Nobility

View
Edit

A New Approach to the Biography of Pedro Jiménez de Samper, a Knight Deployed in the Border in the Service of Pedro IV of Aragon (ca. 1314-1364)

Mario LAFUENTE GÓMEZ

Original title: Una nueva aproximación a la biografía de Pedro Jiménez de Samper, un caballero de frontera al servicio de Pedro IV de Aragón (ca. 1314-1364)

Published in Returning to Eden

Keywords: 14th Century, Crown of Aragon, Military History, Nobility, Peter IV of Aragon, Social History, War.

Pedro Jiménez de Samper was a prominent member of the Aragon’s middle nobility, who lived during the central decades of the 14th century and developed an intense military career in the service of King Peter IV of Aragon, the Ceremonious. In this text, we offer a revised and expanded version of his biography, which we first published in 2008 in this journal’s number 8. The current version preserves the original text while incorporating new content, which refers to all the stages of Samper’s life and allows us to considerably widen the repertoire of issues previously addressed. Among the most important new features presented here are the location of his family origins, the identification of his clientele networks and the dating of his death. The result is a case study that provides an accurate illustration of the relationship between aristocracy and war in the Crown of Aragon in this period of the late Middle Ages.

Aristocracy and Nobility in Dante Alighieri

Moisés Romanazzi TÔRRES

Original title: Aristocracia e Nobreza em Dante Alighieri

Published in Aristocracy and nobility in the Ancient and Medieval World

Keywords: Aristocracy, Dante Alighieri, Nobility.

One of the essential elements of the whole Political Philosophy of Dante Alighieri was your considerations about the aristocracy and the nobility. For him, the two notions are different although in a certain way they correspond to the same matters. This aristocracy, however, it will only reach the divine talent that is the true nobility if it be educated according to the parameters of the Aristotelian philosophy. It is this, in fact, the ethical theme of the Convivio. In Commedia, Dante persists in these ideas. It is exactly for this reason that he reserves the Limbo the great wise persons of the Antiquity. In the one of Monarchia, he treats of the relationships between the supreme nobleman, the emperor, and the princes, the private noblemen that lead the human crowds.

Images of nobility in life and works of Meister Eckhart

Matteo RASCHIETTI

Original title: As imagens da nobreza na vida e nas obras de Mestre Eckhart

Published in Aristocracy and nobility in the Ancient and Medieval World

Keywords: Eckhart, Nobility, deep of soul, intellect, soul.

Noble as provenance, dominicam master’s life had a plebeian destiny when he was condemned for heresy post mortem. In despite of this, his disciples setted on fire the flame of true nobilty indicated by Eckhart, that is peculiar of soul, intellect and human being free and detached of all images, inclusively of God’s image. Only when human being will recognise His presence in the deep of soul, finding the similarity with Him in the dissimilarity of himself and of all creatures, will be possible to experiment the true nobilty and the end of alterity between deus absconditus and His masterpiece of creation.

In fine: the last day of the livings in medieval Valencia (1390-1437)

Luis GALAN CAMPOS

Original title: In fine: el último día de los vivos en la Valencia medieval (1390-1437)

Published in

Keywords: Burial, Death, Nobility, Valencia, XVth century.

In this paper we analyse the conceptions about death and the rituals that mark the end of life in the society of the Late Middle Ages, especially among the nobility and high bourgeoisie, which are the group in that we can best ascertain these practices, taking the example of the city of Valencia, an observation point of great trustworthiness to study the whole West; that shows us that attitudes towards death face the social, political and religious changes that took place at the end of the Middle Ages.

Nobility and Diplomacy in Portugal (15th century)

Douglas Mota Xavier de LIMA

Original title: Nobreza e diplomacia em Portugal (séc. XV)

Published in Society and Culture in Portugal

Keywords: Diplomacy, Nobility, Portugal.

From the studies of the new history of medieval diplomacy, the article addresses the participation of the nobility in diplomacy, considering the kingdom of Portugal in the fifteenth century, when the office of ambassador gained its first definitions in the West. The text discusses the role of the courtesan nobility, focusing attention on the Sousa and Silveira families, lineages with important presence in diplomacy.

Nobility and Femininity in Medieval Georgia: Thinatin and Nestan

Antonio CONTRERAS MARTÍN

Original title: Nobleza y Feminidad en la Georgia Medieval: Tinatín y Nestán

Published in Aristocracy and nobility in the Ancient and Medieval World

Keywords: Femininity, Medieval Georgia, Medieval Literature, Nobility, Rusthaveli.

The purpose of this work is to analyze the picture of the Georgian noble women, that Shotha Rusthaveli make (12th-13th centuries). I will focus my study on two princesses: Thinatin and Nestan; because they are two main characters in The Knight in the Panther’s Skin.

The friendship, a political problem. Manueline construction of aristocratic bond

Federico J. ASISS-GONZÁLEZ

Original title: La amistad, un problema político. Construcción manuelina del vínculo aristocrático

Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds

Keywords: Don Juan Manuel, Friendship, Nobility, Politics.

Friendship is presented before our eyes as a kind of universal bond, as the ideal way to bond with the rest of human beings. Its deployment over time, the loyalty or fidelity with which it solidifies friendly relations seem a topic more proper to ethics than to politics, although decades ago Jacques Derrida revealed it to us as a political issue. However, this work of unveiling that requires us to fully understand the nature of this bond was not such for don Juan Manuel. In his works, friendship occupies a specific function within the discourse on nobility. In fact, the friendship resulted from a pact, as requested by the Fuero de Castiella, between noblemen in order to pacify their relations and to proceed with their political struggles. In this article we propose to analyze the characteristics of this link in the Manueline texts or, in other words, to understand what is friendship for Don Juan Manuel and how it is articulated within the representation of his sector.

The image of the nobility, according to Rafael Martí de Viciana (16th century): from the medieval past to the imperial project

Vicent JOSEP ESCARTÍ

Original title: La imagen de la nobleza, según Rafael Martí de Viciana (s. XVI): del pasado medieval al proyecto imperial

Published in Aristocracy and nobility in the Ancient and Medieval World

Keywords: 16th Hispanic century, Historiography, Nobility, Spanish Empire, Valencia, political ideology.

The present paper makes an analysis of the concept of "nobility" throughout the work of the notary and valencian noble Rafael Martí de Viciana (1502-1582). Across his writings we can see clearly how Viciana, on the paper, combined the ancient and medieval origins of the local nobility with the privileges given by the crown in more recent times, to incorporate the nobles of his time to the new imperial project Carlos V for the Hispanic monarchy.

The late medieval Castilian nobility and the king: building and redistribution of power

Cecilia DEVIA

Original title: La nobleza castellana bajomedieval y el rey: construcción y redistribución del poder

Published in Aristocracy and nobility in the Ancient and Medieval World

Keywords: Chronicles, King, Middle Ages, Nobility, Violence.

It discusses the relationships between the nobility and the king in the Chronicle of King Don Pedro by Pero Lopez de Ayala, in light of the model reproductive strategies of the dynastic State developed by Pierre Bourdieu. Emphasis is placed on the rational use of violence that govern the conduct of both the king and the nobles, especially in construction and redistribution of power.