The Church in Western Iberia (León, Asturias, Galicia, and Portugal). Leeds, 6-9 July 2015

The Church in Western Iberia (León, Asturias, Galicia, and Portugal). Leeds, 6-9 July 2015

Provisional programme: five sessions on The Church in Western Iberia (León, Asturias, Galicia,and Portugal), at the 2015 International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 6-9, 2015

Organiser: James D’Emilio, Department of Humanities, University of South Florida

Session 1016: Wednesday, July 8, 9:00 - 10:30
I: Early Medieval Galicia

Abstract:The early medieval Galician church is best known as the setting for the birth of the cult of St.James at Compostela, but the Galician landscape was densely settled with churches. These churches had diverse origins and patrons, and, as centers for rural communities, they were places for assemblies and judicial proceedings. Many monastic churches preserved and renewed traditions associated with the 6th-century abbot and bishop Martin of Braga, and the 7th-century abbot and bishop Fructuosus. The papers in this section consider the ecclesiastical landscape of early medieval Galicia, the recording of oaths, and the transmission of monastic and religious literature from Galicia to the British Isles.

Moderator/Chair: Thomas Deswarte, Département d’histoire, Université d’Angers

Papers:
a. Churches, Founders, and Architecture in the Early Medieval Landscapes of Galicia, 9th-10th Centuries, José Carlos Sánchez Pardo, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela

b. Oaths in Northwest Spain during the Early Middle Ages, José Andrade, Departamento deHistoria Medieval y Moderna, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela

c. From Gallaecia to Wessex: Manuscript Evidence for Iberian Texts in Anglo-Saxon England,Francisco José Álvarez López, Department of Modern Languages, University of Exeter

Session 1116: Wednesday, July 8, 11:15 - 12:45
II: The Power of Tradition in the 11th- and 12th-Century Leonese Church

Abstract: The late 11th century has been portrayed as a time of upheaval in the Leonese church with thereception of the Roman rite, the arrival of Cluniac monks and foreign clergy, and the spectacular success of the pilgrimage to Compostela. The achievements of the Compostelan church are bestknown through the Historia Compostellana, the literature of the cult, and the art of the cathedral.Other sees defended or manufactured traditions to maintain their prerogatives in this new ecclesiastical landscape. These papers consider the forgeries and legends that supported the claims of Oviedo, Lugo, and Braga, and the contested reception of one of the most visible forms of reform, the caroline script.

Moderator/Chair: Francesco Renzi, Institute for History, Leiden University

Papers:

a. A Struggle for the Primacy in Galicia: Falsifications in the Sees of Lugo and Braga during the11th and 12th Centuries, Thomas Deswarte, Département d’histoire, Université d’Angers

b. Reform and Renewal in 11th- and 12th-Century Northwest Spain: From Visigothic toCarolingian Script in Galicia Ainoa Castro, Center for Epigraphical & Palaeographical Studies, Ohio State University

c. ‘A Small Gift [...] from My Son’s Treasury’: The Pallium of Ildefonso between Toledo andOviedo, Flora Ward, Department of Art, University of Toronto

Session 1216: Wednesday, July 8, 14:15 - 15:45
III: Women’s Religious Communities

Abstract: The prominent women’s religious communities of León and Castile in the Central Middle Ageshave attracted particular attention in connection with the patronage of women of the royal family and the institution of the Infantado, an inheritance of royal princesses that included oversight of nunneries closely associated with the Crown. These three papers look at a broader class of aristocratic women, their motives and methods for founding and supporting nunneries, and their patronage, production, and performance of works of art and the liturgy in nunneries, particularly of the Cistercians and Dominicans.Sponsor: Société d’Études Interdisciplinaires sur les Femmes au Moyen Âge et la Renaissance

Moderator/Chair: Raquel Alonso Álvarez, Departamento de Historia del Arte y Musicología,Universidad de Oviedo

Papers:

a. Why Found a Convent?: Female Patronage in Times of Reform, Laura Cayrol Bernardo, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris/Departamento de Historia del Arte y Musicología, Universidad de Oviedo

b. Founders and Families: Networks of Noblewomen and the Cistercian Nunneries of León, James D’Emilio, Department of Humanities, University of South Florida

c. Reassessing Women’s Agency in the Architecture and Liturgy of Dominican Nunneries in the Western Iberian Peninsula, 13th-15th Centuries), Mercedes Pérez Vidal, Centro deInvestigaciones sobre América Latina y el Caribe (CIALC), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Session 1316: Wednesday, July 8, 16:30 - 18:00
IV: Cistercians and Their Patrons

Abstract: Galicia and Portugal were the first areas of the Iberian peninsula settled by the Cistercians with aseries of communities directly tied to Clairvaux. The Portuguese abbey of Alcobaça is well-known for its architecture, library, and close ties to the monarchy, but the broader impact of theCistercians in these regions is barely noted in international scholarship. These papers consider the first foundation – the Galician monastery of Sobrado (1142), the key role of the Traba family in sponsoring Cistercian settlement, and the royal patronage of Cistercian nunneries in Portugal – sometimes overlooked in the light of the Castilian congregation led by the royal nunnery of Las Huelgas.

Moderator/Chair: James D’Emilio, Department of Humanities, University of South Florida

Papers:

a. Family Memory in Iberian Reformed Abbeys: The Traba Family and the Monastery of Sobrado, M. Raquel Alonso Álvarez, Universidad de Oviedo

b. Monasteries and the Aristocracy in Medieval Galicia: The Case of the Traba Family,12th-13th Centuries, Francesco Renzi, Institute for History, Leiden University

c. Cistercian Nuns and Royal Patronage in Portugal, Maria do Rosário Morujão, Faculdade deLetras, Universidade de Coimbra

Session 1516: Thursday, July 9, 9:00 - 10:30 V: Books, Libraries, and Archives

Abstract: The final session brings together papers on the documentary and bibliographic patrimony of monasteries in Galicia and Portugal: the archive from San Payo de Antealtares (Santiago de Compostela) which gathered together those of nunneries across Galicia affiliated with it in there forms of the end of the 15th century; the rich library from the Cistercian monastery of Alcobaça and, specifically, the illuminated manuscripts that demonstrate the transmission of texts from theUniversity of Paris in the late 13th and 14th centuries and the consequent renovation of the collection; and the choir books of the Dominican nunneries of Portugal that illustrate the impact of the reforms at the end of the Middle Ages.

Moderator/Chair: Flora Ward, Department of Art, University of Toronto

Papers:

a. La documentación de conventos de monjas en Galicia: el archivo de San Paio de Antealtares(Compostela), Ricardo Pichel, Facultad de Filología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Instituto da Lingua Galega, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela

b. University Manuscripts in the Library of the Cistercian Monastery of Alcobaça, CatarinaFernandes Barreira, Instituto de Estudos Medievais, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas,Universidade Nova, Lisbon

c. Illuminating the Observant Reform?: The Choir Books of the 16th-Century PortugueseDominican Nunneries, Paula Freire Cardoso, Instituto de Estudos Medievais, Faculdade deCiências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova, Lisbon