Rex excelsus qui scientiam diliget: la dimensión sapiencial de la Realeza alfonsí

El hecho de otorgar a un monarca un sobrenombre que se consolide para la posteridad siempre encierra un cierto juicio moral historiográfico. El resonante apelativo el Sabio se encuentra entre los más apetecibles y favorables que un gobernante puede recibir de la posteridad. Al apodar a Alfonso X el sabio se está sublimando su persona, poniéndola por encima de los demás monarcas de la España medieval. El apelativo sapiencial regio tiene claras y potentes resonancias bíblicas, pero también platónicas y aristotélicas. Ciertamente, Alfonso X aparece como una figura histórica a la que le encaja el epíteto sapiencial como anillo al dedo, siendo el monarca europeo medieval que mejor encarnó el uso y disposición de la literatura y la ciencia como una herramienta de ejercicio del poder regio. Pero el objeto de este estudio no es hacer un balance de sus indiscutibles logros políticos y culturales. Es éste un estudio propio de la teología política, es decir, de imágenes sapienciales del poder regio. Estas imágenes sapienciales del poder alfonsí las analizaremos a partir de tres tres categorías: a/ el Rey sabio como gobernante clericalizado, piadoso y cultivado (litteratus); b/ el Rey sabio como filósofo gobernante y maestro de su pueblo (vinculado al arquetipo sophia/sapientia), y c/ el Rey sabio como gobernante virtuoso y prudente (vinculado a la phronesis aristotélica).Any given royal “nickname” with posterity implies a moral judgment by historiography. The tremendous royal name the Wise is one of the most favourable and desirable ones which a ruler can obtain. When Alfonso X is nicknamed el Sabio he is sublimated above any other medieval Spanish king. The sapiential royal name has clearly powerful Biblical resonances but also Platonic and Aristotelian. Certainly Alfonso X is an historical figure who deserves the sapiential royal name being the European medieval ruler who made better use of literature and science as political tools. However, this article is not a balance of his cultural and political achievement, but a study in wisdom’s medieval political theology, that is, in the sapiential images of Alfonsine royal power. We will analyze these sapiential images of Alfonsine power in three categories: a/ the Wise King as a clerk-ruler, pious and learned (litteratus); b/ the Wise King as a Philosopher-ruler, teacher of his people (linked to sophia/sapientia topos); c/ the Wise King as a virtuous and prudent ruler (linked to Aristotelic phronesis)

Celo inter manus pontificum tradidit spiritum. The ideology surrounding royal deaths in the light of the Latin castilian-leonese chronicles (twelfth and thirteenth centuries)

The death of a king in the medieval chronicles is an incomparable historiographical locus from which to examine this phenomenon. Historiographical texts written at the Castilian-Leonese court during the twelfth century and first half of the thirteenth century, in addition to offering first hand information on royal deaths and the accompanying ceremonies and funeral rites, fully reflect the ideological conceptions and propagandistic constructs surrounding such exceptional events, as will be seen in the first section of this article. In a second section, attention will be paid to the narrative and literary treatment given to the death of a king, as on a formal plane this is also considered to be an event of notable importance.This article is framed in the Migravit and Sepultus Research Projects financed by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and the Casa de Velázquez [ref.: HAR2016-74846-P]

Los reyes bibliófilos: bibliotecas, cultura escrita y poder en el Occidente medieval

The spiritual ascendancy of the classical tradition in the Medieval West meant that in the illiterate society of the dark centuries (and perhaps precisely because of it) there continued to be a link between books and Latin culture and power and social elites. This was true to a certain degree, although not in such an unequivocal way as with the sword and power or land and power. Nevertheless, most literate medieval rulers perceived books and libraries with reverence. The libraries reunited by Germanic kings and Carolingian and Ottonian Emperors followed monastic or episcopal models, given that the late-Roman palace library tradition had fallen into oblivion. However, most Feudal royal libraries resembled those of the nobility. The so-called Renaissance of the Twelfth Century started to modify this trend and the rulers of the Latin West became “clerical”kings in possession of ever-growing libraries.El predominio espiritual de la tradición grecolatina en el Occidente medieval supuso que, a pesar de la generalización del analfabetismo en los siglos oscuros (o quizá precisamente debido a esto), se siguiera asociando a lo largo de todo el periodo libros y lengua latina con poder y élites sociales. No de una forma tan inequívoca como espada y poder o tierra y poder, pero sí de una cierta manera. La actitud de la mayor parte de los gobernantes medievales alfabetizados hacia el libro y las bibliotecas fue reverencial y en algunos casos casi “totémica”. Las bibliotecas de los reyes germánicos de la Antigüedad Tardía, así como las de los emperadores carolingios y otónidas siguieron un modelo episcopal-monástico, una vez que el tardorromano de biblioteca palatina semi-pública o pública había caído en el olvido. Ahora bien, la mayor parte bibliotecas de los reyes de la época feudal encajan mejor en el modelo de biblioteca señorial que en el de biblioteca monástica o biblioteca palatina o “de Estado”. El llamado renacimiento del siglo XII comenzaría a alterar esta dinámica, cuando los príncipes del Occidente latino iban a convertirse en reyes clericalizados poseedores de bibliotecas cada vez mayores

Min–max MPC using a tractable QP problem

Min–max model predictive controllers (MMMPC) suffer from a great computational burden that is often circumvented by using approximate solutions or upper bounds of the worst possible case of a performance index. This paper proposes a computationally efficient MMMPC control strategy in which a close approximation of the solution of the min–max problem is computed using a quadratic programming problem. The overall computational burden is much lower than that of the min–max problem and the resulting control is shown to have a guaranteed stability. A simulation example is given in the paper

Min-Max MPC based on a computationally efficient upper bound of the worst case cost

Min-Max MPC (MMMPC) controllers [P.J. Campo, M. Morari, Robust model predictive control, in: Proc. American Control Conference, June 10–12, 1987, pp. 1021–1026] suffer from a great computational burden which limits their applicability in the industry. Sometimes upper bounds of the worst possible case of a performance index have been used to reduce the computational burden. This paper proposes a computationally efficient MMMPC control strategy in which the worst case cost is approximated by an upper bound based on a diagonalization scheme. The upper bound can be computed with O(n3) operations and using only simple matrix operations. This implies that the algorithm can be coded easily even in non-mathematical oriented programming languages such as those found in industrial embedded control hardware. A simulation example is given in the paper

Min-max model predictive control as a quadratic program

This paper deals with the implementation of min-max model predictive control for constrained linear systems with bounded additive uncertainties and quadratic cost functions. This type of controller has been shown to be a continuous piecewise affine function of the state vector by geometrical methods. However, no algorithm for computing the explicit solution has been given. In this paper, we show that the min-max optimization problem can be expressed as a multi-parametric quadratic program, and so, the explicit form of the controller may be determined by standard multi-parametric techniques

Design for all as a research and education strategy

The biggest challenge for the education of designers lies in the fact that graduates will have to work in a context that is still ina process of definition. To meet this challenge, a collaborative and participatory strategy that develops two fundamental competencesfor the future is proposed: capacity to research and, therefore, to produce knowledge, and to meet needs other than thetraditional ones. This strategy gathers three areas: Research developed by professors; Interaction between theory and practice ofintegral design and universal design; Research and practice focused on the needs of people with disabilities. The specific objectivesof this proposal are: to educate designers based on the perspective of research-action; to pay attention to human rights; toconfront students with real situations; to encourage co-design between users and designers. Examples of designs developed bystudents in final projects are described.Keywords: design for all, strategy, design education