Ovid in the Age of Cervantes [Review]

This book is the first comprehensive study of Ovid’s influence during early modern Spain since Rudolph Schevill’s Ovid and the Renascence in Spain (1913). This time, fifteen specialists have contributed to a volume with a great variety of perspectives and surprising cohesiveness

Dignidad real y acción mayestática en La farsa de las galeras de Luis Milá

La farsa de las galeras es uno de los muchos textos escritos por Luis Milán hacia 1535 que vieron finalmente la luz dentro del Libro intitulado el Cortesano publicado en 1561, una vez que la corte de los duques de Calabria ha sido disuelta y sus señores –los propios duques y virreyes valencianos Fernando de Aragón y Germana de Foix– han fallecido. Mi intención aquí es demostrar cómo mediante este fasto dramático Luis Milán pretendía no únicamente halagar o entretener a su mecenas, sino poner de manifiesto la verdadera condición natural de éste como ‘rey’ y, por tanto, no sujeta a la contingencia política que lo apartaría del trono de Nápoles que había jurado en su infancia. Con este propósito, el músico y escritor valenciano desarrolla una trama dramática en la cual se pueden observar algunas de las cualidades que se atribuyen típicamente a los monarcas, fundamentalmente la de ser rey por específica elección de Dios

Cervantes' Epic Novel: Empire, Religion, and the Dream Life of Heroes in Persiles [Review]

Michael Armstrong-Roche quite correctly points out that most critics view The Labors of Persiles and Sigismunda as a “turning away from modernity” (3), an example of Cervantes’ late-life embrace of the Counter-Reformation. Some even consider the byzantine novel a misstep by the author of Don Quixote while, ironically, Cervantes himself saw his last book as his crowning achievement. In this percep¬tive monograph, Armstrong-Roche makes the case that Persiles can best be appreciated if, instead of looking forward toward the novel, we look back to the epic

Ut pictura non poesis: Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda and the Construction of Memory

Painting and literature in Early Modern Spain were powerful tools used to educate the population in a theocratic and absolutist ideology. Although the resolutions of the Council of Trent did not create a new style, they did provide a corpus of rules that shaped the artistic and literary production of the Catholic nations. Among the most important consequences of these resolutions may have been the necessity of controlling the different expressions of human creativity in order to maintain the country's dominant ideology. The next logical step for art and literature was to break with the intellectual elitism of the Renaissance and Mannerism in order to become more appealing to the senses of the population (Portús 21). Spain, the champion of the Catholic Reformation, developed a theory of the art of painting based on its "usefulness" in narrating stories to the faithful using strategies such as compositio loci or in illustrating complicated concepts with the rhetorical help of the demonstratio ad oculos. The seductive power of images was considered key to teaching the appropriate behaviors. (1) Francisco Pacheco established this importance in his Arte de la pintura (1649), in which he considers the aim of the Christian painter to "persuadir al pueblo, y llevarlo, por medio de la pintura, a abrazar alguna cosa conveniente a la religión" (I, 11; 252)

Courting Don Quixote. An Aulic Frame of Reading

Despite the current success of aulic studies in early modern history, the court did not exist as a research topic on its own until well into the 1980s. Before then, historians tried to compile all the information they could with the hope of being able to reconstruct a "perfect" narration of their national history. In the twentieth century, it was argued that a collection of data reflects not only objective information, but also the personality, interests, goals, and beliefs of the collector and his or her society. The ideal of "Total History"--the aspiration to write an indisputable and objective narration of cultures and nations has disintegrated. Historical studies have since diversified into multiple circumstantial, inapprehensible and sub-theoretical pieces. It is in this context that the subfield of "court history" has been able to grow in recent decades. In many instances, court history studies what happens behind the scenes of major historical events, and therefore its findings and achievements were often neglected of diminished by the traditional notion of history. In court history, secrets and rumors, games, friendships, and personal preferences are more important than facts, battles, and offices

Home economics curricular reforms in the public elementary schools in the Philippines 1900-1980

The purpose of this study was to trace the historical development of Home Economics taught in the public elementary schools in the Philippines from 1900 to 1980. Specifically, it sought to determine: (a) the general educational aims and policies that affected the elementary Home Economics instruction, (b) the reforms and changes made in the elementary Home Economics curriculum, and (c) the influence of the prevailing national political ideology and focus of governmental control in the elementary Home Economics curriculum. Historical research methods were followed. Data were gathered from documents, curricula in Home Economics, directives to teachers, memoranda, bulletins, circulars, Annual Reports of the Director of Education, census reports, Survey Reports of Educational Commissions, Reports of the Philippine Commission, books, periodicals, theses, and dissertations. Information was critically examined, gathered, and organized

An Evaluation of the Genetic Variation Within Selected Populations of Vaejovis Coahuilae Williams 1968 Using Mitochondrial Dna Analyses

