Background
Permanent Position: Senior Lecturer of Spanish Literature at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona). PhD at UCalifornia at Berkeley and Doctorado en Literaturas Hispánicas at the Univ. Autónoma de Barcelona. Visiting professor at UC Berkeley, Università di Pavia, U de Ferrara, Univ. of Pennsylvania and Univ. of Chicago, and Visiting Researcher at Cambridge Univ., U. of Nottingham and Queen Mary, at UCL.
My work has been defined by the years I spent studying for a BA at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, and for a PhD at the University of California at Berkeley followed by a second doctorate at the Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona. All these institutions were characterized by their strong commitment to traditional philology; that is, the command of technical linguistic, textual, and historical skills as the basis for literary studies. But in the late 80s critical theory was reaching the peak of its influence, so I was lucky to enjoy both approaches, to which my supervisor Charles Faulhaber added an immersion in digital humanities that reinforced the “old” positivist method. All this convinced me that one should not neglect any approach or tool that can serve to enhance philological and historical research; but that theory is a vital lever for thinking about texts. Though my research has a philogical-historical approach, I am just as much interested in its links with other subjects and with the contemporary world. My goal ever since has been to delve critically into medieval and early modern Iberian literature, but always within the broader contexts of history, thought, culture, and textual criticism.
Research
My research centres on Castilian, Catalan, and Latin literature in the Crowns of Aragon and Castile, and in more concrete terms on four main subjects: fifteenth-century humanism and the Renaissance revival of the classical tradition; court poetry (cancioneros); Golden Age theater; and most recently, the emergence of female authority in court and convent from medieval feudalism to early-modern imperial absolutism. All have a common goal: to map the cultural transition between the Middle Ages and modernity, and in particular to explore the literary configuration of evolving traditions, ideas, and genres at the interface between the center and margins of power. Currently my research deals on the emergence of an ethical model of governance in early Renaissance humanist texts and visual culture centres given the implications of the fact that, while humanist models for male rulership were based upon Greek and Roman classical ideals, the patterns for women were female saints and the Virgin. I am working on a book exploring the political theology and sacralization of the reign of Isabel of Castile provisionally entitled Isabel of Castile: On Earth as She Is in Heaven. I plan to develop the comparison with the other “Virgin Queen”, Elizabeth I.
I have participated, among others, in projects on the edition of Lope’s comedias (PI: A. Blecua), Cancionero poetry (PI: V. Beltrán), and in the last decade I have led three projects: on Discourses on Death, on Courtly literary culture in Spain and Italy, and now on the Emergency of Female Authority at Court and Covent in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia, all financed by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación.
Publications [selected]
(ed., with J. Lawrance) Alfonso de Cartagena, Memoriale virtutum (1422). Leiden: Brill [2017].
«Isabel I, the Virgin, the Courtiers, and the Sacro-profane Hyperbole», Hispanic review, 2017, in press.
& R. Sanmartin & Kim YonSoo, ed. & intro. Exemplarity and Gender Medieval and Early Modern Spain. Lieden: Brill, 2017, in press.
«Under Suspicion: Mary Magdalene in Fifteenth-century Castile». Speculum, in press
«La querella de las mujeres en la Península Ibérica en su contexto histórico», Journal of Hispanic literatures and cultures, in press.
(ed., with A. Cortijo & A. Mª Gómez-Bravo) Vir bonus dicendi peritus. Homenaje a Charles Faulhaber. New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, 2014.
(ed., with R. Valdés) Comedias de Lope de Vega, x: Parte décima. 3 vols. Lleida: Milenio, 2010. 1791 pp. isbn 978-84-9743-278-8 (reviews: Eugenio Maggi, Rassegna Iberistica, 95 (2012), pp. 91–94; Jonathan Thacker, Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 89 (2012), pp. 809–811; ABC, Cultural (29.xii.2012), p. 18).
(introd. & ed., with A. Rojas) Humanidades digitales y literaturas hispánicas. Special Issue, Ínsula: revista bibliográfica de ciencias y letras, 822 (junio 2015).
