Review Of" Les Noces De Comte: Mariage Et Pouvoir En Catalogne

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10-1-1998

Review Of "Les Noces De Comte: Mariage Et Pouvoir En Catalogne (785-1213)" By M. Aurell

Stephen P. Bensch Swarthmore College, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Stephen P. Bensch. (1998). "Review Of "Les Noces De Comte: Mariage Et Pouvoir En Catalogne (785-1213)" By M. Aurell". Speculum. Volume 73, Issue 4. 1102-1104. DOI: 10.2307/2887370 https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-history/49

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Les noces du comte: Mariage et pouvoir en Catalogne (785-1213). by Martin Aurell Review by: Stephen P. Bensch Speculum, Vol. 73, No. 4 (Oct., 1998), pp. 1102-1104 Published by: Medieval Academy of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2887370 . Accessed: 05/09/2014 14:49

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This content downloaded from 130.58.65.13 on Fri, 5 Sep 2014 14:49:56 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 1102 Reviews

MARTIN AURELL, Les noces du comte:Mariage et pouvoiren Catalogne(785-1213). (His- toireAncienne et Medievale, 32.) Paris: Publicationsde la Sorbonne,1995. Paper. Pp. 623; maps, tables,and black-and-whiteillustrations. F 200. The interfacebetween power and familystructure has reinvigoratedthe study of medieval politicsin the past generation,yet lineage rather than maritalalliance has dominatedlit- eraturein the field.Martin Aurell attempts to redressthis imbalance. His sweepingstudy of themarriages of theCatalan countsover four and a halfcenturies offers one of themost ambitiousanalyses yet attempted of maritalstrategies and thechanging demands of ruler- ship. Methodologicallyhe owes a great debt not only to the pioneeringstudies of Karl Schmidtand GeorgesDuby on the emergingpatrilineal structure of the nobilitybut also to the growinghistorical and anthropologicalliterature on dowry,marriage, and family alliance.His approachproves particularly appropriate for the Mediterranean, where power remainedhighly fragmented in thetwelfth and earlythirteenth century. In northernEurope political consolidationfor both royal and territorialdynasties often depended upon the growthof a vigorousfamily tree, whose excessivebranches (whether male cadetsor daughters)were carefully pruned to allow the stouttrunk to growever higher; in thefragmented political environmentof the Mediterranean,Aurell presents us with a vine whose many tendrilsintertwined to bind disparatelordships. An ample but clearlydefined group of Catalan comitalfamilies allows forsufficiently complex test groups, while the rich charter evidencefor early Catalonia permitsthe authorto separateindividual family strands with consistencyand precision. Aurell identifiesthree distinct phases in the marriagestrategies of the Catalan counts. Endogomy(marriage within a group) and isogamy(marriage in whichthe partnersare of equal status)characterize the firststage of maritalalliances, from the timeof the Carolin- gian offensivein the Marca Hispanica in the late eighthcentury to c. 930. IncreasingLy isolated below the Pyrenees,the earliestcounts in the regionoperated within limited po- liticalparameters. Kinship networks reflected this. By the earlytenth century the fourteen Catalan counties(in variouscombinations) were in thehands of thenumerous descendants of Bellon,count of Carcassonne(d. 812), a loyal Carolingianstanding just below theranks of the highestaristocracy. The success of his heirsdepended upon marriageswith descendantsof Guilhaume,count of Toulouse,a cousin of Charlemagne,and Kunigunda,a mem- berof theold Visigothicaristocracy. Through several ninth-century marriages the Bellonids and Guilhaumidsfused Visigothic traditions and Carolingianloyalty. The earlycomital familiesin the easternPyrenees demonstrated a marked preferencein seekingspouses among close kin: four marriageswere contractedamong the grandchildrenand great- grandchildrenof Bellon. The proclivityfor endogamy corresponded to thefrequency with whichcounts associated brothersin orderto rulejointly. Thus, cogovernmentand endogamy promoteda clannishsolidarity, creating a vast comitalSippe in the late Carolingian period. This patternchanged significantly from 930 to 1080 as Catalonia extendedits relations withother Iberian and Mediterraneandynasties and as individualcomital houses beganto stand out more sharplyamong the Bellonids.Exogamy (marriageoutside a group) and hypergamy(marriage in whichthe husbandis of a lower social status)dominated marital exchanges.While countsand theirsons soughtwives from beyond their Pyrenean lands in twenty-twoof thirtyknown marriages during this period, daughters were given to foreign husbandsin ten of twentycases. Womenwere therefore critical in forginglinks to Castile, Occitania,Sicily, and evenBurgundy, but they could also be givento importantaristocratic followersat home in orderto solidifythe loyaltyof clients.As regalianrights began to fragmentand be seized by castellans,marital ties betweenambitious lords and the daugh- tersof the counts reinforcedthe fealtyof ambitious,unruly nobles. While matcheswith

