Ce travail est une étude de l'écriture mise en oeuvre dans l'Historia gothica achevée en 1243 par l'archevêque de Tolède, Rodrigue Jimenez de Rada. Dans ce texte, Rodrigue se propose de rapporter l'histoire d'Hispania, depuis le temps biblique du déluge jusqu'à son époque. Même si l'Historia gothica est un texte de nature profondément politique dans lequel se conjuguent des discours variés -- la définition des rapports entre royauté et noblesse, la conception du territoire hispanique, mais aussi la défense de la primatie de l'Eglise de Tolède -- on ne peut occulter le fait qu'il est avant tout une construction textuelle. Notre propos est donc de mettre en évidence et d'analyser, avec une approche littéraire, les mécanismes narratifs, stylistiques et discursifs qui régissent son fonctionnement. La première partie de l'étude s'attache aux sources du texte, à la manière dont Rodrigue les cite et les soumet à une réécriture réfléchie. La seconde partie met en évidence les modalités de la fabrique du texte en considérant le paratexte de celui-ci, son architecture narrative et ses composantes essentielles.

The present study is intended to contribute to our knowledge of the intellectual history of early modern Castile by examining a work which has heretofore been ignored by historians of 'Golden Age' historiography - De motu Hispaniae, an account of the Comunidades of Castile (1520-1521) written by the Spanish humanist cleric Juan Maldonado (c. 1485-1554). In the Introduction we specify the methodology to be employed - a close reading of De motu Hispaniae - and survey current scholarship on Maldonado and on the intellectual history of Castile in our period. The argument proper begins in Chapter One, where we set the stage for our textual analysis by examining what little information we possess on Maldonado's life up to and including the year in which De motu Hispaniae was completed, 1524. Special attention is given to the two aspects of Maldonado's biography which are most relevant to our inquiry - humanism and patronage. With respect to the former, we show that the two figures crucial in his education at the University of Salamanca were the humanists Christophe de Longueil and Lucio Flaminio Siculo, who inspired him to pursue a career as a teacher of the studia humanitatis and introduced him to the classical writers whose influence is most evident in De motu Hispaniae - Cicero and Sallust. We also examine the relationship between Maldonado and two of his patrons, Pedro de Cartagena and Diego Osorio, both of whom figure prominently in De motu Hispaniae. Maldonado's close ties to the latter are especially important, for in De motu Hispaniae he contrasts Osorio's loyalty during the Comunidades with the disloyalty displayed by his half-brother, the Comunero Bishop of Zamora, Antonio de Acuña., In Chapter Two we show that the comparison is modelled on Sal-lust's Bellum Catilinae, and we suggest that it may have been prompted, at least in part, by Maldonado's desire to defend his friend and patron against (false) charges that he betrayed his king during the rebellion. The bulk of Chapter Two is given over to the presentation of textual evidence from De motu Hispaniae which indicates that, in general, Maldonado subscribed to the canons and conventions which governed the practice of classical Roman historians and their Renaissance epigones. We also argue that Maldonado's 'philosophy of history' and his ideas on such historiographical basics as causation and periodization place him squarely in the humanist tradition, and distinguish him from the 'contemporary historians' of the Middle Ages, whose historiography reflected their religious training. Unlike these latter, Maldonado saw the historian's craft in remarkably secular terms, and De motu Hispaniae is devoid of the providential ism characteristic of much Castilian historiography. The best explanation for this, we suggest, is that for Maldonado, who had witnessed the political 'decline' of the early sixteenth century, the Hand of God was not easily discerned behind the destiny of Castile. Recognizing that the history of the Comunidades could not be written in pro-videntialist terms, Maldonado turned instead to a work which offered a secular interpretation of 'civil war' – Sallust's Bellum Catilinae. In Chapter Three we argue that Maldonado, a humanist is the literal sense of the word, was convinced of the value of rhetoric in public life, and committed to a 'Ciceronian' union of philosophy and eloquence. Not surprisingly, various forms of rhetorical discourse are also evident in De motu Hispaniae. After examining three aspects of this discourse oratio recta and two more or less complementary rhetorical formulae, one drawn from Sallust and the other from Cicero - we conclude that despite repeated professions of suprapartisanship, Maldonado's rhetoric reveals the depth of his ideological commitments. Our general conclusion is that Helen Nader is incorrect to assert that humanist historiography was a dead letter in sixteenth-century Castile. Our analysis of De motu Hispaniae shows otherwise, and also reveals that the two 'traditions' which Nader discerns behind the diversity of late medieval historiography contribute very little to our understanding of historical ideas during the 'Golden Age'. We suggest that an adequate understanding of this complex phenomenon might begin with a rehabilitation, with some revisions, of the currently discredited notion of an 'open Spain'. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

