Journal of Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian Crypto-Jews

The Journal of Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian Crypto-Jews is calling for submissions to what I believe is its second volume. Following is the call for papers:

Newly Discovered Velazquez at the Met

The New York Times has an article today about a portrait that, having recently been cleaned, now seems to be by Velazquez’s hand, not just by his studio. Jonathan Brown is quoted.

One Year Anniversary

Okay, the real one year anniversary of EM Spanish History Notes was a week ago, more or less. But I thought that I’d take an opportunity to talk about what it’s like to write this blog.

I decided to start this blog for a number of reasons. First, it seemed useful: I would want someone to keep a blog like this so I would know what new stuff is out there – it might as well be me. Also, I thought it would help me stay in touch with friends and colleagues out there at other schools, and allow me to meet some new people. I resolved to start the blog, something I’d been musing over for a year or so, after attending a conference  – the SCSC in Minneapolis – and having a great time hanging out with other scholars; the blog is partly an attempt to host a sort of  ”permanent conference.” Lastly, after finishing my first book, I was a bit bored professionally - what could I do that didn’t have the long, long turn-around time that a book or even an article has, but was more immediate and time consuming in a meaningful way?

How well did I achieve these goals? What surprises were in store for me? I’m glad you asked!

1) Yes, it’s taken the extra time off my hands. Although it takes less time than you’d imagine.

2)  I have been keeping in touch with people better, and, especially, ”meeting” new people, at least electronically. Just today I exchanged emails with a young scholar with whose name I was familiar, but whose work I didn’t know. It turns out her work is very interesting, and now I have a new person to look forward to meeting in person and whose work I look forward to reading in articles and eventually a book. Fun! Not as many comments as I would have imagined, or hoped for, though.

3) It’s certainly useful to me. It’s helped me keep up with the literature in early modern Spain and, perhaps more importantly, opened up new vistas of scholarship of which I was only dimly aware. I was surprised by the broad range of research out there that’s being done: not just cultural and social history, i.e. the topics most pushed by dissertation programs because most marketable today, but also political, constitutional, and economic history; historical memory, medicine, cartography, science; connections in the Atlantic World, the Mediterranean, and Asia; and more.  After spending 10 years paring my reading list down to only those things that can help me write my dissertation/book, it’s been very nice to come up for air, look around, and see what else is out there. I have been very impressed indeed by what we, collectively, all do.

4) There have been a few surprises. WordPress, which hosts the blog, gives me some details about what people look at most and when. Viewership has been the highest when school is in session. By May of 2009, I was averaging 10 “hits” per day, probably1-3 people clicking on 3-10 items.  The most popular thing to view, by far? “Historians of Early Modern Spain.” We’re a nosy bunch. I wonder how many people find their way to this blog by gooogling their own names …

But a few other trends have emerged from the data I’ve received, both what I’ve found to post about and what people have viewed. Other posts that have received the most attention include links to “special” items like the “Hispanic Review Special Issue” post, or the mention of “Kagan’s Kaleidoscope.”

Book of the year? Clearly Stuart Schwartz’s All Can Be Saved. That has attracted by far the most critical attention from reviewers, even garnering a special forum in the William & Mary Quarterly. I have only skimmed the book, and I can’t say whether his argument is “right” or not, but certainly this book made the most waves in 2008-09.

Trend of the year? I can’t say. Maybe I haven’t been surveying the literature long enough, so perhaps in a year or two I can identify what’s new, as opposed to simply what’s new to me. But it’s been a fun year blogging, rewarding and not too difficult, so I intend to keep it up for the conceivable future. Enjoy!

On Vacation

EM Spanish History Notes is taking a month-long break. No new posts until late August.

Also,  I’ll be offline for days at a time, so I won’t be able to return emails or approve comments in a timely manner.

See you then!

Spring Break

No new posts for a week – I’m off to Geneva for the SCSC.

Gender & History April 2009: Reviews

No articles, but several reviews for us in Gender and History 21 (April 2009):

Janka Rodziewicz reviews The Wealth of Wives: Law and Economy in Late Medieval London, by Barbara Hannawalt, and Women and Authority in Early Modern Spain, by Allyson M. Poska.

Gabriel B. Paquette reviews Education and Women in the Early Modern Hispanic World, by Elizabeth Teresa Howe.

And Jocelyn Olcott reviews Historia de las mujeres en España y América Latina, including the volume El mundo moderno, ed. Margarita Ortega, Asunción Lavrin, and Pilar Pérez Cantó.

SCJ Winter ‘08: Book Reviews – Updated

No articles on Spain in the current Sixteenth Century Journal, but seven book reviews:

Frank A. Domínguez reviews Daniel Castro’s Another Face of Empire: Bartolomé de las Casas, Indigenous Rights, and Ecclesiastical Imperialism.

R. Jovita Baber reviews Titu Cusi Yupangui’s History of How the Spaniards Arrived in Peru, ed. and trans. Catherine J. Julien.

William A. Christian, Jr. reviews Benjamin Ehlers’ Between Christians and Moriscos: Juan de Ribera and Religious Reform in Valencia, 1568-1614.

Miranda Howard reviews Marta V. Vicente’s Clothing the Spanish Empire: Families and the Calico Trade in the Early Modern Atlantic.

Guy Lazure reviews Jorge Bergua Cavero’s Francisco de Enzinas: Un humanista reformado en la Europa de Carlos V.

James S. Amelang reviews Paintings for the Planet King: Philip IV and the Buen Retiro Palace, ed. Andrés Ubeda de los Cobos, and Velázquez, by Dawson W. Carr, Xavier Bray, John H. Elliott, Larry Keith, and Javier Portús, with additional catalogue entries by Simona Di Nepi, Gabriele Finaldi, Giorgia Mancini, and Wolfgang Prohaska.

And José F. Bañuelos-Montes reviews El Humanismo español, su proyección en América Latina y Canarias en la época del Humanismo, ed. Antonio María Martín Rodríguez and Germán Santana Henríquez.

Update: Here’s one I missed: Robert A. Maryks reviews Julia A. Fleming, Defending Probabilism: The Moral Theology of Juan Caramue.

Happy Thanksgiving!

No new posts until next week.

Welcome!

I’ve created this blog in the hopes of creating a clearinghouse of information on scholarship in early modern Spanish history. I intend it to be a professional tool, a one-stop place to find out the latest books, articles, reviews, and even conference papers in the field.

I hope to have the blog up and running by Sept 1.

Comments welcome! Comment on a post, or email me, Scott Taylor, at staylor@siena.edu.