Discurso echo por fray Agustin de Saluçio, maestro en sancta theoloxia dela horden de S[an]to Domingo açerca dela justiçia y buen gobierno de España enlos estatutos de limpieça de sangre y si conbiene o no alguna limitaçion en ellos

Description
17th-century copy of a political treatise written by Dominican friar Agustin de Salucio, probably in 1599 or 1600, in favor of reforming the statutes on bloodlines, referred to in the text as "los estatutos de limpieça de sangre." These statutes, initiated in earnest in 15th-century Spain, at first excluded individuals from holding public office or receiving ecclesiastical benefices if they were descendants of either Jewish or Muslim converts to Christianity or of individuals convicted of crimes by the Inquisition. However, by the end of the 16th century, Spanish society, government, and especially the Catholic Church were obsessed with proving "cleanliness of blood," which was to say tracing ancestry back to the "old Christians" who had never been Muslims or Jews. Such proof of pure Christian lineage became the means by which previously poor Christians laid claim to the lowest rung of the Spanish nobility, the hidalguía. This had always been an especially divisive and polemic issue in Spain, but by the end of the 16th century its excessive dissemination and implementation had convinced many that reform was needed. Thus, despite an official ban by the Inquisition on any writings against the statutes, several authors, including Salucio, published works advocating change. Chapters 1-3 lay out the main arguments of those against the statutes and chapters 4-8 give pro-statute responses. The remainder of the treatise, chapters 9-25, illustrate the author's middle path, which advocates imposing a time limitation on the statutes. In these latter chapters there is some interesting discussion related to the status of the "new Christians" converted to Christianity from Judaism or Islam.
Creator
Salucio, Agustín, 1523-1601
Form
manuscripts (documents)
codices (bound manuscripts)
treatises
polemics
Manuscripts, Spanish
Manuscripts, European
Date
1600
Language
Spanish; Castilian
Subject
Inquisition -- Spain -- Early works to 1800
Nobility -- Spain -- Early works to 1800
Jews -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Spain
Christian converts from Islam -- Spain -- History
Christian converts from Judaism -- Spain -- History
Crypto-Jews -- Iberian Peninsula -- Spain
Moriscos -- Early works to 1800
Moriscos
Christian converts from Judaism
History
Christian converts from Islam
Jews -- Legal status, laws, etc
Nobility
Inquisition
Geographic Subject
Spain
Extent
76 leaves : paper ; 208 x 148 (180 x 120) mm bound to 216 x 158 mm
Notes
Ms. codex.
Title from title page (f.i recto).
Foliation: Paper, ii + 76 + ii leaves; [i], 1-73, [i], 74; contemporary foliation in ink, modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.
Layout: Written in 21 long lines.
Script: Written in a cursive script.
Decoration: Some ornamentation in ink on title page (f.i recto).
Watermark: Unidentified watermark consisting of a cross inside a circle with a crown above and possibly two unidentified initials underneath.
Binding: Calf (Zacour-Hirsch).
Origin: Probably written in Spain in the 17th century.
Spanish.
Related works
Digital facsimile for browsing (Colenda): https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3d79598h
Also listed in
Penn Libraries Catalog
Physical Location
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Manuscripts, Ms. Codex 1447
Provenance
Formerly owned by Sir William Stirling Maxwell (bookplate inside upper cover).
Purchased, 1966.
Stirling Maxwell, William, 1818-1878, former owner.
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Resource Type
Text

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