L’étude ici présentée porte sur les origines des royaumes de León et de Castille dans la culture historique de l’Espagne médiévale (XIIe-XIIIe siècles). Il s’agit de saisir les fondements politiques de ces royaumes par l’analyse d’un mythe fondateur qui a émergé et s’est construit au sein de la production historiographique du Nord péninsulaire : le mythe néo-wisigothique. Mythe de fondation, cette représentation historique soutient la thèse d’une continuité ethnique, dynastique, idéologique et spirituelle entre le royaume wisigothique de Tolède qui s’effondre lors de l’invasion musulmane de 711 et les royaumes léonais et castillan. À l’occasion du récit des règnes de Witiza et de Rodrigue, les derniers rois des Wisigoths, et des batailles mythifiées du Guadalete et de Covadonga, les chroniqueurs manipulent le discours sur l’histoire et glissent des interpolations qui infléchissent le sens de leurs sources, parvenant à gommer toute solution de continuité entre Rodrigue et le premier restaurateur, Pélage. Ainsi, par un discours aux accents souvent providentialistes, les chroniqueurs contribuent à restaurer la patrie hispanique, que saint Isidore de Séville définit dans son œuvre par l’union entre rex, gens et regnum, et à doter la communauté politique d’une éthique collective, de valeurs idéales et de modèles à imiter. C’est aussi l’apport de l’historiographie du point de vue de la sémiologie socio-historique que nous souhaitons mettre en lumière. Le mythe évolue en fonction du contexte géopolitique et chaque chroniqueur interprète ses sources, surexploitant et politisant ce motif légendaire. Ces variations successives permettent de définir le mythe comme un système imaginaire qui révèle l’intentio des chroniqueurs ou de leurs commanditaires, comme une stratégie doctrinale du pouvoir et même comme le lieu d’un profond débat idéologique.Source de légitimité, le mythe est remployé au service des royaumes en construction au XIIe siècle dans l’Historia legionensis (dite silensis), la Chronica naiarensis et le Libro de las generaciones y linajes de los reyes (olim Liber regum) qui défendent la continuité ethnique et dynastique à León, la continuité idéologique en Castille et la continuité territoriale en Navarre. Au XIIIe siècle, le mythe bascule dans l’idéologie. L’Estoire d’Espagne d’Alphonse X le Sage hérite la vision historique du très léonais Chronicon mundi de Luc de Tuy et du très castillan De rebus Hispaniae de Rodrigue Jiménez de Rada, et lui associe la vision plus globale – et presque « nationale » – du Poema de Fernán González. Le roi Sage voit dans le mythe néo-wisigothique le moyen de légitimer ses prétentions impériales en Espagne et en Europe. / The study hereby presented tackles the origins of the kingdoms of León and Castile in the historic culture of medieval Spain (12th and 13th centuries). The aim is to understand the political bases of these kingdoms by analyzing a founding myth which emerged and took shape within the historiographical production in the north of the peninsula: the neo-Visigoth myth. A founding myth, this historic representation upholds the argument of an ethnic, dynastic, ideological and spiritual continuation between the Visigoth kingdom of Toledo, which collapsed in 711 when it was invaded by the Muslims, and the kingdoms of Léon and Castile. When recounting the stories of the reigns of Witiza and Rodrigo, the last Visigoth kings, and of the mythicised battles of the Guadalete and of Covadonga, chroniclers are manipulating views on history and slip interpolations which modify the meaning of their sources, thereby erasing any possibility of continuation between Rodrigo and Pelagius, the first restorer. Consequently, thanks to a discourse often tinged with providential undertones, the chroniclers help restoring the Hispanic country, which Saint Isidore of Seville defines in his work as the union of rex, gens and regnum, but they also contribute to endowing the political community with collective ethics, ideal values and role models. In addition, we would like to bring to light the contribution of historiography from the point of view of socio-historic semiology. The myth evolves according to the geopolitical context and each chronicler interprets their sources, thus overdoing and politicizing this legendary motif. These successive variations allow us to define the myth as an imaginary system revealing the intentio of the chroniclers or of their sleeping partners, but also as a doctrinal strategy of power, or even as the place for a profound ideological debate.A source of legitimacy, the myth is re-used to serve the kingdoms being founded in the 12th century in the Historia legionensis (also known as silensis), the Chronica naiarensis and the Libro de las generaciones y linajes de los reyes (olim Liber regum) which champion ethnic and dynastic continuation in León, ideological continuation in Castile and territorial continuation in Navarre. In the 13th century, the myth turns into ideology. Estoria de España by Alphonso X the Wise inherits the historical vision of typically Leonese Chronicon mundi by Luc de Tuy and of typically Castilian De rebus Hispaniae by Rodrigue Jiménez de Rada, and a more comprehensive – even almost « national » – vision is associated to it with Poema de Fernán González. The Wise king then starts to see in the neo-Visigoth myth a means to legitimate his imperial claims both in Spain and in Europe.