WRITING AUTHORITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ... - Cornell University

fifteenth centuries. Although most Castilian authors had noble backgrounds, it was relatively
uncommon for nobles to be drawn into scholarly vocations and successfully engage in both the
“vita activa” ‘active life’ of politics and the “vita contemplativa” ‘contemplative life’ of the
Church and learning. However, it was very rare that, in being drawn to scholarly pursuits, a
noble could behave as an ideal example of both roles without having one trade-off into the
other—or as Guzmán suggest without having his love for letters bleed into his political
responsibilities through the application of science into politics as the study of laws or politics. 249
3. Truth in Culture: Managing Readerly Experiences of Reality
To be sure, these narrative hints may be too subtle to introduce readerly doubt into
Ayala’s portrait, and the success of Ayala’s political and literary career may suggest that the
average fifteenth-century Castilian reader would be able to empathize enough with them to
believe his story at face value. A glance at Castilian literary culture may seem to confirm this.
Unlike France, Italy, or England (where the political, ruling class seldom created and translated
major cultural works), the Iberian Peninsula decidedly linked the growth of social and political
capital to that of literary accomplishments. A purview of major Spanish political players and
high-ranking politicians from the late-thirteenth to mid-fifteenth centuries easily gives a list of
major historians, translators, and poets from Juan Manuel in the fourteenth century, whose
daughter would marry the future Enrique II, to Alfonso de Cartagena in the fifteenth century,
who served as Bishop of Burgos and ambassador to Juan II. 250
249 The difference between temporal and contemplative life did not simply mean spiritual versus secular; the idea of
“negotium” ‘business’ as the negation of ‘otium’ ‘leisure’ associated with the clerisy is as old as Petrarch. For a
short study of the tension between the two in the medieval imaginary, see Paul Lombardo, “Vita Activa and Vita
Contemplativa in Petrarch and Salutati,” Italica. 59. 2 (Summer, 1982): 83-92.
250 To List a few: Sancho IV, king of Castile and writer of a compendia of exempla and a chronicle of Castile;
Alfonso XI, king of Castile, and author of a book of hunting and several chronicles; Juan Manuel, infant of Castile,
who wrote several political works, chronicles, and a famous compendia of exempla, El Conde Lucanor; Juan Ruiz,
Archbishop of Hita with his Libro de Buen Amor; Alvaro de Luna, regent of Castile wrote a history of virtuous and
famous women. Besides these high profile figures, there were many prolific writers who were active and important
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