Aragon/Catalonia/Valencia

Schein, Sylvia. Fideles Crucis: The Papacy, the West, and the Recovery of the Holy Land, 1274–1314. Oxford: Clarendon, 1991. Sylvia Schein shows that although crusading to the East had ceased by the later 13th century, popes such as Nicholas IV and Clement V, as well as kings like Philip IV of France and James II of Aragon, had kept alive the hope of a new Crusade to restore Jerusalem to Latin Christian control.
Nirenberg, David. Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996. An important work that analyzes the relationship between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Aragon and the French Pyrenees region during the 14th century. Focusing on the Crusades, Holy Week processions, and other cases of ritualized violence, Nirenberg argues that the persecutory policies and violence displayed toward minorities by dominant groups was not intended for their destruction but served as a means to maintain boundaries between those groups.
Monter, William. Frontiers of Heresy: The Spanish Inquisition from the Basque Lands to Sicily. Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511523434 A rich exploration of the “Aragonese century” of the Spanish Inquisition, from 1530 to 1630, when a wider range of offenders were prosecuted across Aragon and its possession states. Against the traditional and stereotypical position on the Inquisition (including an over-emphasis on the Castilian Inquisition), Monter argues for “rational” reasons behind the prosecutions, just as defendants themselves were active participants in their own cases.
Knighton, Tess, and Carmen Morte García. “Ferdinand of Aragon’s Entry into Valladolid in 1513: The Triumph of a Christian King.” Early Music History 18 (1999): 119–163. DOI: 10.1017/S0261127900001856 Chronicles Ferdinand’s ceremonial entry into Valladolid on 5 January 1513, which was carefully scripted to recall the triumphs of the Roman emperors. Preparations for this triumphal entry included street decorations, the rehearsal of pageants, and various kinds of music and dance. Pays special attention to musical documentation.
Weissberger, Barbara F., ed. Queen Isabel I of Castile: Power, Patronage, Persona. Woodbridge, UK: Tamesis, 2008. Essay collection divided into three parts on Aragon, Portugal, and northern Europe; patronage and reciprocal relationships; and questions of periodization (medieval or modern). Includes essays on Isabel’s musical interests, book and artistic patronage, Hernando de Talavera, Juan de Anchieta, conflictive subjectivity, and politics of truth and justice.
Berco, Cristian. Sexual Hierarchies, Public Status: Men, Sodomy, and Society in Spain’s Golden Age. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007. Despite the broader claims of its title, this book focuses on Inquisition cases in Aragon. Considers such topics as local sexual economies, sexual geography, and the “dialectics of dominance.” Sees homosexual behavior as subversive of the social order. Looks at some technical aspects of actual trial procedure. Views the prosecution of sodomites as an effort at social control.
Russell, Edward. The English Intervention in Spain and Portugal in the Time of Edward III and Richard II. Oxford: Clarendon, 1955. An impressive work based on Spanish documentary material, though the author notes that he did not fully exploit the archives of Aragon. Especially good on diplomacy.
Constable, Olivia Remie, ed. Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim and Jewish Sources. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997. Excerpted sources on the end of al-Andalus.
Kennedy, Hugh. Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of Al-Andalus. London: Longman, 1996. On the last stage in the history of Muslim al-Andalus.
O'Callaghan, Joseph F. Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. Contains an enlightening chapter on how the northern kingdoms financed the enterprise of the Reconquista, and pp. 177–208 trace the public relations side of the enterprise.
Tolan, John V. Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. How the Christians thought of their Muslim neighbors.
Edwards, John. The Spain of the Catholic Monarchs, 1474–1520. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000. On the war for Granada from the Christian perspective.
Kelleher, Marie A. The Measure of Woman: Law and Female Identity in the Crown of Aragon. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010. Study of cases from the 13th and 14th centuries involving women. Property, crimes of passion, and violence against women.
Barletta, Vincent. 2008. Deixis, taqiyya, and textual mediation in crypto-Muslim Aragon. Text and Talk 28.5: 561–579. DOI: 10.1515/TEXT.2008.029 Careful analysis of key texts translated, copied, and circulated within reading communities of crypto-Muslim minorities during 16th-century Aragon (Spain). Presents fundamental practices of text performance and mediation that these scribal and lectorate traditions engaged as a mode of resistance and survival throughout a period of persecution and forced conversion.
Villalon, L. J. Andrew, and Donald J. Kagay, eds. The Hundred Years War (Part II): Different Vistas. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 2008. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004168213.i-480 Like its predecessor (Villalon and Kagay 2005), this volume includes material on warfare in the 14th and 15th centuries outside as well as inside the ambit of the Hundred Years’ War. Includes articles on the “War of the Two Pedros” between Castile and Aragon, the condottiere John Hawkwood, purveyance and war finance, and the efficacy of the longbow. Also covers Agincourt, the longbow, and historical memory (Agincourt, du Guesclin).
