Ivan the Terrible and Philip the Prudent

This paper discusses the comparative aspect of Charles Halperin’s biography of Ivan the Terrible. In his book, Halperin reassesses Michael Cherniavsky’s view of Ivan the Terrible as a Renaissance prince by noting that Cherniavsky overestimated the importance of Moscow-the Third Rome theory and used unreliable later sources. In Russian scholarship, according to Halperin, comparative works on Ivan iv have been marred with nationalism. One should also add here the negative impact of vulgar Marxism on Soviet comparative studies of Ivan iv. Nevertheless, a comparative approach to Ivan the Terrible is still viable because, as Halperin astutely notes, the first Russian tsar “resembled his contemporaries among foreign rulers more than he did his Muscovite predecessors or successors.” In this article I apply Halperin’s comparative methodology to Ivan iv the Terrible and Philip ii the Prudent of Spain. What Ivan and Philip had in common was not Renaissance ideas but intensive religious beliefs. The paper examines the foreign and domestic policies of both monarchs, as well as their contemporary visual representations from the perspectives of their religious views. Ivan’s and Philip’s preoccupation with their countryside residences, Aleksandrovskaia Sloboda and the Escorial respectively, is also discussed in the context of the rulers’ intensive religiosity. Despite their different confessions, Ivan iv and Philip ii were driven by aspirations for what they saw as original, simple, correct Christianity.

Doing Things with Arabic in the Seventeenth-Century Escorial

This article takes part in the recent project of reevaluating the place, role, and importance of different forms of engagement with Arabic and Arabic manuscripts in seventeenth-century Spain, and more broadly in Europe, by focusing on a single institution—the royal library of San Lorenzo of the Escorial. I examine if, and how, the Escorial fits within the new narrative of the history of Arabic in seventeenth- century Spain. Did the presence of an exceptionally sizeable collection of Arabic texts facilitate, hinder, or have no effect on the new Orientalism of the seventeenth century? More specifically, the article explores four questions: (1) What did Spanish and European scholars think about the collection of Arabic manuscripts in the Escorial? (2) What did the Hieronymites, the friars in charge of the library, do with its Arabic manuscripts? (3) What did the Hieronymites think about the study of Arabic? and (4) What access to the collection, if any, did Spanish and European scholars have? The answers to these questions suggest that the Escorial became a shrine of Arabic knowledge, to which scholarly pilgrims sought access, and that during seventeenth century Spain preserved its reputation among European orientalists as an important site for the study of Arabic.

Libro del exercicio de las armas: A New Pietro Monte Manuscript

The works of Pietro Monte had been forgotten for many centuries, and only recently have their merits been recognised again. This research note presents a newly discovered manuscript, the Libro del exercicio de las armas, a 19th century copy of the Spanish vernacular version of the Collectanea known as the “Escorial Manuscript”. The discovery is introduced by a brief survey of the citations of this manuscript and its source in the historiography and by a map displaying the known printed copies of the Collectanea. A review of the bibliography and provenance of the manuscript contributes to our understanding of its historical importance.

6. Spain and Portugal

‘Spain and Portugal’ highlights the key garden designs of Spain and Portugal from the 16th century to the present day. The two greatest gardens of the Spanish Golden Age were commissioned by King Philip II at Aranjuez and the Escorial, which showed the influence of both Flemish and Italian gardens. Other key Spanish gardens described include La Granja de San Ildefonso in Segovia and Antoni Gaudí’s Parc Güell in Barcelona. Portuguese gardens of the 16th and 17th centuries incorporated glazed tiles—azulejos—and Arabic water tanks. Gardens described include the Golden Age Quinta da Bacalhoa and Castelo Branco, the 18th-century garden of the Palácio Nacional de Queluz; and Jacques Gréber’s modernist Parque de Serralves.

Forgotten Witnesses: The Illustrations of Ms Escorial, I.I.3 and the Dispute over the Biblias Romanceadas

This article offers a preliminary survey of the miniatures illustrating the Biblia romanceada held at the Escorial Library under the shelf number I.I.3, whose precise date and provenance have been a matter of dispute among scholars for decades. The scrutiny of the stylistic features of these illustrations together with a reassessment of the scarce archival sources related to this work allows for a definite association of Escorial, MS I.I.3 with Enrique de Guzmán, 2nd Duke of Medina Sidonia (d. 1492). However, the contextualized analysis of this lavishly decorated manuscript—which was part of a trend in aristocratic patronage and the epitome of already established traditions in Bible illustration—may contribute not only to a re-appraisal of this singular work but also to a better understanding of the multifaceted phenomena lying behind the production and reception of the remaining fifteenth-century illustrated Bibles in the vernacular, all of them translated from Hebrew but intended for a Christian audience.

Traveling Libraries: The Arabic Manuscripts of Muley Zidan and the Escorial Library

In 1612, a Spanish fleet captured a French ship whose stolen cargo included the entire manuscript collection of the Sultan of Morocco, Muley Zidan. Soon, the collection made its way to the royal library, El Escorial, transforming the library into an important repository of Arabic books, which, since then, Arabists from across Europe sought to visit. By focusing on the social life of the collection, from the moment of its capture up through the process of its incorporation into the Escorial, this article examines three related issues: the first regards the social trajectories of books and the elasticity of their meaning and function, which radically altered in nature. The second part of the article examines the circulation of the Moroccan manuscripts in relation to a complex economy of restrictions over the reading and possession of Arabic manuscripts in early modern Spain. Finally, the third part focuses on the political and legal debates that ensued the library’s capture, when the collection became the locus of international negotiations between Spain, Morocco, France and the Dutch United Provinces over Maritime law, captives, and banned knowledge. By placing and analyzing the journey of Zidan’s manuscripts within the context of Mediterranean history, the paper explains (1) why Spain established one of the largest collections of Arabic manuscripts exactly when it was cleansing its territories of Moriscos (Spanish forcibly converted Muslims), and (2) why the Moroccan collection was kept behind locked doors at the Escorial.