The Art of Gift-Giving: the Songbook of Pedro Marcuello for Queen Juana I of Castile (1479-1555) and the Limits of Patronage
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14198/rcim.29483Keywords:
Juana I of Castile, Pedro Marcuello, Archduke Philip the Handsome, Isabel I of Castile, Fernando II of Aragon, Catholic Monarchs, songbook, miniatures (illuminated manuscript drawings), gift, counter-gift, gift-giving, patronage, madness, monarchy, Granada, Castile, Aragon, Flanders, poetryAbstract
In 1502, when Juana I was sworn in as successor to her parents, Isabel I of Castile and Fernando II of Aragon —the Catholic Monarchs (r. 1479-1516)—, Pedro Marcuello dedicated his cancionero (songbook) to her, which he presented in a beautifully illuminated manuscript. This article reflects on this text from the perspective of gift-giving, focusing on the author Marcuello and his desire to obtain the patronage of the royal family, and on the reasons why he did not obtain the expected counter-gift. This article historicizes the dedication to the princess and argues that the text was a work in progress that was forced to accommodate the vicissitudes of the royal family. The death of several heirs of the Catholic Monarchs —Prince Juan, his sister Isabel (Queen of Portugal), and her son, Miguel de la Paz— brought Juana to the throne. The changing situation of the royal family explains the content of Marcuello’s cancionero since, as an author in search of patronage, Marcuello understood perfectly that the medieval monarchy went beyond a king or queen in their own right holding all the power. It was a much more complex institution, in which different royal family members shared and represented authority, power, and political continuity, and therefore received gifts, like Marcuello’s manuscript.
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