Maria José Del Río-Barredo

Trabajo divulgativo que resume estudios previos sobre la canonización de san Isidro. Se añade un apartado con información novedosa sobre la ampliación de su hagiografía a finales del siglo XVI y principios del XVII con milagros tomados del proceso de María de la Cabeza, que fray Domingo de Mendoza impulsó de forma paralela en el mismo periodo.

In the early modem era, civic rituals dramatized the bonds and values that engendered community, at the same time these events crystallized the underlying tensions among the disparate entities within the social hierarchy. Focusing on the crucial decades of Madrid's consolidation as the capital of the Spanish Monarchy, this article examines some of the most resonantconflicts in the civic rituals that unfolded on its st¡eets and in its churches. The analysis of these events compares the official perspective found in documents from municipal officials with an
artisan's perspective as attested in the diary of the silversmith Antonio de León Soto, thereby providing a perspective on the social dynamics that negotiated Madrid's status as an imperial capital. A further perspective emerges through a consideration of the celebrations sponsored by the General Hospital, thereby allowing an appreciation for the role of devotional images in civic rituals, pondering along the way issues of appropriation and identity formation.

This article focuses on the canonization process of Madrid’s patron saint, San Isidro Labrador, in the post-Tridentine context of the city’s transformation into the permanent seat of the Court. The first part of the article deals with the difficulties posed by the local worship of the incorrupt body of this farmer who had died centuries ago and was considered a saint but lacked formal ecclesiastical recognition. The second part analyzes Spanish diplomatic correspondence during the years that the process lasted. While San Isidro’s features as a local and ancient saint were decisive, the correspondence reveals Spain’s attempt to directly achieve the canonization of a figure who was now the patron not only of the Villa (town) but also of the Corte (court).

This article focuses on Estefanía de Villaquirán, nursemaid (azafata) of Anne of Austria and a member of the Spanish entourage that accompanied the Infanta at the court of Louis XIII. Head of an extended family of royal servants employed in several European courts, Estefanía de Villaquirán serves as a case study of the important role played by lower-level female servants in the households of Spanish queens who settled in foreign courts when the infantas married abroad. The first part of the article reconstructs the Villaquirán family’s establishment at the courts of Turin, Madrid and Paris, stressing the social capital the azafata accumulated and from which her relatives benefitted. The second part centres on the French court during the years 1615 to 1620, analysing the workings of the Queen’s Chamber, in which Estefanía performed her duties, the complex relationships among servants of different ranks, as well as the obstacles to integration faced by the Spanish entourage in an unfavourable atmosphere of political rivalry and tension. The conclusion discusses Estefanía de Villaquirán’s unique status as the sole Spanish woman besides the queen to remain at the French court, underlining her role as a matriarch and her importance – like that of other servants of her rank – within the Spanish court structure that the Habsburg princesses carried with them to other European courts.

This article deals with the promotion of religious festivals in late sixteenth- and early sev- enteenth-century Madrid. It centers on the activity of a Dominican from the friary of Our Lady of Atocha, Domingo de Mendoza (1549-1624). Best known for promoting several Spanish candidates for sainthood, he also organized ceremonies important in Madrid’s public life. Based on unpub- lished documents from penitential confraternities and processional protocols made for the Madrid celebration of two Dominican saints (Hyacinth of Poland and Raymond of Peñafort), this work explores Mendoza’s role as an impresario of festive and religious culture in the new capital city of the Spanish monarchy. Mendoza was a model for the triumphant Counter-Reformation in an urban context in which there were also less successful protagonists.

Resumen: En el artículo se estudia un conflicto ceremonial protagonizado por los presidentes de los consejos reales en el Madrid de mediados del siglo XVII. Suscitado en torno al privilegio de usar cierto tipo de asiento (el sitial) en las funciones públicas, el conflicto tuvo su proyección más significativa en las principales procesiones de la ciudad, en particularla de Corpus Christi. El análisisde este ritual urbano en el contexto del establecimientodefinitivo de la capital ayudaa comprender el conflicto ceremonial en términos de la reformulación de la noción de la monarquía hispana, entendida por Olivares y otros hombres de la época como un organismos unitario, en sustitución de la idea tradicional de monarquía compuesta por reinos agregados. Dicha noción fue exhibidaen la procesión de Corpus Christia, cuya propia dinámica contenía basesmuy adecuadas para manifestar la unidad a través de la variedad. Abstract:This article discusses a ritual conflict which aróse among the presidentes of the royal councils in mid-seventeenth-century Madrid. It dealt with the privilege of using a type of seat (the sitial) on public occasions,but had its most significant projection at the major processions of the town, mainly Corpus Christi. The analysis of this urban ceremony in the context of the final phaseof the formation of a capitalcity helps to understand such ritual conflict as an expression of the reformulation of the notíon of the Spanish Monarchy, as it was understood by Olivares and other public figures of the period: an unitary organism instead of the traditional image of composite monarchy based in the aggregation of kingdoms. This notíon was exhibited in Corpus Christi procession whose own dynamics contained appropriated elements to present unity through variety.