Teofilo Ruiz. After the introduction, part one, “Urban Communities,” includes three articles by Maya Soifer Irish, “Landscapes of Salvation, Landscapes of Power: Jews, Christians, and Urban Space in Fourteenth-Century Seville” (23-38); Jesús Ángel Solórzano Telechea, “From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic: The Role of the Town-Ports of Northern Iberia in the First Internationalization of the European Economy in the Middle Ages” (39-54), and Denis Menjot, “The Fiscal Dialogue at the Castilian Cortes of Madrigal of 1438” (55-74). Thus, this segment explores identity formation in late medieval Iberian cities. For instance, Soifer focuses on Seville in connection with Jewish persecutions, and Solórzano Telechea in Cantabrian port towns’ role in connecting the Crown of Castile with the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. In the final article, Menjot examines royal tax policy and the complaints it caused, as presented at the Castilian Cortes meeting in Madrigal (Avila) in 1438.
Travis Bruce’s “Ruling between and across the Lines: Liminal Identities and Political Legitimacy in al-Andalus” (75-90) opens the second part, devoted to “Ethno-Religious Self-Fashionings.” Bruce illustrates how identity and political legitimacy intersect in the case of Ali b. Mujahid, his father’s successor in the Taifa of Denia, despite being raised in captivity in Pisa. Next is Francesca Trivellato’s “The Medieval/Early Modern Divide along the Franco-Spanish Border” (91-106), a chapter analyzing an anthology of maritime laws, Us et coustumes de la mer (Usages and Customs of the Sea), first published in 1647 by Étienne Cleirac, a lawyer of Bordeaux. Trivellato describes how Cleirac falsely attributed to the fourteenth-century chronicler Villani that medieval Jews invented private finance, marine insurance, and bills of exchange. This section ends with Bryan Givens’s “The Declinación of the Hidden One: Encubertismo during the Reigns of the Late Spanish Habsburgs” (107-120). “Encubertismo” was a legend that promoted the existence of the Hidden One, which is to say, an encubierto or hidden king who would unify the kingdoms of Hispania and the Christian world in their fight against Islam. It was popular during the reigns of Fernando the Catholic (r. 1479-1516) and Charles V (r. 1516-1556) but slowly declined with Philip II and his successors, signaling the progressive loss of prestige of the Habsburg rulers.
Part Three, “Writing, History, and Political Authority,” begins with Antonio Zaldívar’s “Reconsidering the Shift from Latin to Romance in the Castilian Chancery: A Historiographic Review” (123-138). This chapter reviews the most relevant theories to explain why Castilian displaced Latin as the predominant language at the Royal Chancery from the reign of Alfonso VIII (d. 1214). Zaldívar proposes a comparative approach, favoring Teofilo Ruiz’s interpretation that sees the lack of a fully developed notarial culture as the principal cause behind the rise of Castilian. Next, Xavier Gil’s “History Writing in Spain from Humanism to Counter-Reformation. On Deeds, Books, and Truth” (139-156), focuses on historians, humanists, and antiquarians from Castile, Aragon, and Portugal, such as Cristóbal Suárez de Figueroa, Juan Luis Vives, Ambrosio de Morales, Sebastián Fox Morcillo, Jerónimo Zurita, and Fernão Lopes, and archives, like that at Simancas. This part concludes with Richard L. Kagan’s reflections on historiography, “‘Above all, to thine own self be true’: Pedro de Valencia, Self-Censorship, and the (Unwritten) History of Chile,” (157-175). Pedro de Valencia was one of the official chroniclers of Philip III (r.1598-1621), who was in charge of reporting on the Indias and Castile. Kagan argues that Valencia abandoned his commission of writing the history of the conquest of Chile because, on the one hand, he did not want to smear the Spanish monarchy, and on the other hand, he was confronted by a dilemma inherent in his role as chronicler: this demanded dissimulation inconsistent with his vocation as a historian.
The volume ends with a fourth part, “Mobility and Encounter,” which contains three articles: Francisco García-Serrano, “Medieval Encounters between Iberia, the Mediterranean, and Asia: Myths and Realities” (181-196); Roser Salicrú i Lluch, “Intertwining Granada and North Africa: New Evidence on Diplomatic Contacts, Naval Power, Mobility, and Family Ties in the Late Medieval Western Islamic Mediterranean” (197-210); and Theresa Earenfight, “An Infanta Travels: Catalina of Aragon, 1485-1501” (211-226). Thus, Garcia-Serrano writes about the role itinerant mendicant friars played in making Iberia visible to other powers, while Salicrú investigates how Christian archival sources allow us to study the interaction between Muslims and Christians, movement, and migration in the western Mediterranean. In the final contribution, Earenfight examines material culture through the possessions and tastes of Infanta Catalina/Catherine of Aragon, who lived always on the move: first following the itinerant court of her parents, the Catholic Monarchs, then traveling to England to marry Prince Arthur (and later his brother, the future Henry VIII), and introducing Spanish taste and fashions to her new kingdom.
The volume concludes with Teofilo F. Ruiz’s “Afterword” (227-230), which emphasizes the quality and breadth of the contributions. This collection will undoubtedly be of interest to many scholars as it showcases a diversity of perspectives and methodological approaches for the study of Iberia (and particularly, the Crown of Castile) and its connections with the Mediterranean and the Atlantic over the course of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, demonstrating the importance of adopting global and comparative perspectives for the study of pre-Modern history.