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UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Readings in Common: Assimilation and Interpretive Authority in Early Modern Spain Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5nf2x10g Author Kimmel, Seth Ross Publication Date 2010 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Readings in Common: Assimilation and Interpretive Authority in Early Modern Spain By Seth Ross Kimmel A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Anthony J. Cascardi, Co-Chair Professor José Rabasa, Co-Chair Professor Timothy Hampton Professor Charles Hirschkind Professor Dwight Reynolds Professor Jesús Rodríguez-Velasco Spring 2010 Abstract Readings in Common: Assimilation and Interpretive Authority in Early Modern Spain By Seth Ross Kimmel Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature University of California, Berkeley Professor Anthony J. Cascardi, Co-Chair Professor José Rabasa, Co-Chair Readings in Common: Assimilation and Interpretive Authority in Early Modern Spain examines how sixteenth and early seventeenth-century Iberian scholars negotiated the meanings of shared narratives and parallel rituals across ecumenical and linguistic lines. By rendering Iberian scholastic modes of demarcating Christianity more humanistic, and by comparing these theological arguments with the reading practices of Northern European reformers, I question the conventional genealogy of modern, secular interpretive strategies. My project thus proposes a revised history of religious tolerance and textual historicism on the one hand, and of medieval and early modern Iberian convivencia, scholasticism, and evangelism on the other hand. The first half of the dissertation, which examines patristic texts, scholastic commentaries, and humanist essays in Latin and Spanish, argues that sixteenth-century Iberian reformers defended a moderate politics of peaceful conversion and New Christian assimilation by reformulating established scholastic categories of difference. Emphasizing a model of religion defined by obligatory practice, scholars such as Francisco de Vitoria, Bartolomé de Las Casas, Ignacio de Las Casas, and Pedro de Valencia acknowledged the epistemological limitations of knowing and regulating the faith of indigenous Americans, Iberian Moriscos, and other potential or recent converts to Christianity. The second half of the dissertation, which investigates the Sacromonte “lead books,” a series of forged holy texts composed in Arabic, as well as several Spanish, French, and Latin philological treatises, moves from an examination of ritual to an analysis of early modern dispute over the nature of language. I demonstrate that a radically formal approach to philology, exemplified by orthodox modes of translation and an evangelical pedagogy of linguistic usage, broadly transformed understandings of cultural and religious similitude and difference. By underscoring the parallel epistemological conditions of early modern Iberian theology and philology, I both present a nuanced account of conversion and reform in the early modern 1 Hispanic world and show how this account can be helpful for rethinking the changing relationship among religion, scholarship, and politics in the present. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements iii Note on Spelling and Transliteration v Introduction Theology, Philology, and the Politics of Assimilation 1 Audience and Agency Methodology as a Problem of Similitude Material Culture and Close Reading Chapter One At the Limit of Faith: Scholastic Method and Evangelization 14 in the New World Lectio: Sufficient Grace and Ethical Living Disputatio: The Scholastic Claim to Authority Praedicatio: Evangelization and Epistemology Chapter Two Assimilation as Reform: The Trans-Atlantic Politics of 35 Ritual Obligation and Baptism New World and Medieval Mediterranean Exemplarity The Convert, the Author, and the Improvisation of Power Chapter Three Reading Similarity: Sacromonte the Use of Philology 58 Raising the Arabic Curtains i Theological Skepticism and the History of Language Chapter Four Converting Speakers: Comparative Philology and the 79 Limits of Meaning Powerful or Pregnant Words Reforming Grammar: The Aesthetic Question of Usage Conclusion 96 Bibliography 97 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the professors and friends at the University of California, Berkeley and elsewhere who helped me with this dissertation. My co-chairs, Anthony Cascardi and José Rabasa, have been extremely supportive advisors and mentors. Tony’s insightful questions and suggestions have helped me formulate and develop my research. Discussions with José have spurred me to think in new ways about