Treasures of the Iberian Royal Houses (1279-1521): A comparative perspective

2.1.2010

Project status

ongoing

Execution period

2010-

Main research unit

Centre for History of the University of Lisbon

Principal Investigator

Ana Maria S. A. Rodrigues (ULisboa)

Research team

Adriana Romba de Almeida (ULisboa), Ana Maria S. A. Rodrigues (ULisboa), Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova (ULisboa), David Nogales Rincón (U. Complutense), Diana Pelaz Flores (U. of Zaragoza), Hermenegildo Fernandes (ULisboa), Lledó Ruiz Domingo (U. of Valencia), Luís Urbano Afonso (ULisboa), Manuela Santos Silva (ULisboa), Miriam Shadis (U. of Ohio), Núria Silleras Fernández (U. of California-Boulder)

The aim of this project is to study the precious objects that composed the Treasuries of the Iberian Royal Houses. We are interested in the individual objects, which are loaded with symbolic meanings related to the monarchic ideology, such as works of art; and as elements of material culture but also in their whole as a ceremonial resource, an economic reserve, and an eventual collection.

The core of this study will be the treasury of the Portuguese Royal House in the different forms it has assumed from the reign of King Denis to the reign of King Manuel I (1279-1521). However, as it was constantly fed by pieces brought by foreign princesses being married with the Portuguese monarchs, as well as by the spoils of war and peace gifts, we will also analyse some treasuries of the kingdoms with whom Portugal was united by blood ties in this period: Castile and Aragon. The presence of two Lancastrian queens in the Iberian Peninsula, in these years, will allow us to extend further the comparison to England.

The chronological boundaries were suggested to us by the state of the art combined with the documentation: it was in the 13th century that the word Thesaurus started to be used to designate the whole of the precious moveable goods belonging to an institution, and simultaneously the room where these were kept; however, it is only with King Denis that we have significant evidence allowing the study of the possessions of the Portuguese royal family. From the beginning of the 16th century onwards, the sources become more numerous and varied but they demonstrate a change, with the appearance of new objects that indicate a different relation to the body and the multiplication of oriental products permitted by the discovery of the maritime route to India. Thus, the decision to conclude this study with the end of the reign of King Manuel I, when such a change is fully perceptible.