The species Vaejovis coahuilae Williams 1968 is the second most common scorpion species in New Mexico and Texas. This species is a generalist that can inhabit a wide array of habitats. Based on the reported range of this species, we predicted that it originated in northern Mexico and spread north through Texas and New Mexico. The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of the historical dispersal pattern of the species V. coahuilae from Texas through New Mexico. A molecular approach was utilized to discover deeper relationships among populations of this species. Two partial sequences from the mitochondrial genome including the 16S rDNA and the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene are used to make a molecular comparison between populations. Isolated PCR products were sequenced using the LI-COR Global Edition IR2 DNA analyzer or at the DNA Core Facility at Cornell University using the Applied Biosystems Automated 3730 DNA analyzer. Three closely relates species were used as outgroups for sequence comparison. All sequences (39 total) were aligned using the BioEdit program to produce the finished products including a partial (360 bp) sequence of the mitochondrial 16S rDNA and a partial sequence (696 bp) of the COI gene. These two sequences were appended to produce a 1046 bp sequence that was also used to evaluate the dispersal pattern of V. coahuilae. These three data sets were analyzed separately using PAUP 4.0. One of the equally parsimonious trees was chosen for each data set to compute a 50% majority rule consensus tree and the topology was evaluated with 1,000 bootstrap replicates. Analysis of the 16S rDNA was mostly inconclusive producing a large polytomy but three populations from BBNP each fell out together and the populations from Albuquerque, San Antonio and one specimen from Deming grouped as a monophyletic subgroup. However, the arrangement of the tree suggests that all populations are equally related. Analysis of the COI gene was slightly more informative than the 16S rDNA analysis suggesting some geographically local populations to be more closely related to each other than to other populations. A large branch contains a polytomy with four branches; one of which contains one individual from GMNP and two individuals from the Roswell population; the other three branches contain individuals from BBNP. Outside of this polytomy are two branches containing a specimen from GMNP. The topology of both the COI/16s rDNA combined sequence data tree suggests possibly a high elevation specimen from GMNP (G3) has a more recently experienced gene flow with other populations. The branching pattern of the tree produced from the COI sequence data suggests the other specimen from GMNP collected at a much lower elevation on the eastern side of the mountain range has more recently experienced gene flow with populations in Roswell. In the topology of the COI tree and the combined sequence data tree the Albuquerque population appears more genetically related to populations from BBNP which represents the most northern and southern reaches of the sampled range. This suggests an accessible route for gene flow between the populations

“Nuevos casos, nuevas artes.” Intertextualidad, autorrepresentación e ideología en la obra de Juan Boscán

Este libro pone en evidencia a la crítica literaria que mantiene a Juan Boscán como autor medieval y cancioneril cuyo mayor logro poético consistiría en ser el precursor de Garcilaso. A lo largo de sus páginas se analizan algunos de los distintos motivos por los que el catalán ocupa una posición marginal dentro del canon literarioe spañol a pesar de la importancia de su traducción del Libro del Cortegiano de Castiglione, su notable contribución a la poesía renacentistae spañola y su labor como editor,e ntrel a que destaca la publicación postuma de los poemas de Garcilaso de la Vega

«En música italiana / y castellana en la letra». El camino hacia la ópera italianizante en el teatro palaciego de Felipe V

Los historiadores del drama musical español han encontrado durante generaciones una abundante fuente de conocimientos en La historia de la Zárpela, o sea, del Drama lírico en España, desde su origen a fines del siglo XIX de Emilio Gotarelo Mori. Desde la aparición de este libro y hasta no hace mucho tiempo, los diversos estudios llevados a cabo no han hecho sino sumar datos, corregir algunas inexactitudes y, en definitiva, acudir con el cántaro una y otra vez al libro de Gotarelo Mori. Pot este motivo, advierte Juan José Gorreras (49-50), una revisión crítica del drama musical español requiere de una reevaluación de los documentos conocidos hasta ahora y una relectura crítica de los mismos. Entre los autores que más han trabajado en los últimos años para lograr esta renovación habría que destacar a William M. Bussey, Daniele Becker y Louise K. Stein, y la sistemática publicación de documentos de la serie Fuentes para la historia del teatro en España a cargo de N. D. Shergold, J. E. Varey y Charles Davis. Sin embargo, aunque cada vez sabemos más de la música dramática en el teatro español de la época de los Austrias, todavía queda demasiado por esclarecer en cuanto a lo que supuso la llegada de la música italiana a las tablas del Coliseo del Buen Redro durante el reinado de Felipe V y el impacto que ello tuviera en las relaciones entre la música y el texto dramático en las celebraciones palaciegas

El Sansón de Extremadura: Diego García de Paredes en la literatura española del Siglo XVI [Review]

El estudioso de los siglos áureos que se aproxime a este libro encontrará un trabajo de edición muy serio cuya propuesta va más allá de lo encontrado de portada a contraportada. Lo que Antonio Sánchez Jiménez plantea en este volumen es asumir de forma natural la mezcolanza de historicidad y ficción con que se forjó la leyenda del héroe extremeño. De esta manera, narraciones, anécdotas orales y documentos históricos, estudiados conjuntamente, “sitúan los actos de un personaje histórico y real en el nivel semi-mítico de héroes clásicos y medievales” (11)