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ABSTRACT
This study examines the role that emotional memories – memories connected to or describing emotions – played in the recollection of events, while also becoming powerful rhetorical and didactic tools in the process of history-writing. Emotional memories, which were shaped through both oral and written transmission, helped to situate images from the past within wider personal and historical frameworks. King James I of Aragon (r. 1213–76)’s Llibre dels fets, regarded as the first secular chronicle-autobiography attributed to a Christian King in medieval Western Europe, is a thought-provoking example of this. The differences between emotional values and emotional experiences emerge clearly in the narrative of James I’s life and military deeds, throwing light on a thirteenth-century belief that although emotional reactions belonged to the biological sphere, they originated from – and therefore could be managed by – culturally driven models of behaviour. Following this line of thought, this study also scrutinizes anger and its management, as they were at the core of most medieval “emotional regimes” promoted by contemporary rulers. Preserving memory, including memories of emotions, was conceived as an ethical mission attributed to the King, as well as to those in charge of writing history. These ideas influenced both historiographical and autobiographical writings, and are therefore key to understand the rationale behind the structural, narrative and thematic choices of both authors and commissioners. Emotions have been an important locus for subjectivity in Medieval Studies and the analysis of sources such as King James I of Aragon’s chivalrous autobiography through this lens will certainly open new and interdisciplinary lines of enquiry.
Notes on contributor
Dr Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo I completed my first degree in European Languages and Cultures at the University of Catania (Italy), before undertaking my doctoral research in Medieval Iberian Studies at the University of Exeter. I worked at the University of Exeter and as a Lecturer in Medieval History at Queen Mary, University of London, before joining the School of History and Heritage at the University of Lincoln. Alongside the publication of a number of journal articles and chapters in edited collections (please, see my research profile at http://staff.lincoln.ac.uk/aliuzzoscorpo), I published my monograph Friendship in Medieval Iberia: Historical, Legal and Literary Perspectives with Ashgate in 2014. I am interested in the cultural history of the medieval Western Mediterranean and in particular in thirteenth-century Iberia. My main areas of research include the history of emotions, the study of social and cultural networks, interfaith collaborations and political agreements, among others. I also worked on the idea and representation of power in Medieval Castile and León between the eleventh and the thirteenth centuries, as a member of an international research project with the University of Salamanca (Spain). More recently, I have been invited to join the Leverhulme-funded research network “New Interpretations of the Angevin World”. I am currently working on egodocuments and “emotional memory”, focusing on a number of fascinating case studies, such as the Catalan biographies and autobiographies produced between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Treasurer of the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean, for which I also co-organized the 4th International Conference in July 2015. Moreover, as an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Digital Leader for the School of History at the University of Lincoln, I am also interested and actively involved in the development of e-learning projects aimed at enhancing the students’ learning experience in Medieval Studies at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Notes
1 The literature on memory is extensive and varied. For an overview of some philosophical and psychological perspectives see Thomas, “Epistemological Problems of Memory”; Bernecker, Memory; Gluck et al., Learning and Memory.
2 Plato, for example, despite the fact that he never attempted a systematic definition of memory, used a number of similes to explain how it operates, including images such as the wax casting of a ring (Theatetus 191c. d) and the inner artist painting pictures in human souls (Philebus 39b. c). Such images have been associated with mnemonic processes for centuries. Twenty-century thinkers like Frederic Bartlett and Bertrand Russell still operated largely within the same philosophical constructions. Bartlett, Remembering.
3 For example, the psychologist Hunt discussed this aspect through the study of dreams: Hunt, The Multiplicity of Dreams. Another interesting study is Mullally and Maguire, “Memory, Imagination, And Predicting the Future,” 220–34. The latter discusses how memory, imagination and prediction are intimately linked, as metacognitive, cognitive, neuro-psychological and Neuroimaging evidence have demonstrated.
4 Schacter, “Implicit Memory,” 501–18; Bradley et al., “Implicit and Explicit Memory,” 755–70.
5 Bergson, Matière et mémoire. Essai sur la relation du corps à l’esprit. Trans Paul and Palmer as Matter and Memory, 79–83.
