Frank A. Domínguez

Body and Soul: Jorge Manrique's "Coplas por la muerte de su padre"

In stanza 13 of the Coplas, Manrique describes the body as cativa and the soul as seiora, then decries the time spent adorning the former at the expense of the latter. The general condemnation of cosmetics in ancient literature and the topic of the weakness of the Will contribute to this metaphor, but the stanza does more. It alludes to the two different paths that are followed by the people described in the ubi sunt stanzas (16-24) and in the panegyric of don Rodrigo Manrique (25-32). This essay then shows how stanza 13 only acquires full meaning in light of information that was available to the poems contemporaries but has since been neglected.

Jousting in Medieval and Renaissance Iberia by Noel Fallows (review)

Jousting in Medieval and Renaissance Iberia is a study of the joust and armor in Spain from the time that the lance rest on the saddle is adopted in the latefourteenth century to the late-sixteenth century, when the tournament goes out of fashion. The work is divided into two parts: the study proper (Part I: “Introductory Study”, 1-309) and a partial edition and translation of selected texts and a glossary (Part II: “Texts, Translations, and Glossaries”, 311-508). It ends with a “Bibliography” (512-533) and an “Index” (535-541).