The Book of Illustrious Men of Castile (El libro de los claros varones, 1486), by Fernando del Pulgar, translated by Erik Ekman and Samantha Mori.
This is a new translation and study of El libro de los claros varones (1486), a collection of twenty-four biographies of fifteenth-century Castilian nobles and prelates, originally published by the royal chronicler, Fernando del Pulgar, and dedicated to Queen Isabel I of Castile. It is an important example of humanist historical writing that looked to classical literary forms and classical literature for examples of proper military and civic engagement in support of a new, more modern state. Pulgar’s biographical subjects were all recently deceased, and had gained fortunes, fame, and titles, mostly through military service. Their lives, as recounted by Pulgar, served as models of proper masculine conduct as Castile was engaged in The War of Granada, its final push to consolidate Christian control of the Iberian Peninsula.
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Serie de traducciones críticas, #16
ISBN 978-1-58871-388-9 (HB/jacket, 146 pp.) $45