This content downloaded from 130.58.65.13 on Fri, 5 Sep 2014 14:49:56 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Reviews 1103 foreignprinces encouraged exogamy, the repeated grant of comital daughters to husbands of a warriorclientele, most notably in thenumerous alliances between the counts and viscountsof Barcelona, quickly resulted in consanguineousmarriages. Clerical fulminations againstincestuous matches had yetto affectthe marriagestrategies of the Catalan counts. Finally,exogamy and hypogamy(marriage in whichthe brideis of a lower statusthan her husband) characterizethe marriagepatterns from 1080 to 1210, as thecounts of Bar- celona,the most prestigious comital house descendedfrom Bellon, skillfully employed mar- riageas a tool of territorialconsolidation and dynasticexpansion. The house of Barcelona deftlymaneuvered to swallow up otherCatalan countieswhen their rulers faced biological extinction;they cunningly broke earlier marital agreements when the opportunity presented itselfor arrangedfuture marriages for children still in the cradle.The countsof Barcelona therebybrought about a genealogicalconsolidation of the manyoffshoots of theBellonid clan. Matrimonialalliances also presentedan openingfor dynastic ambitions much further afield.With the marriageof Ramon BerenguerIII to Dolca, heiressof Provence,the house of Barcelona became a major Mediterraneanpower, but the most enduringlegacy of this phase of maritalannexation was theacquisition of a kingdomwith the wedding of Ramon BerenguerIV to Petronilla,heiress of Aragon. As the risingprestige of the house of Bar- celona consumedthe count's children in foreignmarriages, his closestaristocratic followers also servedhis needs by linkingnew territoriesto the comitalcourt: the Montcada, Lara, and Bas familiesbrought Barn, Narbonne,and Sardiniainto the Catalan orbit.What the count-kingsobtained throughmarital annexation, however, had to fitinto a tightening lineage organization.Peripheral territories such as Rossell6 and Provencewere givento cadet branchesof thefamily, a strategythat provided a precedentfor the assignment of the kingdomsof Majorca and Sicilyto the descendantsof Jaumethe Conquerorat the end of the thirteenthcentury. Although the count-kingslearned to manipulatethe demandsof a tighteninglineage, their marital strategies successfully placed themat the centerof a con- stellationof countiesand, eventually,kingdoms. In additionto a carefulanalysis of maritalalliances, Aurell explores cultural facets of marriageand theireffect upon the status of aristocraticwomen. He stresses,following Duby, that an underlyingtension existed betweenlay and clerical models of marriage. Despite the strenuousefforts of Gregorianreformers to eliminateconsanguineous mar- riagesand divorce,comital families for generations continued their marital strategies with littleconcern for canonical or civilprohibitions. Even when exogamybegan to prevail,it arose fromthe strategicneeds of the counts ratherthan respectfor clericalnorms. Yet despitethe assumptionsof Duby and his followers,a convergenceof clericaland lay in- terestscould buttressemerging patrilineal structures, for without the stresson the indis- solubilityof marriageneither the legitimacyof male heirsnor the integrationof goods givenin dowrycould have so profoundlyinfluenced aristocratic territorial formation; it is farfrom clear thatthe Gregorians'goals underminedaristocratic lineages. Aurellpoints to a generaldeterioration of thecondition of women in comitalhouseholds by the end of the twelfthcentury in spite of the emergenceof dowry.He interpretsthis change in the directionof maritalgifts in termsof a shiftfrom hypergamy to hypogamy, withterritorial or monetarywealth compensating for the loweredstatus of the bride.Al- thoughthe wealthwomen mightoffer increased, the potentialleverage connected with it was negatedby the increasingpower of the husband over all the propertiesin his house. This approach makes good sense forforeign brides, whose protectorswere farremoved, butat thehighest levels of the aristocracy marital transfers brought with them new relations of clientageand patronageas well as land and money.The policy of maritalannexation succeedednot onlyby the union of comitalpower and theproperties contributed by brides but also by thecreation of a new territorialcommunity recognized by the followers of each partyand by the abilityof the count-kingsto administertheir lands with increasingeffi-

