Collection ID: 0002 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Discurso echo por fray Agustin de Saluçio, maestro en sancta theoloxia dela horden de Santo Domingo açerca dela justiçia y buen gobierno de España enlos estatutos de limpieça de sangre y si conbiene o no alguna limitaçion en ellos

Authors

• Salucio, Agustín, 1523-1601

Other related names

• Stirling Maxwell, William, Sir, 1818-1878, former owner

Call number

Ms. Codex 1447
(Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Rare Book & Manuscript Library)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 4466961
• http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/4466961

Publisher

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries

Language

Spanish

Origin

Date

16--

Place

Spain

Summary

17th-century copy of a political treatise written by Dominican friar Agustin de Salucio, probably in 1599 or 1600, in favor of reforming the statutes on bloodlines, referred to in the text as "los estatutos de limpieça de sangre." These statutes, initiated in earnest in 15th-century Spain, at first excluded individuals from holding public office or receiving ecclesiastical benefices if they were descendants of either Jewish or Muslim converts to Christianity or of individuals convicted of crimes by the Inquisition. However, by the end of the 16th century, Spanish society, government, and especially the Catholic Church were obsessed with proving "cleanliness of blood," which was to say tracing ancestry back to the "old Christians" who had never been Muslims or Jews. Such proof of pure Christian lineage became the means by which previously poor Christians laid claim to the lowest rung of the Spanish nobility, the hidalguía. This had always been an especially divisive and polemic issue in Spain, but by the end of the 16th century its excessive dissemination and implementation had convinced many that reform was needed. Thus, despite an official ban by the Inquisition on any writings against the statutes, several authors, including Salucio, published works advocating change. Chapters 1-3 lay out the main arguments of those against the statutes and chapters 4-8 give pro-statute responses. The remainder of the treatise, chapters 9-25, illustrate the author's middle path, which advocates imposing a time limitation on the statutes. In these latter chapters there is some interesting discussion related to the status of the "new Christians" converted to Christianity from Judaism or Islam.

Notes

• Ms. codex.
   
• Title from title page (f.i recto).
   

Watermark

Unidentified watermark consisting of a cross inside a circle with a crown above and possibly two unidentified initials underneath.

Extent

76 leaves : 208 x 148 (180 x 120) mm. bound to 216 x 158 mm

Foliation

Paper, ii + 76 + ii leaves; [i], 1-73, [i], 74; contemporary foliation in ink, modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.

Support

Paper

Binding

Calf (Zacour-Hirsch).

Layout

Written in 21 long lines.

Decoration

Some ornamentation in ink on title page (f.i recto).

Script

Written in a cursive script.

Provenance

• Formerly owned by Sir William Stirling Maxwell (bookplate inside upper cover).
   
• Purchased, 1966.
   

Subjects topical

• Inquisition--Spain--Early works to 1800
• Nobility--Spain--Early works to 1800
• Jews--Legal status, laws, etc.--Spain
• Christian converts from Islam--Spain--History
• Christian converts from Judaism--Spain--History
• Marranos--Spain
• Moriscos--Early works to 1800

Genres

• Codices
• Treatises
• Polemics
• Manuscripts, Spanish--17th century
• Manuscripts, European

Licenses

• Text

  This description is ©2015 University of Pennsylvania Libraries. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License version 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

• Text

  All referenced images and their content are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

Decorations

• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Inside front cover
• fol. 4r — Table, f. 4r