"De Actibus Alfonsi Di Cartagena": Biography and the Craft of Dying In
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DE A CTIBUS ALFONSI DE CARTA GENA : BIOGRAPHY AND THE CRAFT OF DYING IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CASTILE Jeremy Lawrance University of Manchester I, Manuscript trudiitun. authorship, and date De act thus Alfonsi de Cartagena episcopi Purgens is is known to scholars as a source on the life of Alfonso García de Santamaria, later called Alfonso de Cartagena. a leading figure in the ecclesiastical and literary history of fifteenth-century Castile In this paper 1 approach the text from a different perspective, attempting a literary study of the work together with critical edition, translation, and commentary. De actibus is preserved in two fifteenth-century witnesses, M (Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS 7432. fols 89-92) and /■ (Fermo. Biblioteca Comunalc. MS 77, fols 54r-60) A further witness, now- lost, is listed in Father Sigüenza’s sixteenth-century catalogue of the Escorial library Alfonsi de Cartagena libri Genealogiae Regum His panic cum tractaiu quodam inccrti autlioris de ciusdcm Alfonsi uita et References to De achbus arc io hnc-mimbcrs in my edition below The "ork is used by Manuel Martinez Anibatro > Rixes. Intento de un diccionario biográfico y bihfiogrtifico de autores de ¡a provincia de Hurgas (.Madrid. Manuel Tello. 1889), pp 88-115; Luciano Serrano, conversos D Pabto de Sama Maria y I). Alfonso de Cartagena obispos de Purgas, gobernantes, diplomáticos y escritores (Madrid CSlC. 1942). pp 119-260. and Francisco Cantera Burgos. J/ror (jarcia tie Santa Mario i su familia de conversas: historia de la judería de Purgas > de uá Conversos más egregios (.Madrid CS1C. 1952). pp. 416-64 The text was fj rsl edited by Yolanda Espinosa Fernández. La 'Anacephuleods de Afonso de Carta gena: edición, traducción. estudio. ? vols. Colección Tesis Doctorales. 243/89 (Madrid. Universidad Complutense. 1989). I, 38-49 122 Jeremy Lowrance actibus membr. lL|/w/av. F44] I 17’2 In all three cases the text was copied as a postscript to Anacephaleosis regum Hispanic a geneal ogical roll of the kings of Castile on which Canagcna was engaged in the months before he died De actibus is anonymous in all (he witnesses A clue to its author ship has been sought in the subscription on fol 71 v of M. at the end of the penultimate quire cii'Atiacephaleosis: hunt libnim scripsit Iohannis siincii de nebreda capeHa mis ccclcsic Burgcnsis de mandato Reuerendi pains donnni alfonsi de-eaftnjem» ep |m mv.J hunts noininis sccundi Episcopi Burgcnsis /a quo coinpositus fun El fuil pcrfccius fiber isle ultimo die febroarii Anno dotnim inillesimo qundnngcntcsimo quin, qnagesuno sexto poniificatus sanctissimi in Clinsio pains ct donum Donnni Pape Calisli lercii Anno pnmo Rrcgnantc domino nostro cnrrico quano Rcgni cius Anno sccundo. uiccssimo anno sui Episcopatus On the basis of this note it has been assumed that Juan Sanchez de Nebreda, Cartagena's amanuensis at the end of his life, was the author of De actibus.' Cursory inspection of M disposes of this hypothesis De actibus occupies a separate quire of four leaves added at least five months after Nebreda's subscription of 29 February 1456 (Cartagena's death occurred on the following 22 July), the hand does not match any of those in the rest of the MS 4 Its Latinity and orthography are also different. The date in Nebreda's subscription, ‘ultimo die febroarii ? Guillermo Antolin. Catalogo de lox códices latinas de la Real tiibbuteca del Escuna!. 5 vols (Madrid, imprenta Helénica. 1910-23). V. 331-48?. ai pp 335-36 ’ Martine/ Anibarro. Intento. p 98. ’atribuido á Juan Sanche/ de Nebreda'; Serrano. Lus conversas. p 237 (but more cautiously hcclia por uno de los fami liares de don Alfonso', pp 119-20. □. 3); Camera. .4Aw Garcia de Santa .¡May su familia, p 493 n. 65. Espinosa. l.a 'Anacephafcoxix'. I. 37. n 4 ’ Espinosa. La ‘Anacephateosts’, I. 147. points io the difference between Nebreda's hand and the rougher script of De actibus. Different again is the hand in Nebreda's copy of Cartagena's Doctrinal de cavaderas in BN MS 12.796 (Tsium libnim perfccit lolianncs de Nebreda’, fol. I I9v> from the Count of Haro's library; sec Jeremy Lan ranee. ‘Nueva luz sobre la biblioteca del conde de Haro inventario de 1455'. El Crotaitm: Anuario de Etiología Española. I (1984). 1073-1111 ai pp 1105. $148. and IID8-11. De adi bus Afonsi de Cartagena 123 Anno domini miliesimo quadringentesimo quinquagesimo sexto\ show$ five divergences from that of Cartagena’s death in De actibus 340-42 uicesima secund a die menssis lulfii anno a natiuitatc Domini nostri Iesu Christi milesimo quadragentesimo quinquagesimo sexto (sec apparatus ¿k//«:.). Nebreda’s ‘domini Domini Pape Calisti ter- cii‘ is distinct from De actibus 383, do minus calixtus papa teilius’ Furthermore, the copy of De actibus is not original, but an apograph Its mistakes are clearly due to scribal incomprehension. What author, however careless, would write ‘carga ginesis' for ‘Cartaginensis’ or ‘cum post? llanus’ foe ‘Compostcllanus’ (De actibus 22. 