Fleck, Cathleen A. The Clement Bible at the Medieval Courts of Naples and Avignon: A Story of Papal Power, Royal Prestige, and Patronage. Burlington, VT, and Franham, UK: Ashgate, 2010. Biographical approach tracing the production of the Clement Bible from Naples, through changing ownership, and ultimately to Alfonso, King of Aragon. Shifting contexts of the bible allows for consideration of court contexts and workshop practices. Social history methodology emphasizes archival sources, as well as iconographic and stylistic analyses.
Earenfight, Theresa. The King’s Other Body: Maria of Castile and the Crown of Aragon. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010. Excellent study of the longest female regency in 15th-century Europe, when the childless wife of an Aragonese king governed his multiple Iberian possessions from 1432 to 1453 while he remained in Naples, establishing his rule over southern Italy.
Ehlers, Benjamin. Between Christians and Moriscos: Juan de Ribera and Religious Reform in Valencia, 1568–1614. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Inspired by the Council of Trent, the Archbishop Ribera attempted to implement an ambitious reform program following his arrival in Valencia. He generated considerably more support among Old Christians than among Moriscos, who comprised one-third of his diocese. Over the course of his forty-two-year episcopate, Ribera shifted from idealism to cynical pragmatism, ultimately establishing himself as a key advocate and apologist for the expulsion of the Moriscos.
Halavais, Mary. Like Wheat to the Miller: Community, Convivencia, and the Construction of Morisco Identity in Sixteenth-Century Aragon. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. Like Wheat to the Miller makes the case that the Aragonese Inquisition imposed the categories of Morisco and Old Christian upon a community that had shown a pattern of accommodation and peaceful co-existence prior to the 16th century. The notarial records of Teruel upon which this study is based do not necessarily reflect greater concerns such as the Ottoman Turks and the rebellion in Granada, but they do provide a valuable corrective to the more conflictive vision that arises from Inquisitorial sources.
Meyerson, Mark D. The Muslims of Valencia in the Age of Fernando and Isabel: Between Coexistence and Crusade. Oakland: University of California Press, 1991. Meyerson’s rich study of mudejar society in Valencia reveals a world of farmers, merchants, and artisans with significant ties to the Old Christian community. This work challenges the traditional view of Ferdinand as a ruler determined to build a Catholic kingdom in Aragon, arguing rather that the Catholic kings responded accordingly to widely divergent circumstances in Aragon, Castile, and Granada.
Miller, Kathryn. Guardians of Islam: Religious Authority and Muslim Communities of Late Medieval Spain. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Drawing upon fatwa, sermons, and court documents, Miller argues that the faqihs of 15th-century Aragon adapted and preserved Islamic culture to their circumstances under Christian rule. Through exhortation, the liberation of slaves, and the redemption of captives, Muslim leaders maintained a network of ties to the Islamic world that transcended the political boundaries of Aragon.
Halavais, Mary. Like Wheat to the Miller: Community, Convivencia, and the Construction of Morisco Identity in Sixteenth-Century Aragon. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. Shows how Teruel and nearby villages in southwestern Aragon resisted the imposition of the Inquisition, which sought to set the Christian, converso, and Morisco communities against one another.
Gundersheimer, Werner L. “Women, Learning, and Power: Eleonora of Aragon and the Court of Ferrara.” In Beyond Their Sex: Learned Women of the European Past. Edited by Patricia H. Labalme, 46–54. New York: New York University Press, 1980. The author examines the groundbreaking role that Eleonora of Aragon played in the court of her husband, Ercole I d’Este, duke of Ferrara, which made her an important model for her daughter, Isabella d’Este.
Meyerson, Mark. “Aragonese and Catalan Jewish Converts at the Time of the Expulsion.” Jewish History 6.1–2 (1992): 131–149. DOI: 10.1007/BF01695215 Focuses on the strategies employed by some Jewish families to protect their interests, as some members converted to Christianity while others remained Jewish. These strategies, however, could cause tensions when the Jews were expelled from Spain. Available online.
d’Abrera, Anna Ysabel. The Tribunal of Zaragoza and Crypto-Judaism, 1484–1515. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2008. A thematic summary of inquisitorial material related to accused crypto-Jewish practices for the Crown of Aragon. As in Gitlitz 2002 (cited under Converso Beliefs, Practices, and Identity) the author tries to determine crypto-Jewish practice from Inquisitorial accusations and testimony.