(introd. & ed.) La configuración de la santidad femenina en los siglos xvi y xvii. Special Issue, Medievalia, 18 (2015). <http://revistes.uab.cat/medievalia/v18.2>). Contribution: “Ser mujer y santa, de la Edad Media a la Contrarreforma”, pp. 1-13.
(introd. & ed., with R. Sanmartín) Santa Teresa. Special Issue, eHumanista, 32 (2016). <http://www.ehumanista.ucsb.edu/volumes/32> Contribution “Santa Teresa: Quinientos años después”, pp. 3-11.
«Fortuna de los Proverbios de Santillana: de la historia del texto a la historia de la recepción». La escondida senda: Estudios en homenaje a Alberto Blecua. Eds. E. G. Pontón & E. Fosalba, Madrid, Castalia, 2014, 23-68.
& Massip, F. «El “ball de la mort” de Carbonell: una danza macabra cortesana». Memento mori. Il genere macabro in Europa dal Medioevo ad oggi. Alessandria: Ed. dell’Orso, 2014.
«Coluccio Salutati en España: la versión romance de las Declamationes Lucretiae». La Corónica39.1 (2010), 209-247. Monographic on Humanismo. Homenaje a O. Di Camillo. Ed. Juan Carlos Conde.
«Informática y crítica textual: realidades y deseos». Filología e informática: nuevas . Barcelona:. UAB-Milenio, 1999. 189-210. Reed. in Literatura hipertextual y teoría literaria. Ed. Mª José Vega. Madrid: Mare Nostrum, 2002. 225-240.
(with López Casas, Ma. Mercè). «Lectura y difusión de los ‘Libros de Séneca’: a propósito de un testimonio desconocido». Revista de filología española 81.1-2 (2001): 137-163.
(ed.) Jorge Manrique, Poesía. Clásicos Castalia. Madrid: Castalia, 2002 (reviews: F. Carmona Ruiz, Revue critique de philologie romane, 4–5 (2003–4), p. 63; commented on Juan Carlos Conde, “Conservados/olvidados: una copla de Manrique y los límites del método neolachmanniano”. Incipit, 29 (2009), pp. 59–84).
«El debate entre Leonardo Bruni y Alfonso de Cartagena: las razones de una polémica». Quaderns : revista de traducció 7 (2002): 33-57.
«El texto en su laberinto: para la edición de las traducciones medievales». La Corónica 30.2 (2002): 203-247.
«Alfonso de Cartagena: obras en castellano». Diccionario filológico de literatura medieval española: textos y transmisión . Ed. C. Alvar y J.M. Lucía. Madrid: Castalia, 2002. 93-127.
«La ambivalencia en poesía de cancionero: algunos poemas en clave política». Iberia cantat: estudios sobre poesía hispánica medieval Ed. Juan Casas. Santiago de Compostela. Universidad, 2002. 335-370.
«’Mors bifrons’: las élites ante la muerte en la poesía de cancionero». Ante la muerte: actitudes, espacios y formas en la España medieval. Eds. J. Aurell y J. Pabón. Pamplona: EUNSA Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, 2002, pp. 157-196.
(introd. & trans.) Manifiestos del humanismo. Barcelona: Península, 2000. 173 pp. (reviews: J. García López, Quaderns d’Italià, 6 (2001), pp. 203–204; C. García Gual, El País, Suplemento de cultura (3.ii.2001), p. 3).
(with Hamilton, Michelle) «Un nuevo testimonio de la ‘Danza de la muerte’ (Ms. Parma 2666): hacia la versión primitiva». Actas del VIII Congreso de la AHLM. Ed. Silvia Iriso. Santander, 2000. 1341-1352.
(ed.) Alfonso de Cartagena, Los libros de Tulio: De senetute, De los ofiçios. Poetria Nova 2. Alcalá de Henares: Universidad, 1996. 478 pp. (review: Pedro Sánchez-Prieto Borja, La Corónica, 26.2 (1998), p. 232–233). Published on-line at Biblioteca Saavedra Fajardo 2010 <http://www.saavedrafajardo.org/Archivos/LI-BROS/Libro0165.pdf>