Name-Changes and Everyday Self-Fashioning in the Toledo Inquisition, 1575–1610
This article surveys more than a thousand relaciones de causa (summaries of cases) from the Toledo tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition to examine the uses of names in early modern Iberia. Three crucial features of early modern names come to the fore: the potential to communicate information about t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
2016-07-01
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| Series: | Names |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/view/2085 |
| _version_ | 1818508386435596288 |
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| author | Spencer J. Weinreich |
| author_facet | Spencer J. Weinreich |
| author_sort | Spencer J. Weinreich |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
This article surveys more than a thousand relaciones de causa (summaries of cases) from the Toledo tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition to examine the uses of names in early modern Iberia. Three crucial features of early modern names come to the fore: the potential to communicate information about the bearer, contingency upon interpersonal use, and the ease of changing one’s name. The confluence of these factors made names a potent means for creating, maintaining, or altering identities, and thus for negotiating any number of problems or opportunities. This agency of ordinary people over their own social identities demands a democratization of the concept of “Renaissance self-fashioning.” Furthermore, the ubiquity of name-changes in the early modern period highlights the extent to which naming is a continual process, problematizing traditional onomastic sources that privilege birth-names and focus on subjects’ names at a single point in time.
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| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T22:31:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7800207e0f9341a095145129e173bac8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0027-7738 1756-2279 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T22:31:13Z |
| publishDate | 2016-07-01 |
| publisher | University Library System, University of Pittsburgh |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Names |
| spelling | doaj.art-7800207e0f9341a095145129e173bac82022-12-22T01:31:03ZengUniversity Library System, University of PittsburghNames0027-77381756-22792016-07-0164310.1080/00277738.2016.1197647Name-Changes and Everyday Self-Fashioning in the Toledo Inquisition, 1575–1610Spencer J. Weinreich This article surveys more than a thousand relaciones de causa (summaries of cases) from the Toledo tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition to examine the uses of names in early modern Iberia. Three crucial features of early modern names come to the fore: the potential to communicate information about the bearer, contingency upon interpersonal use, and the ease of changing one’s name. The confluence of these factors made names a potent means for creating, maintaining, or altering identities, and thus for negotiating any number of problems or opportunities. This agency of ordinary people over their own social identities demands a democratization of the concept of “Renaissance self-fashioning.” Furthermore, the ubiquity of name-changes in the early modern period highlights the extent to which naming is a continual process, problematizing traditional onomastic sources that privilege birth-names and focus on subjects’ names at a single point in time. http://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/view/2085placename genericsplacename specificsAustraliaNew Zealandcapelake |
| spellingShingle | Spencer J. Weinreich Name-Changes and Everyday Self-Fashioning in the Toledo Inquisition, 1575–1610 Names placename generics placename specifics Australia New Zealand cape lake |
| title | Name-Changes and Everyday Self-Fashioning in the Toledo Inquisition, 1575–1610 |
| title_full | Name-Changes and Everyday Self-Fashioning in the Toledo Inquisition, 1575–1610 |
| title_fullStr | Name-Changes and Everyday Self-Fashioning in the Toledo Inquisition, 1575–1610 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Name-Changes and Everyday Self-Fashioning in the Toledo Inquisition, 1575–1610 |
| title_short | Name-Changes and Everyday Self-Fashioning in the Toledo Inquisition, 1575–1610 |
| title_sort | name changes and everyday self fashioning in the toledo inquisition 1575 1610 |
| topic | placename generics placename specifics Australia New Zealand cape lake |
| url | http://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/view/2085 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT spencerjweinreich namechangesandeverydayselffashioninginthetoledoinquisition15751610 |