Tjisje Geertje Jasperse

Email: jitske.jasperse [at] cchs.csic.es

Phone: (+34) 916022715

Office: 2D16

Contratada Ramón y Cajal

Instituto de Historia

Departamento de Estudios Medievales

Group: Redes de Poder en las Sociedades Medievales

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Scientific Output

I hold a two-year postdoctoral fellowship (Juan de la Cierva-Formación, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity), and I participate in Therese Martin’s project “The Medieval Treasury across Frontiers and Generations: The Kingdom of León-Castilla in the Context of Muslim-Christian Interchange, c. 1050-1200” (funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity, HAR2015-68614-P). This projects asks why the treasury of San Isidoro was formed in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and how these particular objects came to be part of the collection in León. What stories are there to tell about its patrons/owners, cultural exchange, function, display and audiences?

Within this project I focus on the contributions of Infanta Sancha of Leon-Castilla (d. 1159) and Queen Leonor of Castilla (d. 1214) to this impressive treasury. What did they donate to San Isidoro, why did they endow this monastery with costly gifts, and what do the objects tell us about Sancha and Leonor and their relation to San Isidoro? I argue that precious objects were suitable instruments for the creation or invention of memory and history, in which women seem to have played a crucial role. This argument is based on the assessment of the artworks in the context of the treasury as a whole (its foundation and expansion) and in relation to the way the canons of San Isidoro created their own history through objects, persons, miracles and past stories.

In 2013 I defended my dissertation at the University of Amsterdam. It centred on a twelfth-century German duchess, Matilda, the wife of Duke Henry the Lion, perhaps the most famous nobleman in twelfth-century Germany. Although Matilda was the daughter of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, she remained an enigmatic figure because the written source material has always been regarded as too limited. However, in my research I demonstrated that Matilda’s role at her husband’s court and her responsibilities can very well be investigated if we do not limit ourselves to charters, but include as many sources as possible, both written and visual.

For more publications and research interests see: https://csic.academia.edu/JitskeJasperse

On the Treasury project and Therese Martin see: https://csic.academia.edu/ThereseMartin

Bibliography

Recent Articles

“Visualizing Dynastic Desire: The Twelfth-Century Gospel Book of Henry and Matilda,” Studies in Iconography 39 (2018). In Press

“Women, Courtly Display and Gifts in the Rolandslied and the Chanson de Roland,” Mediaevistik. International Journal of Interdisciplinary Medieval Research 30 (2017). In Press

“Matilda, Leonor and Joanna: The Plantagenet Sisters and the Display of Dynastic Connections through Material Culture,” Journal of Medieval History 43 no. 4 (2017), 523-547.

“A Coin Bearing Testimony to Duchess Matilda as Consors Regni,” Haskins Society Journal 26 (2014 appeared in 2015), 169-190.

This article focusses on the coin type with a depiction of Henry the Lion and Matilda, both holding sceptres. The sceptre was never without meaning in the hands of men or women and always referred to true authority. Based on other depictions of couples and the available material in charters and chronicles, it is evident that when men and women are depicted together they communicate partnership or co-rule. While the scepter by itself offers no conclusive evidence for Matilda’s power, it does urge us to question the standard masculine reading of the coin type, that is, as a statement that Henry the Lion celebrated his matrimonial union with an English princess who was a merely a pawn in the game of power politics.

“To Have and to Hold: Coins and Seals as Evidence for Motherly Authority,” in Royal Mothers and Their Ruling Children. Wielding Political Authority from Antiquity to the Early Modern Era, eds. Carey Fleiner and Elena Woodacre (Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2015), 83-104.

In this article I argued that coins and seals are important sources when wanting to know more about the ways women publicly wielded authority and exercised power. The article also illustrates how important mothers, such as Duchess Bertha of Lorraine, could be to their sons: they acted as advisors, supporters and regents. This is also evident from the charter sealed by Bertha of Lorraine and her son Simon.

Book Reviews

“Linda E. Mitchell, Joan de Valence: The Life and Influence of a Thirteenth-Century Noblewoman. Palgrave Macmillan: New York, 2016,” Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality 52, no. 1 (2016), 110-112.

“Mary Dockray-Miller, The Books and Life of Judith of Flanders. Farnham: Ashgate, 2015,” in Royal Studies Journal 3, no. 1 (2016), 86-87; http://www.rsj.winchester.ac.uk/index.php/rsj/article/view/71/302

“Hans Eberhard Mayer and Claudia Sode, Die Siegel der Lateinische Könige von Jerusalem, Monumenta Germaniae Historica Schriften, Band 66), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014,” in The Medieval Review, 15.09.19; https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/20015/26137

“Guy Geltner, De gesel en de ander. Lijfstraffen en culturele identiteit van Oudheid tot heden (vert. Claire Weeda). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2014,” in Madoc. Tijdschrift over de Middeleeuwen 29, no.1 (2015), 51-53.

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