{"product_id":"the-splendor-and-opulence-of-the-past-9781501772221","title":"The Splendor and Opulence of the Past","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Splendor and Opulence of the Past\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e traces the career of Jaume Caresmar (17171791), a church historian and a key figure of the Catalan Enlightenment who transcribed tens of thousands of parchments to preserve and glorify Catalonia''s medieval past in the face of its diminishing autonomy\u003c\/b\u003e. As Paul Freedman shows, Caresmar''s books, essays, and transcriptionssome only recently discoveredprovide fresh insights into the Middle Ages as remembered in modern Catalonia and illustrate how a nation''s past glories and humiliations can inform contemporary politics and culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the ninth to the sixteenth centuries, Catalonia was a thriving, independent set of principalities within what would become modern Spain. In the wake of the dismantling of its autonomy by the eighteenth-century Spanish state, Catalan scholars looked to the region''s medieval independence and wealth as a means of maintaining a distinct Catalan identity and resisting Castilian hegemony. Thro\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49409374880087,"sku":"9781501772221","price":42.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781501772221.jpg?v=1730506584","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-splendor-and-opulence-of-the-past-9781501772221","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}