A thorough examination of the making of, transmission, and scholarly engagement with one of the most famous poems in the Spanish language. Completed shortly before Jorge Manrique's death in 1479, the Coplas por la muerte de su padre is arguably the most famous poem in the Spanish language. Since its first circulation in the same era, the text has occupied a prominent place in the Spanish literary tradition, becoming, along with its author, a cultural icon. This book explores the ways in which successive generations of readers and scholars have engaged with the poem. It also contextualizes the Coplas, Manrique's life, and his enduring reputation. The book is divided into four chapters. The first provides information about the historical setting of the Coplas and its earliest transmission. A chronological survey of the poem's reception comprises chapter 2 (the Renaissance and Baroque eras) and chapter 3 (literary reception in the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries). Chapter 4, "Shifting Literary Perspectives", examines how different perceptions of the meaning and form of the text have changed over the centuries, and the way in which translations have also revealed a variety of interpretations and transformations. Nancy Marino is Professor of Spanish, Adjunct Professor of History, and Consultant to the Vice President for Research at Michigan State University.

The Queen who shaped the music, literature, architecture, and painting of late medieval Spain. This multidisciplinary volume was inspired by the quincentenary of the death of Queen Isabel I of Castile, early modern Europe's first powerful queen regnant. Comprising work by distinguished art historians, musicologists, historians, and literary scholars from England, Spain, and the United States, it begins with a theoretical examination of medieval queenship itself that argues - against the grain of the volume - for its inseparability from kingship. Several essays examine the complex ways in which the Queen and her advisers shaped the music, literature, architecture, and painting of fifteenth-century Spain and how these in turn shaped the sovereign's power and persona. Others analyze influences on Isabel's reign from Aragon, Portugal, and northern Europe. A third group deals with issues of periodization, arguing from a variety of perspectives for the modernity of Isabelline culture. The evolving construction of Isabel's image from the mid-fifteenth to the late-twentieth century is also studied. BARBARA WEISSBERGER is Associate Professor Emerita of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Minnesota. OTHER CONTRIBUTORS:Rafael Dominguez Casas, Theresa Earenfight, Michael Gerli, Chiyo Ishikawa, Tess Knighton, Kenneth Kreitner, Elizabeth A. Lehfeldt, Nancy F. Marino, William D. Phillips, Jr., Emilio Ros-Fabregas, Ronald E. Surtz