Simone Pinet - The Task of the Cleric: Cartography, Translation, and Economics in Thirteenth-Century Iberia

As books tend to do, this one acquired debts to a large number of people. I would like to thank especially Emily Apter, Henry Berlin, Josiah Blackmore, Diane Brown, Marina Brownlee, Joshua Clover, Jean Dangler, Mara Judith Feliciano, Michelle Hamilton, Elisabeth Hodges, Jacques Lezra, Albert Lloret, Julia Lupton, Oscar Martn, Ignacio Navarrete, Ken Reinhard, Jess Rodrguez-Velasco, and Michael Solomon. I also thank the students of two iterations of the course I taught in which I rehearsed the ideas for the book. I am fortunate to have had brilliant students in both; the finished piece of writing does not do justice to their insight, creativity, and spontaneity. I have presented arguments from this book at different professional conferences and colloquia and am grateful for comments and suggestions from my always generous colleagues, especially Frank Domnguez, Emily Francomano, Clara Pascual-Argente, and Barbara Weissberger. At Cornell I thank my friends and colleagues for their wit, rigour, and laughter, especially, in no particular order, Cynthia Robinson, Rachel Prentice, Mara Fernndez, Liz Anker, Jeannine Routier, Pedro Erber, Richard Klein, Jonathan Culler, Edmundo Paz-Soldn, Laurent Dubreuil, Mara Antonia Garcs, Laurent Ferri, Pietro Pucci, Brett de Bary, and Tim Murray.

Generous support for research and writing came in the form of a fellowship from the John S. Guggenheim Foundation and a grant from the Program for Cultural Cooperation of Spains Ministry of Education. I am grateful for the erudition and helpfulness of the staff of the Real Biblioteca del Escorial, especially Jos Luis del Valle Merino, its director; the Biblioteca Nacional de Espaa; the Archivo de la Corona de Aragn; and the Real Academia de la Historia. A fellowship from the Society for the Humanities at Cornell provided the intellectual energy and time for researching and writing chapter 2 in particular. From that wonderful group Id like to especially mention Chris Nealon, Meg Wesling, Charles Kronengold, C.J. Wan-ling Wee, and Rachel Prentice.

Lucas and Manu walked La Rioja with me looking for arches and ghosts, and waited outside libraries (and churches, and monasteries), always asking the right questions and demanding simple answers. To them is owed any clarity this book has to offer. My parents listen patiently and encouragingly to what I inevitably lecture them on. As always, I thank them for their support.

Very preliminary or exploratory versions for what would become chapters 1 and 2 were presented at conferences in Spain and published in the proceedings (Ser todo en cabo a un lugar: Cartografas del Libro de Alexandre, in Actes del X Congrs internacional de lAssociaci Hispnica de Literatura Medieval, ed. Rafael Alemany, Josep Llus Martos and Josep Miguel Manzanaro [Valencia: Institut Universitari de Filologia Valenciana, 2005], 132134; Babel historiada: Un episodio del Libro de Alexandre, in Literatura y conocimiento medieval: Actas de las VIII Jornadas Medievales, ed. Lillian von der Walde, Concepcin Company, and Aurelio Gonzlez [Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, Universidad Autnoma Metropolitana, El Colegio de Mxico, 2003], 37189). A partial version of chapter 3 appeared as Between the Seas: Apolonio and Alexander, in In and Of the Mediterranean: Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Studies, edited by Michelle M. Hamilton and Nuria Silleras-Fernndez (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2015), 7598; an early partial version appeared as Towards a Political Economy of the Libro de Alexandre,diacritics 36.3 (2006): 4463. I thank the editors for their kindness in allowing their use here. Finally, I thank Suzanne Rancourt, whose guidance and sense of humour have been unexpected gifts.

A Bruno, siempre.

The Task of the Cleric

Cartography, Translation, and Economics in Thirteenth-Century Iberia

Simone Pinet

University of Toronto Press

Toronto Buffalo London

Illustrations

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Two Isidorian or T/O maps. The oldest map is on the left. Escorial r.II.18, f. 24v, 7th c. PATRIMONIO NACIONAL

T/O map: A cross marks the Orient above, on the ocean ring, while underneath it a circle maps Paradise as origin of the four rivers. Escorial p.I.8, fol. 187r, 9th c. PATRIMONIO NACIONAL

T/O map: The first sign of the Christianization of the map is in the annotation of Noahs sons to the outside of the circumference. Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, Escorial r.II.18, 25r, 9th c. PATRIMONIO NACIONAL

Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, detail. Escorial r.II.18 25r, 9th c. PATRIMONIO NACIONAL

The world as Christ, or Christ as the world. The original (ca. 1239), one metre in diameter, was destroyed in World War II by the Allies bombing of Hanover. Facs. Ebstorf mappamundi. BnF Cartes et Plans, Ge AA 2177. With permission from the Bibliothque Nationale de France.