Zeldes, Nadia. The Former Jews of This Kingdom: Sicilian Converts after the Expulsion, 1492–1516. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2002. Uses inquisitorial financial records to investigate the lives of its converso victims in Sicily (under the control of the Crown of Aragon) after the Spanish Expulsion in 1492. As elsewhere, local “Old Christians” were hostile to the Inquisition and its activities, and not necessarily encouraging strong action against conversos.
Mas i Garcia, Carles. “Baixa Dansa in the Kingdom of Catalonia and Aragon in the 15th Century.” Historical Dance 3.1 (1992): 15–23. Discussion of the earliest Catalonian sources to refer to the baixa dansa (basse dance) including the Cervera manuscript, which contains choreographies of eleven baixes danses in a unique notation. Garcia gives his interpretation of the notation and its relationship with dance notation from later Spanish sources.
Bisson, Thomas N. The Medieval Crown of Aragón: A Short History. Oxford: Clarendon, 1986. Bisson traces the history of Aragón and Catalonia before their union, through the creation of the “Crown of Aragón,” and into the 16th century. Covering mainly political history, this short volume is one of the few English surveys of the region.
James I. The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon: A Translation of the Medieval Catalan Llibre dels Fets. Translated by Damian Smith and Helena Buffery. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2003. English translation of the Catalan Llibre dels Fets, often described as an “autobiography” by James I of Aragón, describing his life from his birth in 1208 to his death in 1276, with extensive attention to his political and military activities.
Muntaner, Ramon. The Chronicle of Muntaner. 2 vols. Translated by Anna Goodenough. London: Hakluyt Society, 1920–1921. Ramon Muntaner (b. c. 1270–d. 1336) surveys political and military events in the Crown of Aragón in the 13th and 14th centuries. This old-fashioned translation remains useful. This is one of the four “great Catalan chronicles,” together with the work of Bernat Desclot, the Llibre dels Fets, and the Chronicle of Pere III.
Miller, Kathryn A. Guardians of Islam: Religious Authority and Muslim Communities in Late Medieval Spain. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Based largely on Muslim rather than Christian documents, Miller’s work rediscovers the ongoing Muslim life of Mudejar communities in late medieval Aragón, showing their efforts to maintain a knowledge of Arabic and Islam through scholarship, exchange of texts, teaching, and travel to Islamic lands.
Bensch, Stephen P. Barcelona and Its Rulers, 1096–1291. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Charts the changes in urban administration, commercial organization, and family structures of Barcelona as it became one of the most important Mediterranean commercial centers. Unlike in Italian ports, Barcelona’s developing urban patriciate had to negotiate relations with the city’s count-kings.
Bisson, Thomas N. The Medieval Crown of Aragón: A Short History. Oxford: Clarendon, 1986. Bisson traces the history of Aragón and Catalonia before their union, through the creation of the “Crown of Aragón,” and into the 16th century. Covering mainly political history, this is one of the few English surveys of the topic, and it provides a good introduction for all readers.
Bowman, Jeffrey A. Shifting Landmarks: Property, Proof, and Dispute in Catalonia around the Year 1000. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004. This analysis of the process and administration of justice, especially with regard to landholding, raises important questions about feudalization and land tenure in this region.
Catlos, Brian A. The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragón, 1050–1300. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Catlos brings together archival research and earlier scholarship to introduce new visions of Mudejar life in Aragón and Catalonia. This study highlights differences in the Mudejar experience in different regions and periods.
Freedman, Paul H. The Diocese of Vic: Tradition and Regeneration in Medieval Catalonia. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1983. Focuses on questions of political and legal power, especially ecclesiastical lordship. Freedman tracks the wealth and support of Vic under the count-kings until 1099, and the role of the church within its city and region. Available online.
Kosto, Adam. Making Agreements in Medieval Catalonia: Power, Order, and the Written Word, 1000–1200. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Discusses the changing process and power of law as it shifted from oral practices to written documents. Agreements concerning castle tenure, dispute settlement, and agrarian contracts shed light on feudalization and Catalan society.
Brodman, James W. Ransoming Captives in Crusader Spain: The Order of Merced on the Christian-Islamic Frontier. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986. Not strictly a military order, the Order of Merced was founded c. 1230 to ransom Christians held captive by Muslims (a perennial problem of frontier life). Brodman elucidates the origins of the order, its changing organization and personnel, its fund-raising efforts, and its ransoming activities. Available online.
Edwards, John. The Spain of the Catholic Monarchs, 1474–1520. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000. Good survey, in English, of the period of Ferdinand and Isabella’s reign, looking more at their kingdoms than at the monarchs themselves. Edwards eschews a narrative of unification, and focuses instead on politics, institutions, economy, and society. Some background knowledge is assumed, so more for advanced students than general readers.
