Social Mobility In Renaissance Literature
Francomano, Weiss, and Barbara Weissberger suggest the dynastic upheaval that challenged traditional gender roles with a female’s inheritance of the throne following two kings accused of effeminacy generated an anxiety expressed through literature and incited the debate well into the Renaissance. This anxiety along with a period of transition for the definition of nobility helped sustain the debate for several years into the next two centuries.
The Authors and Their Arguments The three authors share the common theme of nobility, both of character and of social status. The topic was certainly important. While social mobility is a factor in various situations, the justification of the writer’s character and construction of his own identity …show more content…
Biographers believe that he was born in the area of the town of Padrón, located several miles outside of Santiago de Compostela. He was from minor Galician nobility; most likely from a poorer class of nobles (Gilderman 13-14). Rodríguez del Padrón may have also been a page for the future Cardinal Juan de Cervantes in addition to Juan II. He entered the Franciscan Order approximately in the 1430s and took his vows to enter the priesthood in 1441 in Italy and his final vows in 1442 after his travels to Jerusalem. When he returned to Galicia he founded a convent at Erbón. Rodríguez del Padrón traveled extensively throughout Europe as demonstrated in his works. According to César Hernández Alonso, he wrote Cadira de honor and Triunfo de las donas between 1439 and 1441 (18). This means he was most likely in the Franciscan order at the time he wrote Triunfo. Hearsay holds he had an affair with a woman of higher status that has fed speculation that he had an affair with Queen María, wife of Juan II, since he dedicates Triunfo to her. While these rumors lack confirmation, nor does any documentation support this, a fictional biography loosely based in part on his life combined with events portrayed in the third section of Siervo libre de amor helped intensify the story. Pedro José Pidal, who discovered the anonymous “biography” and published
The Authors and Their Arguments The three authors share the common theme of nobility, both of character and of social status. The topic was certainly important. While social mobility is a factor in various situations, the justification of the writer’s character and construction of his own identity …show more content…
Biographers believe that he was born in the area of the town of Padrón, located several miles outside of Santiago de Compostela. He was from minor Galician nobility; most likely from a poorer class of nobles (Gilderman 13-14). Rodríguez del Padrón may have also been a page for the future Cardinal Juan de Cervantes in addition to Juan II. He entered the Franciscan Order approximately in the 1430s and took his vows to enter the priesthood in 1441 in Italy and his final vows in 1442 after his travels to Jerusalem. When he returned to Galicia he founded a convent at Erbón. Rodríguez del Padrón traveled extensively throughout Europe as demonstrated in his works. According to César Hernández Alonso, he wrote Cadira de honor and Triunfo de las donas between 1439 and 1441 (18). This means he was most likely in the Franciscan order at the time he wrote Triunfo. Hearsay holds he had an affair with a woman of higher status that has fed speculation that he had an affair with Queen María, wife of Juan II, since he dedicates Triunfo to her. While these rumors lack confirmation, nor does any documentation support this, a fictional biography loosely based in part on his life combined with events portrayed in the third section of Siervo libre de amor helped intensify the story. Pedro José Pidal, who discovered the anonymous “biography” and published