Note on Terminology
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Note on Terminology In what follows I attempt to remain faithful to the terms the fifteenth- and sixteenth- century Iberians I am writing about used when they wrote of “Aragon,” “Castile,” or “Spain.” The Crown of Ara- gon encompassed the eastern third of the Iberian Peninsula, running from the Aragonese and Catalan Pyrenees in the north down to the kingdom of Valencia in the south, and including the Mediterranean islands of Majorca, Menorca, and Ibiza. The kingdom of Castile occupied the large central por- tion of Iberia, from the north coast along the Bay of Biscay south to the At- lantic and Mediterranean coastlines lying opposite Morocco. That said, these figures themselves used such terminology inconsistently, and so for the sake of clarity and precision I sometimes opt to use vocabulary that will be most intelligible to the modern reader. For instance, I employ “Spain” and “Spanish” to describe what I see as joint or shared undertakings by the crowns of Castile and Aragon. An example of this is the fact that Ferdi- nand certainly pursued an Aragonese set of objectives in the central Mediter- ranean, but he did so through using mostly Castilian soldiers and resources. When presenting their objectives on the international stage, Ferdinand’s am- bassadors often simply referred to “Spain” or “Spanish” interests. Thus, the par- ticularity of Aragon or Castile within the Iberian Peninsula was frequently masked beyond the peninsula by the represen ta tion of the “Catholic kings” as the monarchs of “Spain.” Beyond this geographic variability, there is a tempo- ral instability to this as well: notions of a united Spain gave way, following Isa- bella’s death, to the resurrection of a more fragmentary understanding of the “Hispanic monarchy,” one in which Castile and Aragon were, at least in the- ory, administered separately. For the personal names of prominent figures about whomthere is already a substantial scholarly liter a ture in En glish, I use the standard English spelling in the text, except in cases where to do so would create confusion by having multiple people of the same name. Thus, I use Ferdinand and Isabella rather than Fernando and Isabel. I find it reasonable to standardize the monarchs’ names, as their names are rendered differently depending on the language xiii xiv NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY (Castilian, Catalan, or Latin) of the source. In the notes, however, or when drawing directly from a primary source, I preserve the original. For the per- sonal names of less prominent figures, such as Pedro Navarro or Cristóbal de Santesteban, I have opted to render them in a standardized modern Castilian spelling (thus avoiding the multiple spellings one encounters in the original, such as Santesteban/Santiesteban/Santisteban). Unless other wise noted, all translations to En glish are mine..