6 Russell, The Analysis of Mind.
7 Geary, Phantoms of Remembrance.
8 For an overview of different historiographical tendencies: Nora, Rethinking France; Nora and Krtizman, Realms of Memory; Halbwachs, On Collective Memory.; Dosse, La historia. On historical memory: http://www.memoriahistorica.gob.es/index.htm. The debate about the role of historical memory in the construction of the History of Spain and reference to the issue of a law in 2007 about this, are discussed in González, “Spanish Literature and the Recovery of Historical Memory,” 177–85. On historical memory and the Spanish context see also Juliá Díaz, “Bajo el imperio de la memoria,” 7–20.
9 The literature on social and collective memory is extensive: Fentress and Wickham, Social Memory; Irwin-Zarecka, Frames of Remembrance; Markovits and Reich, The German Predicament; Alcock, Archaeologies of the Greek, 1–35; Climo and Cattell, Social Memory and History; Misztal, Theories of Social Remembering.
10 Bal, Acts of Memory. For an introduction on cultural memory see also: Erll and Nünning, A Companion to Cultural Memory Studies.
11 van Alphen, “Symptoms of Discursivity,” 24–38, 37.
12 Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record, 58.
13 For a survey of the different approaches of history-writing in memory studies: Cubitt, History and Memory. On the medieval “self”: Walker Bynum, “Did the Twelve Century Discover,” 1–17; Hamburger, The Visual and the Visionary, 233–79; Bedos-Rezak, “Medieval Identity,” 1489–533.
14 Burns, Muslims, Christians, and Jews, 285–8; Armistead, “An Anecdote of King Jaume,” 1–8; Vernet, La cultura hispanoárabe en Oriente y Occidente, 333.
15 On the concepts of “private” and “public” applied to the medieval period: Aries and Duby, A History of Private Life; Duby, “Private Power, Public Power,” 7–14; Dyer, “Public and Private Lives,” 237–9; McSheffrey, “Place, Space, and Situation,” 960–90.
16 Reynolds, Interpreting the Self, 19. Online at: http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft2c6004x0;brand=ucpress (last accessed October 13, 2015).
17 Wyke, Julius Caesar; Griffin, A Companion to Julius Caesar; Norman, Libanius: Autobiography and Selected Letters.
18 Miyake, “The Tosa Diary,” '41–73; 'Arntzen and Moriyuki, Sugawara no Takasune no Musume, 8; Reynolds, Interpreting the Self, 4–5; Jones, “Dreams and Visions,” 105–37.
19 On spiritual autobiographies with a specific focus on gender studies: Greenspan, “Autobiography and Medieval Women's,” 216–36. For a more general survey: Fleming, “Medieval European Autobiography,” 35–48.
20 Jaeger, “Pessimism in the Twelfth-century ‘Renaissance,’” 1151–83; Swanson, The Twelfth-century Renaissance; Benson et al., Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century.
21 Fleming, “Medieval European Autobiography,” 35–48.
22 For the MS Latin 173: André Wilmart, Bibliothecae Vaticanae, 407–9; for an edition of what was believed to be the whole text attributed to Fulk IV: “Fragmentum Historiae Andegavensis,” 232–46.
23 Paul, “The Chronicle of Fulk le Réchin,” 19–35.
24 “Secular” refers here to autobiographical accounts which did not focus on spiritual lives or conversion. Rubin, Remembering Our Past; Spengeman, The Forms of Autobiography; Lehmann, “Autobiographies of the Middle Ages,” 41–52; Misch, Geschichte der Autobiographie, zwei Bände.
