Medieval Spain

Does anyone have recommendations for reading on Spain circa ~500-1400?

If you can read in spanish you can look for the book of Eduardo Manzano Moreno(España Medieval), recently there have been a lot on new publications covering different periods of medieval Spain, I don’t know any book who can cover 900 years of history, so it would be better to look for more specific period, try looking for the visigothic kingdom, them for the arab conquest, the convivencia, El Cid, the reconquest. In English you can start with the books of Richard Fletcher, I know two, Moorish spain and the quest for El Cid. On the arab conquest there are a lot of books on the market so it would not be hard to find a good recommendation, there is one interesting book on the medieval Jewish communities, The Sephardic Frontier: The Reconquista and the Jewish Community in Medieval Iberia by Jonathan Ray, it was translated into spanish. Some authors, Peter Linehan, Stephen O’shea, Teofilo Ruiz, Thomas F Glick, Gabriel Jackson(intro a la España medieval),Bernard F Rielly, Hugh Kennedy, Roger Collins.Hope this help, if you want something more specific let me know I got a lot Spanish historian friends who can help us.

Le agradezco las recomendaciones. Estoy de acuerdo que sea difícil incluir en uno libro todo los novecientos años. Lo que me interesan son los aspectos culturales de los musulmanes y los intercambios intelectuales de la convivencia. (No estoy seguro si ‘la convivencia’ es un invento de los historiadores o una descripción de lo que pasó en realidad.) Puedo leer el castellano, pero prefiero leer en inglés. Entiende Ud. …

On general medieval Spanish history, Joseph O'Callaghan has a pretty comprehensive overview of the political and cultural situation.

A good place to start on convivencia and cultural exchange is Maria Rosa Menocal, who has written fairly extensively on the subject: The Ornament of the World for a very approachable introduction; The Arts of Intimacy takes a much more in-depth approach to the same topic, and both stretch essentially from the invasion of 711 to the seventeenth century, with most of the focus being on the Caliphate of Córdoba and the Reconquista years. The compendium Convivencia offers a nice range of articles from different perspectives. L. P. Harvey has also written quite a user-friendly history of Muslims in Spain: Islamic Spain, 1250-1500, and its sequel, Muslims in Spain, 1500-1614.

If you're interested specifically in the literary and intellectual exchanges, Menocal's book The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History is quite interesting, as is the Cambridge History of Arabic Literature volume The Literature of Al-Andalus. All are in English and are quite readily available.

Hopefully one of these will fit the bill; if not, feel free to contact me, as this is pretty much what I study!

(I feel I should note - Menocal takes a very rosy view of the convivencia situation, though she's much more moderate than her predecessor Americo Castro. A grain or two of salt wouldn't go amiss if you choose to read The Ornament of the World.)

I had heard that The Ornament of the World was a bit rosy. On your notice, though, I have sent off for The Arts of Intimacy. Thanks for the tip. I'm curious: have you read the collection Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Medieval and Early Modern Spain: Interaction and Cultural Change edited by Meyerson?

I've not read Menocal's The Ornament of the World, but I thought her The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History was fascinating and quite insightful.

Life is good. There's always another interesting book to read. Thank you, Jane.

I have a copy of the Meyerson volume in front of me, actually! It's very good, but some of the articles can be a bit specialist so knowledge of the historical situation would be advisable before diving in; otherwise it offers interesting perspectives on a range of aspects of the "convivencia" period. The articles by David Nirenberg and Renee Levine Melammed have also been expanded into Communities of Violence and Heretics or Daughters of Israel?, respectively, if either of those topics appeal to you.

A professor I had in undergrad who was such a resource on Medieval Spain and who has some publications out there. His name is Brian Catlos. Check out The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims in Catalonia.

I remember "Spain in the middle ages : From frontier to empire 1000-1500" by Angus McKay as being pretty good in that it deals with military, cultural and economic history

I can recommend three books that I have read, but I am not an specialist. For the Visigoth period, Los Godos en España by E.A.Thompson. For the "Reconquista", "La Reconquista" by Derek Lomax (touchstone does not work). For the kingdom of Aragon, The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History by Thomas Bisson. The three books are broad, and serve as a nice introduction to medieval Spain.

I'm assuming you've read John of Biclaro (c.590) and Isidore of Seville (c.625).

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I have an interest in any Islamic sources if anyone knows of some that have been translated.

I can heartily recommend the following:

Libro de buen amor (The Book of Good Love)--Juan Ruiz
This is my favorite book from medieval Spain. Incredibly entertaining, and very ingeniously employs many levels of ambiguity which require an active reader to make choices about how he or she wants to intepret the parables, exempla and other odds and ends that make up this immense and diverse book.

La Celestina (Celestina)--Fernando de Rojas
I'm just finishing reading this book for the second time. It's a novel in dialogue and the language is very realistic: it makes you feel like you're right there in medieval Spain. It also presents a clash between an idealized, fictional character (Calisto, the courteous, chivalrous lover) and the "real" world which anticipates what Cervantes would do a century later with Don Quijote.

Cantar de Mio Cid (The Poem of the Cid)
Spain's contribution to the epic. It's very realistic and quite historically accurate: no slaying dragons or anything like that. Just Rodrigo Ruy Díaz methodically conquering cities and amassing (somewhat) believable amounts of wealth so that he can win back the favor of king Alfonso VI.

I also enjoy the poetry of Jorge Manrique. Here is his masterpiece, in Spanish and English:
Coplas por la muerte de su padre
Coplas on the Death of his Father

As far as secondary sources, I've got The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History checked out from the library and hope to read it this summer. Alan Deyermond's A Literary History of Spain: The Middle Ages provides a good overview of medieval Spanish literature.