Alfonso de Cartagena
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Alfonso de Santa María de Cartagena (variants: Alfonso de Carthagena, Alonso de Cartagena; 1384 in
.Biography
Alfonso de Cartagena was the second son of Rabbi
He was equally distinguished as statesman and as priest. In 1434 he was named by King
The humanist Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who became
After living in Rome for some time, dedicated to study, Cartagena returned to Burgos, where he founded a public school "of all doctrine", in which the most advanced Latinists of the Spain of the
Cartagena went to Portugal as an emissary of King John II, where he negotiated peace. He was also emissary to the kings of Germany and Poland and intervened in the conflicts of Castile with Aragon and Granada.
He helped with a large sum to build the monastery of San Pablo of Burgos and rebuilt other churches and monasteries of his see, among them the Cathedral of Burgos, whose construction had been interrupted a considerable time before.
In 1422 he undertook the translation of some works of
Heinrich Graetz ascribes to the influence exercised by Carthagena over Eugenius IV the latter's sudden change of attitude toward the Jews. Carthagena alone, says Graetz, could have been the author of the complaints against the pride and arrogance of the Castilian Jews, which induced the pope to issue the bull of 1442, withdrawing the privileges granted to them by former popes.
He wrote besides some treatises on moral philosophy and theology. At the age of 60 he went on pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, but died on the return to his diocese.
Works
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Besides his translations of twelve books of Seneca, in which he was particularly interested, and of the works of Cicero mentioned above, he wrote Rerum in Hispania gestarum Chronicon. Around 1456 he wrote a history of Spain based on
Among Carthagena's writings on history, morals, and other subjects, there is a commentary on the twenty-sixth Psalm, Judica me, Deus. Defensorium fidei, also called Defensorium unitatis christianae (1449–50), is a plea in defense of converted Jews. Oracional de Fernán Pérez (Burgos, 1487, written about 1454) is a treatise on a prayer edited around 1454 and addressed to his friend and confidant Fernán Pérez de Guzmán, in 55 chapters and an afterword on virtues and the Mass. He also wrote Doctrinal de Caballeros (Burgos, 1487, written around 1444), which consists of an adaptation of the second Partida of Alfonso X the Wise in four books covering faith, laws, war, rewards and punishments, revolts, challenges and duels, tournaments, vassals, bad actions and privileges.
Other works include Memoriales virtutum or Memorial de virtudes, various songs, aphorisms and compositions of love that appear dispersed in songbooks; Prefación a San Juan Crisóstomo, Allegationes... super conquista insularum Canariae (Allegations About the Conquest of the Canary Islands, 1437), which defends Castilian rights to the islands; Epistula... ad comitem de Haro (c. 1440), prescribing a program of readings to educate the nobility, among them the moral texts of
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Richard Gottheil and Isaac Broydé (1901–1906). "Carthagena, Don Alfonso de". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
- (in Spanish) L. Fernández Gallardo, Alonso de Cartagena (1385-1456): una biografía política en la Castilla del siglo XV, Valladolid, Consejería de Educación y Cultura, 2002.
- (in Spanish) L. Fernández Gallardo, Alonso de Cartagena: iglesia, política y cultura en la Castilla del siglo XV, Madrid, 2003, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
- (in German) A. Birkenmajer, "Der Streit des Alonso von Cartagena mit Leonardo Bruni Aretino", en Clemens Baeumker (ed.), Vermischte Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der mittelalterlichen Philosophie, Münster, 1922, pp. 128–211. OCLC 1718905
- (in Spanish) L. Serrano, Los conversos D. Pablo de Santa María y D. Alfonso de Cartagena, obispos de Burgos, gobernantes, diplomáticos y escritores, Madrid, 1942.
- (in Spanish) F. Cantera, Burgos, Alvar García de Santa María y su familia de conversos. Historia de la judería de Burgos y sus conventos más egregios, Madrid, CSIC/Instituto Arias Montano, 1952.
- N. Fallows, The Chivalric Vision of Alfonso de Cartagena: Study and Edition of the Doctrinal de los Caualleros, Newark, DE: ISBN 0-936388-75-7
- (in Spanish) M. Penna, "Alfonso de Cartagena", Prosistas españoles del siglo XV, Madrid, Atlas (BAE), 1959, vol. I, pp. xxxvii-lxx. OCLC 186400886
- (in Spanish) M. Morrás, "Sic et non: En torno a Alfonso de Cartagena y los studia humanitatis", Euphorosyne, 23 (1995), pp. 333–346.