25 Spearing, Medieval Autobiographies; Long, Autografia ed epistolografia tra XI e XIII secolo.
26 In the 1950s Jacques Presser invented the term “egodocuments” to describe texts in which the authorial presence is central: either as the first person narrator or as the “he/she” who is the writing subject. Dekker, Egodocuments and History. On the Catalan examples: Cingolani, La memòria dels reis. Les quatre grans cròniques I la historiografia catalana, des del segle X al XIV; Pau Rubies and Salrach, “Entorn de la mentalitat i la ideologia del bloc de poder feudal a traves de la historiografia medieval fins a les Quatre Grans Croniques,” 467–506. The Catalan autobiographical production is often understudied. For example, in John V. Fleming's chapter “Medieval European Autobiography”, there is only mention of Castilian mystical writings from the sixteenth century. For a brief introduction on the history of the Crown of Aragon: Bisson, The Medieval Crown of Aragon; Kagay, War, Government, and Society; de Abadia, La Corona de Aragón en el Mediterraneo medieval (1229–1479). About autobiography and the peculiarity of the Crown of Aragon see Aurell, Authoring the Past.
27 The chapters about James I's reign are 11–73. This part is prefaced by a brief history of the Counts of Barcelona, mostly based on legendary accounts (chapters 1–10) before dedicating chapters 74–168 to Peter III's reign. Aurell, Authoring the Past, 55–70.
28 More on Desclot's chronicle/biography in Cingolani, Historiografia, propaganda i comunicació al segle XIII: Bernat Desclot i les dues redaccions de la seva crònica.
29 Muntaner never referred to it as an “empire”. For an insight into the historiographical debate on the idea of a Catalan-Aragonese “empire”: Vanlandingham, Transforming the State; Rubiés, “The Idea of Empire in the Catalan Tradition,” 229–62; esp. p. 243. See also Rubiés, “Rhetoric and Ideology in the Book of Ramon Muntaner,” 1–29.
30 Aurell, Authoring the Past, 93. See Chronicle. Pere III of Catalonia. For the Catalan edition: Soldevila, Les quatre Grans Cròniques. Henceforth this is shortened as LQGC.
31 López Rodríguez, “Orígenes del Archivo de la Corona de Aragón (en Tiempos Archivo Real de Barcelona),” 413–54. On the archival sources: McCrank, “Documenting Reconquest and Reform,” 256–318.
32 About James's early years: Soldevila, Els primers temps de Jaume I. On the later years: Soldevila, Jaume I. Pere el Gran; Soldevila, Jaume I el conqueridor. Other biographies of James I, including popular history: Cabestany Fort, Jaume I (1208–1276). Esbós d’una biografia; Cabestany Fort, Jaume I, conqueridor i home de govern; Gómez, Jaume I. El naixement d’un poble: una biografia illustrada; Cingonali, Jaume I. Història i mite d’un rei. On James I's reign and its context, as well as his complex relationships with the nobility: Wilman, Jaime I “El Conquistador” and the Barons of Aragon, 1244–1267.
33 Santamaría, “Precisiones sobre la expansión marítima de la Corona de Aragón,” 187–256, 189; Santamaría, “La expansión político-militar de la Corona de Aragón bajo la dirección de Jaime I,” 91–146, this study focuses on the conquest of Majorca; Salrach, “La formació dels Paisos Catalans i l’expansió mediterránia (sigles XIII–XIV),” 89–134, 94.
34 López Elum, La Conquista y repoblación Valenciana durante el reinado de Jaime I, 29–30.
35 Documentos de Clemente IV (1265–1268), esp. doc. n. 56, 163–5; n. 74, 181–2; n. 118, 230–1; n. 120, 232–3.
36 On the relationship with Alfonso X: Perry, Warrior Neighbours Crusader Valencia.
37 English translation by Smith and Buffery, The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon. Henceforth BoD.
38 Digital reproduction of the MS. 10121, held by the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid is available through the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes; Bruguera, Llibre dels fets del rei en Jaume. There are, instead, six surviving manuscripts of the Latin version by Pere Marsili, the oldest is MS 64 (Biblioteca Universitaria de Barcelona) and the only complete one is MS 1018 (Biblioteca de Cataluña). Martínez San Pedro, La Crónica Latina de Jaime I. See also Asperti, “Indagini sull’ Llibre dels Feyts di Jaume I,” 269–85; Asperti, “La tradizione manoscritta del Libre dels Feyts,” 107–67.
