Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies Template

Alejandro García-Sanjuán · 29 Dec 2016

This paper focuses on the survival of a form of historical memory in modern Spain that dates back to the nineteenth century. The prevailing form of Spanish national identity at that time was completely dependent on Catholicism; the medieval Iberian past was understood as a struggle of national liberation against invading Muslims, culminating in a…

Maya Soifer · 1 Jan 2009

While Américo Castro’s convivencia remains an influential concept in medieval Iberian studies, its sway over the field has been lessening in recent years. Despite scholars’ best efforts to rethink and redefine the concept, it has resisted all attempts to transform it into a workable analytical tool. The article explores the malaise affecting convivencia, and suggests…

Hugh Cagle · 3 Jul 2015

For many modern observers, West Africa now stands as the most acute expression of a situation common throughout the tropics: a natural world defined by prodigious nature and debilitating febrile illness. I argue that this connection was inaugurated as a possibility – though not a definitive condition – over the course of the late fifteenth…

Iona McCleery · 1 Jun 2009

Recent historians have rehabilitated King Duarte of Portugal, previously maligned and neglected, as an astute ruler and philosopher. There is still a tendency, however, to view Duarte as a depressive or a hypochondriac, due to his own description of his melancholy in his advice book, the Loyal Counselor. This paper reassesses Duarte's writings, drawing on…

Jonathan Decter · 1 Sep 2011

The purpose of this article is to provide a close reading of a thirteenth-century Hebrew narrative by Jacob Ben El‘azar of Toledo that recounts the tale of a “sodomite” who meets a violent end. The story focuses on the amorous affair of Sapir, an adult male, his beloved Shapir, a male youth around the age…