From Heaven to Earth

The Reordering of Castilian Society, 1150-1350

Teofilo F. Ruiz (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

240 Seiten

2016
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-17150-0 (ISBN)

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Between the late twelfth century and the mid fourteenth, Castile saw a reordering of mental, spiritual, and physical space. Fresh ideas about sin and intercession coincided with new ways of representing the self and emerging perceptions of property as tangible. This radical shift in values or mentalites was most evident among certain social groups, including mercantile elites, affluent farmers, lower nobility, clerics, and literary figures--"middling sorts" whose outlooks and values were fast becoming normative. Drawing on such primary documents as wills, legal codes, land transactions, litigation records, chronicles, and literary works, Teofilo Ruiz documents the transformation in how medieval Castilians thought about property and family at a time when economic innovations and an emerging mercantile sensibility were eroding the traditional relation between the two. He also identifies changes in how Castilians conceived of and acted on salvation and in the ways they related to their local communities and an emerging nation-state.
Ruiz interprets this reordering of mental and physical landscapes as part of what Le Goff has described as a transition "from heaven to earth," from spiritual and religious beliefs to the quasi-secular pursuits of merchants and scholars. Examining how specific groups of Castilians began to itemize the physical world, Ruiz sketches their new ideas about salvation, property, and themselves--and places this transformation within the broader history of cultural and social change in the West.

Teofilo F. Ruiz is Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he chairs the history department. He is the author of several books, including A Social History of Spain, 1400-1600.

Preface and Acknowledgments ix INTRODUCTION From Heaven to Earth 1 CHAPTER ONE A Taste for the New: Commerce, Property, and Language 12 CHAPTER TWO The Evidence of Wills 37 CHAPTER THREE Property: Wills and the Law in Medieval Castile 54 CHAPTER FOUR Itemizing the World: Boundaries, Consolidation of Property, and Rights of Way 67 CHAPTER FIVE Family and Property: Lineages and Primogeniture 87 CHAPTER SIX Heavenly Concerns: Charity and Salvation 110 CHAPTER SEVEN Toward a New Concept of Power: Unsacred Monarchy 133 Conclusion 151 Appendix 155 Notes 163 Bibliography 199 Index 215

Erscheinungsdatum	04.08.2016
Verlagsort	New Jersey
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 235 mm
Gewicht	369 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Mittelalter
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie
ISBN-10	0-691-17150-5 / 0691171505
ISBN-13	978-0-691-17150-0 / 9780691171500
Zustand	Neuware