Queen Isabel I of Castile: Power, Patronage, Persona

By Barbara F. Weissberger

The Queen who shaped the music, literature, architecture, and painting of late medieval Spain.

This multidisciplinary volume was inspired by the quincentenary of the death of Queen Isabel I of Castile, early modern Europe's first powerful queen regnant. Comprising work by distinguished art historians, musicologists, historians, and literary scholars from England, Spain, and the United States, it begins with a theoretical examination of medieval queenship itself that argues - against the grain of the volume - for its inseparability from kingship. Several essays examine the complex ways in which the Queen and her advisers shaped the music, literature, architecture, and painting of fifteenth-century Spain and how these in turn shaped the sovereign's power and persona. Others analyze influences on Isabel's reign from Arag?n, Portugal, and northern Europe. A third group deals with issues of periodization, arguing from a variety of perspectives for the modernity of Isabelline culture. The evolving construction of Isabel's image from the mid-fifteenth to the late-twentieth century is also studied.

BARBARA WEISSBERGER is Associate Professor Emerita of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Minnesota.
OTHER CONTRIBUTORS: Rafael Dom?nguez Casas, Theresa Earenfight, Michael Gerli, Chiyo Ishikawa, Tess Knighton, Kenneth Kreitner, Elizabeth A. Lehfeldt, Nancy F. Marino, William D. Phillips, Jr., Emilio Ros-F?bregas, Ronald E. Surtz

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1855661594
• ISBN13: 9781855661592
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Tamesis Books
• Length: 262 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 9.3" x 6.2"