Urban Honor in Spain: The Laus Urbis from Antiquity Through Humanism - Tapa dura

"... literary analysis at its best. This book shows that laus urbis played a significant role in shaping the intellectual outlook of those men of letters that wrote in verse their praise of a city." (Prof. Ottavio Di Camillo City University of New York) "... [this book] is an effective summary of a literary and rhetorical form that makes a significant contribution to the urban history of late medieval Europe as a whole." (Prof. James S. Amelang Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain)"

This is a profound and original examination of the theoretical and cultural reasons behind the concept of praising the city. "Urban Honor in Spain" is an historical study of Spain and the writing technique of laus ubris (praise of the city) during the 15th century. The book begins by providing an overview of how laus urbis was developed and codified in oratory and classical literary texts during the Greco-Roman period. The book then explores how this technique re-emerged during the Middle Ages to become a politically powerful corpus that formed an early national culture by praising cities and nations. In Medieval and Renaissance Spain, laus ubris, provided a sense of local community to city and town dwellers in the indefinite and blurry political landscape of Iberia during the Reconquista. Notwithstanding its historical significance, the book contributes to Spanish literary studies a profound and original examination of the theoretical and cultural reasons behind the concept of praising the city.