Géographie et toponymie de la « frontière andalouse » dans l’historiographie humaniste hispanique, d’Alphonse de Carthagène à Lucio Marineo Sículo

Abstract

This article is interested in the toponymic and geographic discourse on the borders between Castile and the Kingdom of Granada, in the treaties and the historiographic works in Latin produced in Spain by the humanists Alonso de Cartagena, Sánchez de Arévalo, Margarit, Pau, Palencia, Nebrija, and Marineo Sículo. The authors’ movement, which renews the Roman toponymy and the antique tradition of the laus Hispaniae, is concomitant with the twilight of the Kingdom of Granada and its incorporation to the Castilian territories. This work proves first that the Andalusian Frontier has a central role in the labour of toponymic restauration carried out by the authors and then explains how those endeavour set up a coherent discourse upon comparing the Ancient Baetica to its splitting into two, in the 15th century, between the Christian Andalusia and the Kingdom of Granada. Finally it analyses how the humanistic geographic discourse anticipates the disappearance of the Nasrid Knigdom before ratifying it.

Keywords

• hispanic humanism
• Andalusian frontier
• Kingdom of Granada
• Castile
• geography
• Latine toponymy