Hillgarth, J. N. The Spanish Kingdoms, 1250–1516. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1976–1978. In keeping with his title, Hillgarth examines several different realms, although the primary focus is on Castile and Catalonia. This is a rich and useful resource. Volume 1 covers 1250–1410; Volume 2 treats 1410–1516.
MacKay, Angus. Spain in the Middle Ages: From Frontier to Empire, 1000–1500. London: Macmillan, 1977. Excellent coverage of peninsular history analyzed in terms of the role of the frontier in two periods: 1000–1350 (when the frontier was a critical factor) and 1350–1500 (when the frontier was no longer a dominant issue). Although interest in frontier studies has declined recently, this is still useful for students.
Ruiz, Teofilo F. Spain’s Centuries of Crisis: 1300–1474. Oxford: Blackwell, 2007. These “centuries of crisis” were a turbulent period marked by civil war, economic woes, plague, and increasing religious intolerance. Ruiz explains the rise of the Trastámara dynasty and the solidification of fiscal and administrative institutions in the midst of these chaotic events.
VanLandingham, Marta. Transforming the State: King, Court, and Political Culture in the Realms of Aragón (1213–1387). Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2002. In this well-written study, VanLandingham examines the organization and personnel of the Aragonese royal court: the chancery, the treasury, and the king’s household. Evidence is drawn from palatine ordinances (royal regulations) laying out the proper form of the court.
Linehan, Peter. The Spanish Church and the Papacy in the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1971. Authoritative work in English charting the rocky path of papal reform in Spain, and relations between Rome, rulers in Castile and Aragón, and the provinces and dioceses in both regions. Detailed coverage of individual bishops, papal legates, papal taxation, and Spanish clerics in Rome. Available online.
Catlos, Brian A. The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragón, 1050–1300. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Examines the social, institutional, and economic situation of Muslims in Aragón and Catalonia (as distinct from Valencia) in the period up to the 14th century. Close analysis of institutions and case studies based on archival research.
Nirenberg, David. Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996. Using a close reading of contemporary data, Nirenberg contextualizes particular episodes of violence in 14th-century France and the Crown of Aragón to question theories of a generalized culture of persecution.
Vose, Robin. Dominicans, Muslims and Jews in the Medieval Crown of Aragón. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Vose provides a revisionist challenge to the commonly accepted idea that Dominicans in 13th-century Spain directed many of their activities (preaching, traveling, writing, and learning languages) toward the conversion of Muslims and Jews.
Burns, Robert I. Islam under the Crusaders: Colonial Survival in the Thirteenth-Century Kingdom of Valencia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991. Burns’s scholarship draws material from the archives of the Crown of Aragón. This volume examines Muslim daily life and Islamic social, religious, urban, and institutional structures under Christian rule. In this and other books, Burns views newly Christian Valencia within a framework of colonialism.
Catlos, Brian A. The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragón, 1050–1300. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Catlos investigates the conditions of Muslim life in Aragón and Catalonia, and proposes new ways to understand their social, institutional, and economic situation. The book includes several archival case studies.
Powell, James M., ed. Muslims under Latin Rule. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990. Collection of essays in English by various scholars describing Muslim life in the 12th and 13th century in different regions under Christian rule: Castile, Aragón, Italy, and the Crusader States.
Boswell, John. The Royal Treasure: Muslim Communities under the Crown of Aragón in the Fourteenth Century. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977. Boswell was one of the first American scholars to study archival records for Aragonese Mudejars in the 14th century. His book demonstrates significant differences between the experiences in Aragón and Valencia. The shabby printing job by Yale University Press is unfortunate. Available online.
Echevarría, Ana. The Fortress of Faith: The Attitude towards Muslims in Fifteenth Century Spain. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1999. Examines four Christian authors and their treatises against Islam in the mid-15th century, a period of increasing tension in Christian-Muslim relations. Echevarría argues that writings of this period reflect new attitudes that are key to understanding Ferdinand and Isabella’s campaign against Granada.
Nicolle, David. “Warfare: Iberia.” In The Crusades: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. Edited by Alan V. Murray, 1251–1254. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2006. A good comparison of Christian and Muslim strategy and tactics.
Smith, Damian, and Helena Buffery, trans. The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon: A Translation of the Medieval Catalan Llibre dels Fets. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2003. The first known autobiography by a Christian medieval king, this covers the capture of Minorca and the conquest of the kingdom of Valencia. Alongside his descriptions of royal power and prestige, James has a keen interest in military tactics.
Barton, Simon, and Richard A. Fletcher, trans. The World of El Cid: Chronicles of the Spanish Reconquest. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2000. Contains the four main narrative sources for the struggle to recover Iberia from the Muslims during the late 11th and the 12th centuries. The collection includes a biography of El Cid.
