Date of Award
5-12-2024
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
Advisor(s)
Brian Brege
Keywords
Catholicism;Early Modern Spain;Relics
Subject Categories
Arts and Humanities | European History | History
Abstract
This thesis considers two case studies from the transnational Spanish relic trade at the turn of the seventeenth century. The first study is that of Don Guillén de San Clemente y Centellas, a Spanish ambassador active at the end of the sixteenth century who was a conduit for antique and medieval relics for elite collectors within Spain. The second is of Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza, was a Spanish noblewoman who traveled to England at the beginning of the seventeenth century and retrieved, prepared, and transported the bodies of Catholic martyrs back to Spain as new relics. These case studies reveal how the movement of relics can be used to map early modern networks of social and political power and to uncover connections between secular and religious networks. In addition, they demonstrate the role of relics in debates about the nature of authenticity and the construction of shared religious and national identities in the Counter-Reformation.
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Barraco, Caroline, "Diplomacy and the Dead: Authenticating the Sacred in Early Modern Spain" (2024). Theses - ALL. 857.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/857