39 The accurate description of places in Mallorca has been considered a clue to speculate on the friar's origins. Hillgarth, “Mallorca como centro intelectual, 1229–1550,” 205–11.
40 Martínez San Pedro, Crónica Latina, 15–23.
41 Fernández-Ordóñez, “La lengua de los documentos del rey,” 323–62. For the documents from the royal chancery: Huici Miranda and Cabanes Pecourt, Documentos de Jaume I; Font i Bayell, “Documents escrits en catalá Durant el regnat de Jaume I,” 517–26.
42 Alfonso X, General estoria. Primera Parte, 2–5. English translation mine, from Liuzzo Scorpo, Friendship in Medieval Iberia, 45–6.
43 For example, in the MS of Poblet (and in the English translation by Smith and Buffery, which mostly relied on it) the last lines of chapter 382 are in the first person singular.
44 Jimeno Jurio and Jimeno Aranguren, Colección Documental de Sancho VII el Fuerte (1194–1234), n. 234, 334, 237 and others. Whilst the majority of the records of the Crown of Aragon from the period are in Latin, this is the first one written in the vernacular of Navarre.
45 BoD, chap. 138, 145–6; CL, Liber III, chap. IV, 230.
46 BoD, chap. 138, 145; LQGC, 66 “[…] e abraçam-nos: e era bé tan gran de persona com nós: […]”.
47 For an introduction on the psychological studies on visual memory systems: Stephen J. Luck, Hollingworth, Visual Memory.
48 BoD, chap. 139, 146. LQGC, 67 “[…]: e vull-vos-ho més dir de ma boca, que no que alters fossen entre nós e vós: […]”.
49 BoD, chap. 140, 146. LQCG, 67 “E nós quan oïm la paraula plac-nos molt en nostre cor: e dixem-li, que lo hi graïem molt, que ben semblava que de gran amor li venia; […]”.
50 BoD, chap. 184, 173–4. LQGC, 82 “E nós dixem-los que els escriváns nostres no eren aquí, per ço com nós veníem tan cuitosament, mas que escriviessen aquellas coses que ens demanarien, e nós que ens avenríem ab ells: e, quan nos fóssem avenguts ab ells, ço que els prometríem que els ho compliríem, e els ho atendríem”.
51 BoD, chap. 238, 207.
52 LQGC, 101.
53 CL Liber IV, chap. XXVIII, 271.
54 BoD, chap. 22, 39–40.
55 BoD, chap. 22, p.13.
56 CL, Liber II:XIV, 134.
57 On tears in medieval discourse and its symbolism: Gertsman, Crying in the Middle Ages.
58 Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, question 38.
59 BoD, chap. 494, 344–5.
60 LQGC, 171.
61 CL Liber IV, chap. XXVI, 381.
62 BoD, chap. 255, 216. LQGC, 106, “E, quan saberen los sarraïns de València que nós havíem Paterna, per una ira e dolor que havien de primer los doblà, e quant tant nos acostàvem a ells”.
63 On the idea of “emotional regime”: Reddy, The Navigation of Feeling, 129. See also Doubleday, “Anger in the Crónica de Alfonso X,” 61–76; Rosenwein, Anger's Past; Lord Smail, “Hatred as a Social Institution in Late-Medieval Society,” 90–126; Travis, Anger.
64 An example of how the inappropriateness of anger was used in Medieval English court to indicate mental instability is provided by Turner, “Silent Testimony,” 81–95; Pfau, “Crime of Passion,” 97–122.
65 Las Siete Partidas del Rey Don Alfonso el Sabio, cotejadas con varios codices antiguos, II:V:XII “Mas sin dubda alguna la debe haber contras los enemigos de la fe, et contra aquellos que facen al rey ó al regno traicion, et contras los alevosos, et los falsarios, et los facedores de los otros grandes yerros que deben ser escarmentados de todas guisas sin ninguna merced;[…]”, vol. 2, 34. English translations from: Las Siete Partidas, trans. Parsons Scott, ed. Burns, vol. 2.