Smith, Damian J. Innocent III and the Crown of Aragon: The Limits of Papal Authority. Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West. Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004. Smith deftly shows that Pope Innocent III, and indeed any medieval pope, saw events only through a glass darkly and had to battle against distance, misinformation, lies and deceit, corruption, and, worst of all, unforeseen events. In the light of this, the theories of Innocent as an all-powerful autocrat establishing his theocratic hegemony over the Christian world start to seem plainly ridiculous.
Smith, Damian J. Crusade, Heresy and Inquisition in the Lands of the Crown of Aragon (c. 1167–1276). The Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World 39. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2010b. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004182899.i-249 An excellent and wide-ranging study with a chapter on Innocent and the crusader King Peter II of Aragon (chapter 1, “The Defeat of the Crown of Aragon,” pp. 13–39) and another (chapter 3, “Heretics in the Lands of the Crown and Beyond,” pp. 73–136) that explains clearly why Peter II committed his forces to battle against the pope’s Crusade.
Bisson, Thomas N. “The Problem of Feudal Monarchy: Aragon, Catalonia, and France.” Speculum 53.3 (1978): 460–478. DOI: 10.2307/2855140 Considers relations of crown and princes in comparative context, mostly from the 12th century.
Hamilton, Earl J. Money, Prices and Wages in Valencia, Aragon, and Navarre, 1351–1500. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936. An old, but still-important, analysis of money, prices, and wages for this region.
Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. The Dawn of Modern Banking. New Haven, CT, and London: University of Yale Press, 1979. There are ten conference papers in this volume, including Michael Prestwich’s study of Italian bankers in Edwardian England and John H. Munro’s examination of the export of money from England after 1272. Robert S. Lopez and Thomas W. Blomquist provide insights into 13th-century banking for Genoa and Lucca, respectively, while Manuel Riu looks at Aragon and Bariša Krekić examines Ragusa in Sicily.
Freedman, Paul H. The Origins of Peasant Servitude in Medieval Catalonia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511583636 Freedman focuses on the subjugation of the Catalan peasantry between the 11th and 13th centuries, and then the decline of serfdom in the 15th century.
Santanach, Joan, ed. The Book of Sent Sovi: Medieval Recipes from Catalonia. Translated by Robin Vogelzang. Serie B, Textos 51. Barcelona, Spain: Barcino and Tamesis, 2008. A bilingual edition of the oldest surviving Catalan culinary text, one of considerable complexity and interest.
Hieatt, Constance B., Brenda Hosington, and Sharon Butler. Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks. 2d ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996. The most wide-ranging of these collections: the recipes printed (in translation, if the original was not English) and adapted in this book come from English (including Anglo-Norman), French, Italian, Catalan, and Arabic sources.
Usher, Abbott P. The Early History of Deposit Banking in Mediterranean Europe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1943. Aims at stressing the complexity of evolutionary processes through the analysis of banking instruments in medieval and early modern Europe. Based on Catalan sources, it mainly focuses on Catalonia (the area to which Part 2 is entirely devoted).
Kogman-Appel, Katrin. Jewish Art between Islam and Christianity: The Formal Language of Sephardic Bible Decoration. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 2004. Sephardic bibles are decorated in an aniconic style (i.e., one that avoids representational imagery) heavily indebted to Islamic art. This book covers Castilian and Catalan workshops of the 13th through 15th centuries, the major artists, and the environment of convivencia (the acculturation of Jewish, Islamic and Christian communities) and its decline in which the Bibles were
Setton, Kenneth M. Catalan Domination of Athens, 1311–1388. Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America, 1948. Even though it is aging, this remains best study of the Grand Catalan Company and its military importance.
Mott, Lawrence V. “Ships of the 13th-century Catalan Navy.” International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 19.2 (1990): 101–112. DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-9270.1990.tb00241.x Based on iconographic and documentary evidence, this paper focuses mainly on Catalan oared fighting ships, adducing important evidence for technological change in rowing systems.
Marshall, J. H., ed. The “Rozos de trobar” of Raimon Vidal and Associated Texts. London: Oxford University Press, 1972. Raimon composed the Razos sometime around 1190–1213. The Catalan author promotes Old Provençal as the necessary language for lyric poetry. Provides a grammar for practical application. Associated texts include Doctrina d‘acort, by Terramagnino da Pisa and Regles de trobar and Doctrina de compondre dictats, by Jofre de Foixà.
Doumerc, Bernard. Venise et l’émirate hafside de Tunis (1231–1535). Paris: L’Harmattan, 1999. This study looks at Venice’s political relationship with the Hafsid dynasty and the economic role of North Africa in Venetian shipping and commerce to relations with the Hafsid dynasty in North Africa. Extensive archival research demonstrates that Venice successfully competed against Genoese and Catalan contenders through the 15th century.
