Between Honour and Excellence: Nobiliary Genealogy and Common Opinion in Early Modern Spain

This article inquires after the causes of the unprecedented growth and scope of genealogical expertise in the many realms that comprised the Spanish Monarchy in the seventeenth century. Lengthy proofs of nobility were a prerequisite for admission to orders of chivalry, courtly institutions, colleges, and universities. The nature and means of transmission of genealogical knowledge are analysed in order to grasp its socio-political significance. Indeed, besides their critical importance for the nobility, genealogies were relevant for society at large and were tied to the recurring debates on the essence of nobility that were taking place in Europe from the thirteenth century.This article inquires after the causes of the unprecedented growth and scope of genealogical expertise in the many realms that comprised the Spanish Monarchy in the seventeenth century. Lengthy proofs of nobility were a prerequisite for admission to orders of chivalry, courtly institutions, colleges, and universities. The nature and means of transmission of genealogical knowledge are analysed in order to grasp its socio-political significance. Indeed, besides their critical importance for the nobility, genealogies were relevant for society at large and were tied to the recurring debates on the essence of nobility that were taking place in Europe from the thirteenth century

Otros ojos, misma nobleza: imágenes de la nobleza portuguesa en el periodo Habsburgo

El artículo analiza la imagen de la nobleza portuguesa durante 1580-1640 a la luz de un conjunto de fuentes diverso. En primer lugar se ofrece un retrato de la imagen construida por los viajeros extranjeros al reino luso en las últimas décadas del Quinientos. Imágenes que remiten al siempre subjetivo mundo de la mirada del otro y la comprensión de otras formas de representación. Paralelamente se analizan también las obras de autores portugueses de la primera mitad del siglo XVII que ofrecen una imagen más institucionalizada en torno a su nobleza. El confronto de dos modelos y de dos interpretaciones de la realidad nobiliaria portuguesa ofrecen al historiador una herramienta de comprensión de las formas de expresión de la idea de fama durante la Edad Moderna y permite ver también cómo la idea de una Europa de noblezas transnacionales debe ser puesta cada vez más al frente en las investigaciones sobre la cultura nobiliaria. La permeabilidad de las imágenes y sus formas de articulación en un discurso entorno a las formas de expresión del poder son ejes esenciales en la comprensión del fenómeno nobiliario portugués y europeo.This article analyzes the image of the Portuguese nobility in the light of a combination of different sources. In the first place, a picture is offered of the image that was constructed by foreign travellers to the Lusitanian kingdom during the last decades of the sixteenth century. These are images that refer to the always subjective world of the ''view of the others" and the understanding of forms of representation which are different. At the same time, the works of the Portuguese authors from the first half of the seventeenth century, who offer a more institutionalized image of their nobility, are also analyzed. The comparison of these two models and interpretations of the reality of the Portuguese nobility, offer the historian an instrument with which he can understand the forms in which the idea of fame was expressed during the modem age, and also allows us to sea how the idea of a Europe of transnational nobilities should be given more importance in studies about aristocratic culture. The permeability of the images and the ways in which they are articulated in a discourse around the forms of expression of power are the central points of the comprehension of the phenomenon of the European and Portuguese nobility

Momentos: Julio Iglesias and the vitalistic discourse in the contemporary visual system

El presente trabajo es una reflexión ensayística sobre la construcción de Julio Iglesias como arquetipo musical e intérprete de canciones propias del vitalismo burgués en el régimen visual del siglo XXThis paper deals with the construction of Julio Iglesias as a musical archetype and vocalist of melodies related to a bourgeois vitalism in the visual regime of the twentieth centur

Interpretaciones del héroe clásico: la genealogía de la idea de noble/honrado y su desarrollo en la tratadística nobiliaria luso-castellana (1556- 1640). Algunos ejemplos

El artículo busca reflexionar sobre la relación entre el mundo clásico y el concepto de noble en la tratadística nobiliaria luso‐castellana de la primera Edad Moderna, analizando el papel y la influencia de autores como Aristóteles o Cicerón y su interpretación por parte de los teóricos de la nobleza modernos. Se trata de una aproximación al estudio de la idea de la excelencia y de preeminencia social inherente al propio concepto de noble junto con la operatividad social de algunos conceptos llave como los de virtud y honor. Los tratados de nobleza deben ser interpretados no únicamente como juegos retóricos más o menos exitosos, sino como formas de comunicación del prestigio social. En este sentido la antigüedad y los clásicos ofrecen formas variadas de expresión y articulación del concepto de noble útiles para una época de predomino nobiliario como fue la Edad Moderna.This text seeks to reflect on the relation ship between the Classical world and the concept of nobleman, as defined in the Luso -Castilin nobiliary treatises at the beginning of the Modern Age, by examining the role and influence of such authors as Aristotle and Cicero and its interpretation by modern theoreticians of nobility. It therefore provides an approach to the study of the idea of excellence and social prominence which are inherent in the concept of nobleman proper and to the social relevance of some key concepts, such as virtue and honour. Nobility treatises should be interpreted not only as variably successful rhetorical games, but also as strategies to communicate social prestige. In this respect, both antiquity and the classics provide diverse forms of expression and the articulation of the concept of nobleman which was useful at a time when, as was the case of the Modern Age, nobility was prevalent

« Raison du sang » et « raison de lignage ». La définition de la noblesse par le roi d’armes José Alfonso de Guerra y Villegas

Représentations imagées de la noblesse, les armoiries incarnent symboliquement et matériellement le lignage, attestant de la position sociale de celui qui les arbore. Roi d’armes, chargé de superviser l’héraldique et les blasons de Castille, José Alfonso de Guerra y Villegas est l’auteur d’un traité sur la noblesse et sur l’héraldique qui définit et incarne les conceptions nobiliaires dans la Castille du xviie siècle.Coats of arms were pictorial representations of the nobility that symbolically and materially defined the nobles’ lineage and social position. José Alfonso de Guerra y Villegas was a King of Arms, charged with defining and theorizing Castile’s heraldry and coats of arms. He was the author of a treatise on nobility and heraldry which defined and embodied the understanding of nobility in 17th century Castile