This content downloaded from 130.58.65.13 on Fri, 5 Sep 2014 14:49:56 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 1104 Reviews ciency.Aurell forces one to look withnew eyesat thefederative constitution created by the marriagesof the Catalan counts and later the count-kings.His methodsevolve fromin- novativework on familystructure and power in northernEurope, but he demonstrates, occasionallydespite his own assumptions,what differentforms those strategies could take in the Mediterranean.

STEPHEN P. BENSCH, SwarthmoreCollege

ROGER BACON, RogerBacon and theOrigins of "Perspectiva"in theMiddle Ages: A Criti- cal Edition and English Translationof Bacon's "Perspectiva"with Introductionand Notes, ed. and trans.David C. Lindberg.Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1996. Pp. cxi, 411; 64 black-and-whitefigures. $105. Roger Bacon (ca. 1220-ca. 1292) was the firstWestern scholar to make perspectivainto a mathematical(geometrical) and, as he proudlyclaimed, "experimental" science. This he did in a numberof works (De speculiscomburentibus, De multiplicationespecierum), the chiefof which, Perspectiva, is editedand translatedinto English in thevolume under review. The editorand translatoris theforemost American historian of medievaland Renaissance optics and a world-knownBacon specialist.His presentedition does full justice to his reputation. While De speculis comburentibushas a narrowtopic, beinga commentaryon the last propositionof Euclid's De speculisby means of an analysisof burningmirrors and radi- ation throughsmall apertures,and De multiplicationespecierum presents a comprehensive naturalphilosophy grounded on the fundamentalprinciple of naturalaction throughthe propagationof formallikenesses (topics with a heavy perspectivalcomponent), the Per- spectiva,written about 1263, fullydevelops the science of perspectiva, dealing exhaustively withtheories of light,color, and vision. (It also deals with some ancillarytopics, like the conditionsand epistemologyof sight,farsightedness and nearsightedness,vision in dim light,the effectsof illnesson visual perception,double vision,scintillation of stars,etc.) Light (lux) and color are the formsof luminousbodies propagatednaturally in all di- rectionsas lumen and color and affectingthe sense of sight.Their propagation,though continuousthrough the three-dimensionalmedium, can be treatedheuristically by means of straightlines in continuousmedia of uniformtransparency. This makesthe propagation of light,including reflection at impassablesurfaces and refractionat interfacesof different transparencies,amenable to geometricaltreatment, warranting the mathematical nature of the scienceof perspectiva. Though Bacon's theoryof visionis thoroughlyintromissionist, he bowed to thediversity of the newly translatedsources of his disciplineand "enriched"it with extramissionist elements,which, though not fullyintegrated, are presentedin theframework of intelligent attemptsto explainvarious optical phenomena.According to Bacon's theory,it is thepyr- amid (cone) of radiationhaving its base on thevisible body and consistingof raysperpen- dicularto the cornea and the anteriorsurface of the crystallinehumor that is responsible forsight, enabling a one-to-onecorrespondence between points of the visibleobject and theirimage in theeye. These perpendicularrays are refractedat theinterface of the posterior surfaceof the crystallineand vitreoushumors, reaching the retinain the same orderthey had on the object (thereis no reversionand inversionof the image in this scheme) and furthertransmitted through the hollow optical nervesto the commonnerve, where vision is completed.In its bare bones, and withoutdealing with its various difficultiesand their attemptedsolutions, this is Bacon's theoryof vision. But is it reallyBacon's? The peculiarsynthesis of its variouscomponents is his, but the componentsthemselves are not. They were drawn froma spate of recentlytranslated

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