Elliott, John. The Revolt of the Catalans: A Study in the Decline of Spain, 1598–1640. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1963. A still authoritative study of the social strata in the Catalan lands under the Crown of Aragón, arguing that the ruling elites (although not all strictly nobles) could mobilize far-reaching rebellion against harmonization attempts by the king, hampering his centralizing policies.
Elliott, J. H. “A Provincial Aristocracy: The Catalan Ruling Class in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.” In Spain and its World, 1500–1700: Selected Essays. By J. H. Elliott, 71–91. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989. Indicates the differences between Castilian and Catalan elites in the Spanish kingdoms, showing for the latter a relatively high degree of symbiosis with the urban patriciate. Provides an update of Elliott 1963 (cited under State-Building).
Ehlers, Benjamin. Between Christians and Moriscos: Juan de Ribera and Religious Reform in Valencia, 1568–1614. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Tells the story of a virulent racist and cruel xenophobe who came to be canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. Juan de Ribera was archbishop of Valencia from 1568 to 1611. This book chronicles his career as he evolved from a young, idealistic prelate to the scourge of the Moriscos.
Meyerson, Mark D. The Muslims of Valencia in the Age of Fernando and Isabel: Between Coexistence and Crusade. Oakland: University of California Press, 1991. Meyerson’s rich study of mudejar society in Valencia reveals a world of farmers, merchants, and artisans with significant ties to the Old Christian community. This work challenges the traditional view of Ferdinand as a ruler determined to build a Catholic kingdom in Aragon, arguing rather that the Catholic kings responded accordingly to widely divergent circumstances in Aragon, Castile, and Granada.
Ehlers, Benjamin. Between Christians and Moriscos: Juan de Ribera and Religious Reform in Valencia, 1568–1614. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Inspired by the Council of Trent, the Archbishop Ribera attempted to implement an ambitious reform program following his arrival in Valencia. He generated considerably more support among Old Christians than among Moriscos, who comprised one-third of his diocese. Over the course of his forty-two-year episcopate, Ribera shifted from idealism to cynical pragmatism, ultimately establishing himself as a key advocate and apologist for the expulsion of the Moriscos.
Haliczer, Stephen. Inquisition and Society in the Kingdom of Valencia, 1478–1834. Oakland: University of California Press, 1990. Though not dedicated exclusively to the Moriscos, this study devotes great attention to the nuevos convertidos on account of their prevalence in Valencia. Haliczer adopts a sociological approach to the Inquisition, examining the power struggle between the royal council, the Inquisitors, and the local interests who served as familiars, accusers, and witnesses. The prosecution of Moriscos proved problematic because of protection from Valencian nobles who profited from their labor and often overlooked their apostasy.
Magnier, Grace. Pedro de Valencia and the Catholic Apologists of the Expulsion of the Moriscos: Visions of Christianity and Kingship. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2010. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004182882.i-434 Magnier’s study gives equal time to the advocates for expulsion, who used anti-Islamic invective to define the Moriscos as traitors and heretics, and the humanist Pedro de Valencia, who drew on his classical training to argue for the gradual assimilation of the Moriscos. By contrast to the exclusionary arguments of the (primarily) clerical proponents of expulsion, the royal chronicler Pedro de Valencia developed an Erasmian case for Christian charity, and invoked ancient Rome in promoting permixtion or dispersing Moriscos among Old Christians.
Monter, William. Frontiers of Heresy: The Spanish Inquisition from the Basque Lands to Sicily. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511523434 Frontiers of Heresy argues that we must venture beyond Toledo to find the trials and populations that defined the Inquisition. From the Basque lands to the Mediterranean tribunals, Monter traces the persecution of those at the edges of Spanish society, and the comparative protection of those within it. In this model the Moriscos often fared worse than those converts from Judaism who assimilated to a greater degree, or groups such as the Roma who fell outside the fold altogether.
Knutsen, Gunnar W. Servants of Satan and Masters of Demons: The Spanish Inquisition’s Trials for Superstition, Valencia and Barcelona, 1478–1700. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2009. By comparing trials from Barcelona and Valencia, Knutsen shows how the peninsula was divided between Mediterranean and northern European systems of witchcraft as well as the dramatic difference in outcome when witches were tried by secular as opposed to Inquisitorial courts.
Berco, Christian. Sexual Hierarchies, Public Status: Men, Sodomy and Society in Spain’s Golden Age. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007. This brief and interesting book examines the Inquisition records of 626 sodomy cases in Valencia, Zaragoza, and Barcelona between 1540 and 1776. Berco provides access to much documentary evidence as well as includes some discussion of the cultural context of sodomy. His analysis suggests that all male sexual relations could be characterized by passive and active partners that reflected a destabilization of social hierarchies.
