This Happened in My Presence reveals life in the small Spanish town of Deza during a period that was complex and tumultuous.

The introduction explains the medieval origins of Deza's Christian, Muslim, and Jewish populations and the changing policies toward religious minorities under the Catholic Monarchs and the Hapsburgs. The workings of the Spanish Inquisition and of Deza's local religious and political institutions are clearly described. Helpful pedagogical materials enhance the primary sources: a timeline interweaving local, national, and international events; a cast of characters; four modern images of Deza; maps; a glossary; discussion questions; and a bibliography. Each set of documents is accompanied by a brief introduction and focus questions.

Patrick J. O'Banion's superb edition and translation of the rich and hitherto unpublished documents of Deza, a small eastern Castilian town, allows readers an intimate view of the complex relations between Moriscos and Old Christians in the period between the great Morisco rebellion in 1568-70 and their expulsion from Spain in the early seventeenth century. An excellent and thoughtful effort. -- Teofilo F. Ruiz, UCLA This engaging book is an invaluable teaching text. Trial transcripts, court documents, and letters taken from the Spanish Inquisition's meticulous records offer vivid testimony of Christian and Morisco belief and experience-from food, family life, and festivals to torture, galley slavery, and burnings at the stake. The introduction deftly contextualizes the documents in a clear, unpretentious narrative that is accessible to novice readers while still valuable for historians. O'Banion offers students direct engagement with ordinary people and remote mentalities while inviting and enabling them to interpret primary sources for themselves. -- Katherine Van Liere, Calvin College

About the Author
Patrick J. O'Banion is Associate Professor of History at Lindenwood University. He is the author of The Sacrament of Penance and Religious Life in Golden Age Spain (2012).

Reviews

"Patrick O'Banion has set a high standard for collections of translated documents. The book is clearly geared towards undergraduates. It would be a valuable resource to anyone teaching early modern Spanish or European history, and is a must for any course on the Inquisition."

-- Carolyn Salomons, Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies

"This Happened in My Presence will acquaint students with a diverse set of everyday people from four centuries ago, set them to work like detectives, inform them about Muslim customs, and give them a sense of cultural interactions in a small town at a time when neighbors held excessive power over one another. They will face the hard issues historians face when assessing accusations, denunciations, denials, and confessions in a context of coercion, and see at close hand a run-up to ethno-religious cleansing."

-- William A. Christian Jr., Catholic Historical Review

"This Happened in My Presence is a good introduction not only to the fate of the Moriscos, but also to the history of the Spanish Inquisition."

-- Alastair Hamilton, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

"The sources in this volume are important not only for courses on early modern Spain or inquisitorial history, but also for courses that focus on various aspects of early modern life and thought. The documents illuminate the minutiae of daily life, offer insight into how gender, religion, and social class affected relationships in early modern Deza, and elucidate the differences between Christian and Muslim religious observance in theory and in practice. This Happened in My Presence is both accessible and informative and provides students with an important set of sources and helpful guidance to facilitate their interpretation."

-- Christina Moss, Renaissance and Reformation

"O'Banion translates and edits documents from the town of Deza within the jurisdiction of the Inquisition of Cuenca...[He] includes a cogent introduction, a cast of characters, maps, figures and accompanying 'focus questions.' The volume will work easily for a history course on the Inquisition, Spain or using primary sources. "

* Journal of Early Modern History 22 *

"This book makes a fascinating collection of records accessible to a wide audience. It also succeeds as a device for reflecting upon and learning about the work done by historians - collecting, transcribing, translating, organizing, questioning, representing, curating - and invites readers to participate in the analysis of those historical records."

* Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 71, No. 2 *



Book Information
ISBN 9781442635135
Author Patrick J. O'Banion
Format Paperback
Page Count 264
Imprint University of Toronto Press
Publisher University of Toronto Press
Weight(grams) 400g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 20mm