Some weeks ago finally our collective volume Église(s) et grands hommes, entre Renaissance et réformes under the direction of Cécile Caby was released in open access.
Here is the link to my contribution: Tratados aparte, Collective Biographies in Fifteenth-Century Spain. The Case of Prelates in Fernán Pérez de Guzmán and Fernando del Pulgar and to the abstract:
This contribution focuses on two collective biographies written in fifteenth-century Spain: Generaciones y sembanzas, drafted by Fernán Pérez de Guzmán around 1450, and Claros varones de Castilla, published by Fernando del Puglar in 1486. Both collections gathered the lives of kings, noblemen, knights, and prelates contemporary to their authors. This chapter intends to comparatively examine these texts regarding the evolution of religious portraits. First, I offer a historical contextualization and some formal considerations about both collections, which include the historiographical methodology used by both authors, their literary models, as well as remarks about narrative structure, system of values, and rhetorical tone. Then, I analyze patterns used to construct these religious profiles and the reasons why they are used to describe these illustrious men. This chapter interrogates how and why biographical narratives for Castilian religious subjects were reported, justified, fashioned, and imagined in particular ways.
It was such an enormous honor to work with Cécile and hopefully many more publications will come along, always sharing our passion for life writing in the Middle Ages and Early Modern times!