Blumenthal, Debra. “Defending Their Masters’ Honour: Slaves as Violent Offenders in Fifteenth-Century Valencia.” In A Great Effusion of Blood? Interpreting Medieval Violence. Edited by Mark D. Meyerson, Daniel Thierry, and Oren Falk, 34–56. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004. Uses a specific type of judicial document (unprosecuted complaints) to uncover surprising types of slave violence: not those of slaves against masters, but of slaves in the service of masters.
Kosto, Adam J. “The Liber feodorum maior of the Counts of Barcelona: The Cartulary as an Expression of Power.” Journal of Medieval History 27 (2001): 1–22. DOI: 10.1016/S0304-4181(00)00012-9 Discusses the manuscript book, produced in Barcelona in the 1190s, which includes perhaps the first visual depictions of the homage ceremony.
Kosto, Adam J. “The Liber feodorum maior of the Counts of Barcelona: The Cartulary as an Expression of Power.” Journal of Medieval History 27 (2001): 1–22. DOI: 10.1016/S0304-4181(00)00012-9 An analysis of the purposes and function of one of the earliest secular cartularies, put together in the 1190s to record agreements between the Count of Barcelona and those who swore fidelity to him.
Kreitner, Kenneth. “Music in the Corpus Christi Procession of Fifteenth-Century Barcelona.” Early Music History 14 (1995): 153–204. DOI: 10.1017/S0261127900001467 One of the most complete portraits available of a Corpus Christi celebration. Argues for the educative function of the event. Includes a chart of a dozen different choirs and an appendix of musical instruments spotted in contemporaneous paintings as well as an English translation of much of the relevant text from a book of ceremonies kept by the town council. Also contains some actual music and lyrics.
Frances, A. F. Consulate of the Sea and Related Documents. Edited and translated by Stanley S. Jados. University, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1975. Although the most quoted version is Francis Celelles’s Lo Libre de Consolat (Barcelona, 1494), this 1407 version is often referred as the earlier compilation of Mediterranean sea maritime customs and ordinances practice of the maritime community of Barcelona. This emerged alongside earlier recollections on maritime laws across Europe, such as the Amalfitan Tables (11th century), The Laws of Oleron (12th century), or the Laws of Wisby (13th century).
Wolff, Philippe. “The 1391 Pogrom in Spain: Social Crisis or Not?” Past and Present 50 (1971): 4–18. DOI: 10.1093/past/50.1.4 At Barcelona and Gerona, sees pogroms against Jews as forms of social revolt intertwined with tax revolts: those attacking Jews were mainly the common people, while the bourgeois supported the king and oligarchs to suppress the violence. These social and political problems were fueled by an influx of immigrants to cities that caused wages to fall.
Corteguera, Luis R. For the Common Good: Popular Politics in Barcelona, 1580–1640. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002. The first book in English to explore the political beliefs and actions of early modern artisans in Barcelona.
Santanach, Joan, ed. The Book of Sent Sovi: Medieval Recipes from Catalonia. Translated by Robin Vogelzang. Serie B, Textos 51. Barcelona, Spain: Barcino and Tamesis, 2008. A bilingual edition of the oldest surviving Catalan culinary text, one of considerable complexity and interest.
Knutsen, Gunnar W. Servants of Satan and Masters of Demons: The Spanish Inquisition’s Trials for Superstition, Valencia and Barcelona, 1478–1700. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2009. By comparing trials from Barcelona and Valencia, Knutsen shows how the peninsula was divided between Mediterranean and northern European systems of witchcraft as well as the dramatic difference in outcome when witches were tried by secular as opposed to Inquisitorial courts.
Obregón, Mauricio. 1992. The Columbus Papers: The Barcelona Letter of 1493, the landfall controversy, and the Indian guides. New York: Macmillan. In the first letter he wrote about his experiences in 1492, Columbus described the environment of the West Indies as well as his relations with natives he met there. This edition presents a facsimile of the original publication, a new translation of this classic text, a substantial introduction (which includes illustrations drawn from Ramusio’s volume about the western hemisphere), and images of maps created by Europeans in the generations before 1492.
Abrera, Anna Ysabel d’. The Tribunal of Zaragoza and Crypto-Judaism, 1484–1515. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2008. Based on 144 cases preserved in Zaragoza and Paris, mostly dating from before 1492, Abrera amasses testimony from both Old Christians and Jews who testify to the Judaizing practices of those tried by this tribunal.
d’Abrera, Anna Ysabel. The Tribunal of Zaragoza and Crypto-Judaism, 1484–1515. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2008. A thematic summary of inquisitorial material related to accused crypto-Jewish practices for the Crown of Aragon. As in Gitlitz 2002 (cited under Converso Beliefs, Practices, and Identity) the author tries to determine crypto-Jewish practice from Inquisitorial accusations and testimony.
