Knighthood and chivalry are commonly associated with courtly aristocracy and military prowess. Instead of focusing on the relationship between chivalry and nobility, Jesus D. Rodriguez-Velasco asks different questions. Does chivalry have anything to do with the emergence of an urban bourgeoisie? If so, how? And in a more general sense, what is the importance of chivalry in inventing and modifying a social class?In "Order and Chivalry," Rodriguez-Velasco explores the role of chivalry in the emergence of the middle class in an increasingly urbanized fourteenth-century Castile. The book considers how secular, urban knighthood organizations came to life and created their own rules, which differed from martial and religiously oriented ideas of chivalry and knighthood. It delves into the cultural and legal processes that created orders of society as well as orders of knights. The first of these chivalric orders was the exclusively noble Castilian Orden de la Banda, or Order of the Sash, established by King Alfonso XI. Soon after that order was created, others appeared that drew membership from city-dwelling, bourgeois commoners. City institutions with ties to monarchy--including the Brotherhood of Knights and the Confraternities of Santa Maria de Gamonal and Santiago de Burgos--produced chivalric rules and statutes that redefined the privileges and political structures of urban society. By analyzing these foundational documents, such as "Libro de la Banda," "Order and Chivalry" reveals how the poetics of order operated within the medieval Iberian world and beyond to transform the idea of the city and the practice of citizenship.

An exploration of the thirteenth-century law code known as Siete Partidas Conceived and promulgated by Alfonso X, King of Castile and Leon (r. 1252-1282), and created by a workshop of lawyers, legal scholars, and others, the set of books known as the Siete Partidas is both a work of legal theory and a legislative document designed to offer practical guidelines for the rendering of legal decisions and the management of good governance. Yet for all its practical reach, which extended over centuries and as far as the Spanish New World, it is an unusual text, argues Jesus R. Velasco, one that introduces canon and ecclesiastical law in the vernacular for explicitly secular purposes, that embraces intellectual disciplines and fictional techniques that normally lie outside legal science, and that cultivates rather than shuns perplexity. In Dead Voice, Velasco analyzes the process of the Siete Partidas's codification and the ways in which different cultural, religious, and legal traditions that existed on the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages were combined in its innovative construction. In particular, he pays special attention to the concept of "dead voice," the art of writing the law in the vernacular of its clients as well as in the language of legal professionals. He offers an integrated reading of the Siete Partidas, exploring such matters as the production, transmission, and control of the material text; the collaboration between sovereignty and jurisdiction to define the environment where law applies; a rare legislation of friendship; and the use of legislation to characterize the people as "the soul of the kingdom," endowed with the responsibility of judging the stability of the political space. Presenting case studies beyond the Siete Partidas that demonstrate the incorporation of philosophical and fictional elements in the construction of law, Velasco reveals the legal processes that configured novel definitions of a subject and a people.

Este libro reune las ultimas investigaciones de los maximos especialistas en este importante autor del siglo XV castellano que cultivo todos los generos literarios. Contains the latest research by the most important scholars of the Castilian author Mosen Diego de Valera. Esta obra colectiva reune las ultimas investigaciones de los maximos especialistas en este importante autor del siglo XV castellano que cultivo todos los generos literarios. En este volumen monografico Guido Cappelli escribe sobre Valera y el Humanismo; Federica Accorsi analiza la relacion de Valera con los judios conversos; Florence Serrano estudia la presencia de Diego de Valera en Borgona y en su literatura; Gonzalo Ponton se centra en las cartas escritas por Diego de Valera; Jesus Rodriguez Velasco analiza a Diego de Valera como artista microliterario; Cristina Moya analiza la influencia de la cronica Valeriana entre 1482 y 1567; Fernando Gomez Redondo explica las palabras que Juan de Valdes dedica a Valera en su Dialogo de la lengua; Jose Julio Martin Romero analiza la influencia de Diego de Valera en el Nobiliario Vero de Hernan Mexia y, finalmente, Juan Luis Carriazo Rubio prueba que mosen Diego de Valera no escribio el Origen de la Casa de Guzman. Cristina Moya Garcia es profesora en la Universidad de Cordoba. This collection contains the latest research by the most important scholars of this fifteenth century Castilian author who cultivated all literary genres. Guido Cappelli writes about Valera and Humanism; Federica Accorsi analyzes the relationship between Valera and the converted Jews; Florence Serrano studies the presence of Diego de Valera in Burgundy and in its literature; Gonzalo Ponton focuses on the letters written by Diego de Valera; Jesus Rodriguez-Velasco studies Diego de Valera as micro-literary artist; Cristina Moya examines the influence of the Valeriana between 1482 and 1567; Fernando Gomez Redondo explains the words dedicated to Diego de Valera by Juan de Valdes (Dialogo de la lengua); Jose Julio Martin Romero discusses the influence of Diego de Valera in Nobiliario Vero of Hernan Mexia; and, finally Juan Luis Carriazo Rubio proves that Mosen Diego de Valera did not write the Origen de la Casa de Guzman. Cristina Moya Garcia is a profesora at the Universidad de Cordoba. Contributors: Federica Accorsi, Guido Cappeli, Juan Luis Carriazo Rubio, Fernando Gomez Redondo, Jose Julio Martin Romero, Cristina Moya Garcia, Gonzalo Ponton, Jesus Rodriguez Velasco, Florence Serrano