familiar texts and historical problems. I thank them for encouraging me to pursue diverse interests and for helping me weave together these interests into a dissertation. I am also grateful for an unusually engaged committee of readers. Tim Hampton, with candid advice and an unlimited supply of anecdotes, has provided me tools both for understanding the Renaissance and keeping perspective on life in academia. Charles Hirschkind’s thoughtful comments have helped me address a diverse scholarly audience. Dwight Reynolds has offered helpful feedback on Arabic material and friendly professional guidance. Jesús Rodríguez-Velasco, a generous mentor and interlocutor, has shaped my thinking about the Iberian Middle Ages while extending constructive criticism and unfailing encouragement from start to finish. Many other people have helped me along both before and during the dissertation stage of my graduate studies. Victoria Kahn, who has incisively commented on early drafts of much of my work, taught me both to craft an argument and lead a class. Thanks also to Jerry Craddock, Dru Dougherty, Michael Iarocci, Margaret Larkin, Michael Lucey, James Monroe, Eric Naiman, Ignacio Navarrete, and Barbara Spackman for advice and feedback while at Berkeley. Verónica López has made me feel at home in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and our Department of Comparative Literature’s Erica Roberts has solved more bureaucratic dilemmas than I can remember. Kareem Abu-Zeid, Michael Allan, Heather Bamford, Maya Barzilai, Jason Bodik, Juan Caballero, Natalie Cleaver, Kfir Cohen, Jonathan Combs-Schilling, Sam England, Hannah Freed-Thall, Lily Gurton-Wachter, Victor Goldgel- Carballo, Paul Haacke, Yuri Herrera, Javier Jiménez, Daniel Nemser, Karla Nielsen, Tom McEnaney, Eduardo Ruiz, Sylvia Sellers-García, Aurélie Vialette, Sarah Ann Wells, and Allen Young are a collegial bunch. I am lucky to have discussed my work with them during our time at Berkeley. Rachel Bernard is my most patient, careful, and honest reader. I thank her for her critical eye and, more importantly, her love and friendship. In addition to funding from the Department of Comparative Literature and the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley, I have been supported by a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, a Foreign Language and Areas Studies Fellowship, and a Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellowship. I am extremely grateful to the United States Department of Education and The Woodrow Wilson Foundation for this funding and the flexibility it afforded. I wrote my dissertation prospectus during a fall 2008 residential research fellowship on the medieval and early modern Mediterranean at the University of California Humanities Research Institute in Irvine, California. I thank Brian Catlos and Sharon Kinoshita, the group’s organizers, as well as David Theo Goldberg, the director of UCHRI, for inviting me, fresh off my qualifying exams, to participate. Regular conversations with Nina Zhiri, my fellow car-less Orange County compatriot, were particularly helpful for formulating my project during that semester. iii I first met Jane Newman while in Irvine, and since then she has generously commented on my work while offering a steady stream of enthusiasm. Marc Baer, Barbara Fuchs, A. Katie Harris, Teófilo Ruiz, and Patricia Seed, all professors in the University of California system, which encourages inter-campus collaboration, have offered helpful research tips and professional advice. Thanks also to Vincent Barletta, Mercedes García-Arenal, and Alberto Montaner-Frutos for their suggestions concerning archives in Spain. Finally, I appreciate the help and patience of the archivists at the Biblioteca Nacional de España, the Fundación Galdiano, the Fundación Zabaláburu, the Palacio Real, and the Real Academia de la Historia, all in Madrid, as well as those at the Biblioteca Universitaria de Salamanca and the Abadía de Sacromonte in Granada. My family, from both the east and west coasts, has encouraged me along my academic path. The Bay Area contingent welcomed me with open arms, easing the transition from New York City to Northern California, while the warmth of the New England clan draws me onto trans-continental flight after trans-continental flight. My grandparents, Shirley Kimmel and Syd and Marcia Katrosar, have offered not only love and unwavering confidence, but also attentive interest in my academic and geographic comings and goings. My late grandfather, Rabbi Bernard Kimmel, a scholar and traveler himself, would certainly have done the same. I have always admired my brother Simeon Kimmel’s humor and energy, which is contagious even long-distance. I thank him for raising