36)? Variants in F suggest that these and other mistakes in ,V were cor rectly written in the archetype from which both descend (see Section 4 below) In sum, it is highly improbable that Nebrcda was either copyist or author of/_te actibus Alfonsi de Cartagena The question of authorship must therefore be tackled afresh from internal evidence. The writer was a cleric with strong ties to the diocese of Burgos Besides his devotion to the bishop he shows inti mate knowledge of the cathedral and Sarmental palace, its building works, treasures, and festivals, and of the chapel of the Visitation and its library, which he used as the basis for his account of Cartagena’s pastoral and literary works By contrast, lie shows little interest in his subject’s career in the royal council It is safe to assume, then, that our author was one of the circle of clerics associated with Carta gena’s celebrated cathedral schola His style, though vivid, is not elegant or even correct, but his narratixe is lucid and shows practice in writing While the barbarous Latinity of De actibus excludes authorship by either of (he (wo most famous writers from this schola, Alfonso de Palencia and Rodrigo Sanchez de Arevalo, both of whom polished their orthography and grammar in humanist Italy, there is another candidate from the same circle who merits consideration, Diego Rodríguez de Almela (ca 1426-89). Almela. whose father had been a familiar of Cartagena’s father Pablo de Santamaria during his tenure of the see of Cartagena, entered Alfonso de Cartagena’s service as a paje with a scholarship from the chapter of his native Murcia in 1440. at the same time as Palencia and Arevalo. Almela t ecal led. in the 124 Jeremy Ixrwrance dedication of his Valerio de las estorias, how Cartagena pul hint t0 íearn Latin and gave him the run of his library. Como yo estovicsc de hedat de catorze años en servicio del muy reverendo mj señor don Alfonso de Cartujana de gloriosa memoria. obispo de Burgos.: por su merced me mandase aprender gramática, algund tamo mtioducto ene]la como en su enmara oviese muchos libros de diversas sacudas thcologales.- de philosophic, leys, t cánones. : asi mesmo muchas escorias r crónicas asi déla sacra cscriplura como de emperadores, reyes, z principes, señalada mente délos de España, por non estar ocioso |.. ] di me a leer? As was his custom with clever students in the schola. Cartagena provided Alíñela to a living in the cathedral chapter of Burgos, and made him his camarero 6 Almela accompanied Cartagena on his final pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, and would have been present at the scenes recounted in De actibus 219-350? After the bishop’s death Almela remained in Burgos until 1464; he then returned to Murcia, where he was appointed to a canonrv by the good offices of Cartagena’s nephew Juan Ortega de Maluenda, bishop of Coria Almela idolized Cartagena, speaking of him in many works and writing a eulogy in f ííZctvo de las estorias (a work planned by Carta Diego Rodríguez de Ahucia. I dieno de ¡as estorias escolásticas e de Espana (Murcia- Lope déla Roca. 1487). facsimile rpi edited by Juan Torres Fontes (Murcia. Real Academia Alfonso X cl Sabio. 1994). ‘Prologo'. fol. Al. at p. 7 AImola's prologue is dated 23 March 1462. • Eoiniiians and archpriest of Urbel (Sanlibáilcz-Zitrzagtida?). granted a media roción in the cathedra! 24 September 1455. in Burgos. Archivo Capitular (henceforth ACB). Reg. 14. fol. 164 (Serrano, ¡.as conversos, p 198); 'criado ■ camarero del dicho mi señor eJ obispo*, ill Alíñela, taterw de ¡as estarías. fol$. Alr/p 8. and A3Wp. 12. On Almela (or AJmclla. equally common in contempo rary sources) sec Torres Ponies’ introduction to Almela. ¡dieno de ¡as estarías. and Diego Rodríguez de Ahucia, ('artas &/< MSEgerton i/7Jy edited by David Mackenzie. EHT. 25 (Exeter: University of Exeter. 1980). ACB. Capilla de la Visitación (henceforth CV). Libro I, Ibis Ixxxv-l.xxxvi. Cartagena signs a document in SanliagO 12 June 1456 witnessed by ’Diego Rodríguez de .Aliuella beneficiado en la iglesia de Burgos, arcipreste de Urbel’ (Cattieta. Alvar (¡arria de Santa Mario y su ftinidin. pp. 446-47). see n 50 m lite transía «ion bolo» De act ibus Alfonsi de Cartagena 125 gena himself) which shows detailed parallels with De actibus' When the ürst German printer arrived in Valencia Almela contracted him to publish Cartagena’s Oracional. together with two shorter treatises and Fernando Pérez de Guzman's Coplas sobre la muerte de don Alfonso de Carrajena (Murcia' Gabriel Luis de A riño & Lope de la Roca, 1487). On a visit to Rome in 1467-68 Almela obtained a bull to found a chape! of (he Visitation in the new cathedral of Murcia, in imitation of Cartagena’s chantry of the same name in Burgos (cf.