CMEMS: Rodrigo Garcia-Velasco

Organized and hosted by the Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (CMEMS).

Rodrigo Garcia-Velasco will give a talk titled "Violence, Jurisdiction, and Religious Difference in the Iberian fueros, 1000-1200."

When appraising the toleration and persecution of Jews and Muslims in medieval Christian Iberia, historians habitually turn to written law as a point of reference. But what social, political, and intellectual work did legal texts do when framing such notions of religious difference? This talk focuses on the regulation of transgressions and physical violence (violentia and malefacta) against non-Christians during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. These are found in Iberia’s royal town charters and municipal franchises, commonly known as fueros and cartas de población. Through a new reading of these texts as dynamic expressions of political authority and social organization, rather than as disembodied legal monuments, this talk will demonstrate how fueros transformed Christian-Jewish and Christian-Muslim interactions in Iberia by placing protections from violence at the center of legal enactment and jurisdictional negotiation.

The CMEMS Workshop series meets most Wednesdays during the academic year. See the CMEMS website for the list of upcoming speakers.