66 SP II:V:X: “(la saña) … face al home tremer el cuerpo, et perder el seso, et camiar la color, et mudra el entendimiento, et fácele envejecer ante de tiempo et morir antes de sus dias”, vol. 2, 32.
67 SP II:V:XII “Onde el rey que de otra guisa hobiese malquerencia, si non como en esta ley dice por derecha razon, seria malquisto de Dios et de los homes”, vol. 2, 34.
68 Forced by the Catalan reaction against the influence of Roman law in the new principalities, James I confirmed the validity of the Usatges in 1251.The situation was different in Valencia, where he was able to impose a new code, based on the Justinian model. Dualde Serrano, Fori antiqui Valentiae, 2–4; María Barrero, “El derecho romano en los ‘Furs’ de Valencia de Jaime I,” 639–64; O’Callaghan, “Kings and Lords in Conflict,” 117–38, esp. 118–22.
69 The Usatges of Barcelona, trans. and ed. Kagay, 42. An online version of the Usatges edited by the same author is available at: http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/sine-data,_Absens,_The_Usatges_of_Barcellona_[Fundamental_Law_Of_Catalogna],_EN.pdf quote from B690.
70 McGrath, “The Politics of Chivalry,” 55–69.
71 See n. 62.
72 CL Liber II, chap. XXXII, 277.
73 Hames, The Art of Conversion, 8.
74 Ramon Martí also appears in Ldf, chapter 490. Bréhier, “Un maitre orientaliste du Xiiie siècle,” 267–311.
75 Grassotti, “La Ira Regia en León y Castilla,” 5–135, esp. 36–60, 75–7, 94 n. 256; Doubleday, “Anger in the CAX”. See also Althoff, “Ira regis: Prolegomena to a History of Royal Anger”, in Anger's Past, 59–74.
76 Homer, Iliad, trans. Samuel Butler, at http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.html (accessed 29 December 2015), 18.109.
77 BoD, chap. 266, 221.
78 LQGC, chap. 266, 109.
79 CL Liber III, chap. XXXVI, 281.
80 BoD, chap.208, 188.
81 LQGC, 90.
82 CL Liber III, chap. XXIII, 257.
83 BoD, chap. 232, 203.
84 LQGC, 98–9.
85 CL Liber III, chap. XXVIII, 268.
86 BoD, chap. 213–4, 190–1.
87 Stearns and Stearns, “Emotionology,” 813–36.
88 Huizinga's view that the Middle Ages had the emotional life of a child has been contested by recent studies, including Rosenwein, “Worrying about Emotions in History,” 821–45.
89 Elias, The Civilizing Process. He argued that while the medieval courtly environment defined a culture of constraint that also applied to emotions (the case of King James I confirms such a view), it was only with the formation of the modern state in western Europe that those norms were generalized and widely imposed.
90 Carrera, Emotions and Health, 1200–1700.
91 McSheffrey, “Place, Space and Situation,” 960–90.
92 Some examples from the Lfd are chapters 48, 51 and 79.
93 LQGC, 98 “E tolguem-li el cavall, e el perpunt, el capell de ferre e la ballesta: e no li lleixam sinó una gonella, e vene-se’n a peu après nós”.
94 BoD, chap. 1–46.
95 Chronica latina regum Castellae, ; Fernández-Ordóñez, “La composición por etapas de la Chronica latina regum Castellae (1223–1237) de Juan de Soria.”
96 Fernández Ordóñez, “La composición de la Cronica latina regum Castella.” See also Rodriguez, “La preciosa transmisión,” 293–322.
97 Stock, The Implications of Literacy.
98 This is an aspect which I will explore in my forthcoming research project.
99 Wood, “Brevitas in the Writings of Isidore of Seville,” 37–53.
100 See for example, BoD, chap.1, 16.
101 Carruthers, The Book of Memory.
102 BoD, chap. 215, 191–2.
103 LQGC, 288.
104 CL, Liber III, chap. XXIV, 260.
105 Isidore of Seville, I.3.2. English translation: “For so great is the variety of things that all cannot be learned by hearing, nor contained only in memory”.