The Queen who shaped the music, literature, architecture, and painting of late medieval Spain.This multidisciplinary volume was inspired by the quincentenary of the death of Queen Isabel I of Castile, early modern Europe's first powerful queen regnant. Comprising work by distinguished art historians, musicologists, historians, and literary scholars from England, Spain, and the United States, it begins with a theoretical examination of medieval queenship itself that argues - against the grain of the volume - for its inseparability from kingship. Several essays examine the complex ways in which the Queen and her advisers shaped the music, literature, architecture, and painting of fifteenth-century Spain and how these in turn shaped the sovereign's power and persona. Others analyze influences on Isabel's reign from Aragón, Portugal, and northern Europe. A third group deals with issues of periodization, arguing from a variety of perspectives for the modernity of Isabelline culture. The evolving construction of Isabel's image from the mid-fifteenth to the late-twentieth century is also studied. BARBARA WEISSBERGER is Associate Professor Emerita of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Minnesota. OTHER CONTRIBUTORS:Rafael Domínguez Casas, Theresa Earenfight, Michael Gerli, Chiyo Ishikawa, Tess Knighton, Kenneth Kreitner, Elizabeth A. Lehfeldt, Nancy F. Marino, William D. Phillips, Jr., Emilio Ros-Fábregas, Ronald E. Surtz

Introduction: Questioning the Queen, Now and ThenTwo Bodies, One Spirit: Isabel and Fernando's Construction of Monarchical Partnership - Theresa EarenfightIsabel of Castile's Portuguese Connections and the Opening of the Atlantic - William D. PhillipsIsabel of Castile and Her Music Books: Franco-Flemish Song in Fifteenth-Cen tury Spain - Tess KnightonThe Reciprocal Construction of Isabelline Book Patronage - Ronald E. SurtzHernando de Talavera and Isabelline Imagery - Chiyo IshikawaMelodies for Private Devotion at the Court of Queen Isabel - Emilio Ros FábregasThe Queen at War: Shared Sovereignity and Gender in Representations of the Granada Campaign - Elizabeth LehfeldtThe Artistic Patronage of Isabel the Catholic: Medieval or Modern? - Rafael Domínguez CasasConflictive Subjectivity and the Politics of Truth and Justice in Cárcel de Amor - E. Michael GerliJuan de Anchieta and the Rest of the World - Kenneth KreitnerInventing the Catholic Queen: Images of Isabel I in History and Fiction - Nancy Marino