Robinson, Cynthia. “The Aljaferia in Saragosa and the Taifa Spaces.” In The Literature of al-Andalus. Edited by Maria Rosa Menocal, Raymond P. Scheindlin, and Michael Anthony Sells, 233–234. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Saragosa's most important building and what it tells us about the Party Kings.
Freedman, Paul. The Origins of Peasant Servitude in Medieval Catalonia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511583636 Includes a good deal of information on serfdom outside as well as within Catalonia. Bowman, Jeffrey A. Shifting Landmarks: Property, Proof, and Dispute in Catalonia Around the Year 1000. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004. Establishes that the sources do not support the idea of a breakdown in order around the year 1000. Uses many of the same sources as Bisson 1994 to refute the latter’s points.
Usher, Abbott P. The Early History of Deposit Banking in Mediterranean Europe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1943. Aims at stressing the complexity of evolutionary processes through the analysis of banking instruments in medieval and early modern Europe. Based on Catalan sources, it mainly focuses on Catalonia (the area to which Part 2 is entirely devoted).
Bisson, Thomas N. “The Problem of Feudal Monarchy: Aragon, Catalonia, and France.” Speculum 53.3 (1978): 460–478. DOI: 10.2307/2855140 Considers relations of crown and princes in comparative context, mostly from the 12th century.
Bonnassie, Pierre. From Slavery to Feudalism in South-Western Europe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Contains articles on Catalonia and France, focused on slavery and serfdom; strongest on High Middle Ages. Framed against previous Marxist assumptions.
Freedman, Paul H. The Origins of Peasant Servitude in Medieval Catalonia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511583636 Freedman focuses on the subjugation of the Catalan peasantry between the 11th and 13th centuries, and then the decline of serfdom in the 15th century.


D. J. Smith, Crusade, heresy and inquisition in the lands of the Crown of Aragon (c.1167- 1276) (2010)
Catalonia and Castile: T.N. Bisson, Medieval France and her neighbours [CS] E.S. Procter, Curia and Cortes in León and Castile, 1072-1295 J. O’Callaghan, The Cortes of Castile- León, 1188-1350
Sources: Ramon Muntaner, Chronicle, trans. Lady Goodenough, Hakluyt Society Peter III of Catalonia (IV of Aragon), Chronicle, ed. and trans. M. and J. Hillgarth, 2 vols. D. Smith and H. Buffery, tr, The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon (2003) General: *J. Hillgarth, The problem of a Catalan Mediterranean Empire, (English Historical Review, suppl. No.8.) -------------, The Spanish Kingdoms, 1250-1517 [vol.1] ** David Abulafia, The Western Mediterranean Kingdoms 1200-1500 * T. Bisson, The Crown of Aragon in the Middle Ages: a short history T. Bisson, Medieval France and her neighbours [CS] R.I. Burns (ed.), The worlds of Alfonso the Learned and James the Conqueror P. Freedman, The origins of peasant servitude in medieval Catalonia
Barcelona: David Abulafia, ‘Catalan merchants and the W. Mediterranean’, Viator, xvi (1985), repr. in David Abulafia, Italy, Sicily and the Mediterrenean [CS] S. Bensch, Barcelona and its rulers, 1096-1291 F. Fernández-Armesto, Barcelona. 1,000 years of the city’s past. M. Riu, ‘Banking in late medieval and early modern Aragon’, in The Dawn of Modern Banking, Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. --------, ‘The woollen industry in Catalonia in the later Middle Ages’, in N. Harte and K. Ponting (eds.), Cloth and clothing in medieval Europe.
Mediterranean expansion: *F. Fernández-Armesto, Before Columbus David Abulafia, A Mediterranean Emporium: the Catalan Kingdom of Majorca A.B. Hibbert, ‘Catalan consulates in the thirteenth century’, Cambridge Historical Journal, 1949. J.A. Robson,’The Catalan fleet and Moorish seapower’, English Historical Review, 50, 1959. C. Backman, The decline and fall of medieval Sicily. Jews and Muslims: Y.T. Assis, The Golden Age of Aragonese Jewry ------------, Jewish economy in the medieval Crown of Aragon, 1213-1327 R.I. Burns, Medieval colonialism J. Powell (ed.), Muslims under Latin rule [CS] E. Lourie, Crusade and colonisation [CS] D. Nirenberg, Communities of Violence