A kind of joy: the Wise King games
Braulio VÁZQUEZ CAMPOS
Original title: Manera de alegría: los juegos del Rey Sabio
Published in Games from Antiquity to Baroque
Keywords: Alfonso X the Wise, Astrology, Astronomy, Backgammon, Chess, Dice, Game, Middle Ages, Philosophy, Political thought, Worldview.
The «Book of Games» is one of the most luxurious works to have emerged from the scriptorium in the service of King Alfonso X the Wise, but it is also one of the most content rich. It constitutes the foremost evidence of the board games played in the Castilian court in the 13th century, especially chess, backgammon, and dice. Its pages not only encompass explanations of the mechanics and strategy of these recreational activities, but also display an entire world view through allegories, metaphors, philosophical discussions, and political interpretations. This paper endeavours to dissect each of these aspects.
The Holy Empire and the Papacy in late medieval thought: some ideas about the precedence in the Italian and Spanish chronicles of the 14th and 15th centuries
Josué VILLA PRIETO
Original title: El Sacro Imperio y el Papado en el pensamiento bajomedieval: algunas ideas sobre la precedencia en las crónicas italianas y españolas de los siglos XIV y XV
Published in Manifestations of the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Cultural History, Empire, History of ideas, Humanism, Papacy, Political thought.
This study analyses the conception of the Holy Roman Empire in the Italian and Spanish chronicles of the Late Middle Ages: origins, authority and tensions with the Papacy for a preeminent position within universal power. After the scholasticism historiographical disputes (XIIth-XIIIth centuries), humanists write new interpretations of the genesis of the Holy Roman Empire wondering about the desappearance (or not) of the Roman imperial potestas and if it continues in Byzantium or the Papacy, and where the Charlemagne's authority comes from. The comparison of the Italian and Spanish sources allows to note different political intentions in a context of mutual cultural influence.
