Hermeneutic Intervention: Influencing Affective Devotional Practices at the Source in Fray Hernando de Talavera’s De las cerimonias

Fray Hernando de Talavera is perhaps most well known as the first archbishop of Granada and confessor to Isabel of Castile. Born around 1430 and passing away in 1507, he was also a scholar, a Hieronymite monk, prior of Our Lady of Prado, bishop of Ávila, and a victim of the Inquisition. Talavera was active in Castile during a time when Christ’s humanity, particularly the Passion, began prompting new forms of affective devotion throughout the kingdom. Jessica Boon speaks of a “devotional shift over the course of the fifteenth century,” a shift that included “imaginative meditation on the events of Christ’s life[,] . . . a concomitant elevation in private prayer,” and “embodied devotion.”¹ While such devotional practices occurred in other parts of Europe, Cynthia Robinson affirms the novelty of Castilian devotional activities focused on Christ’s humanity, asserting that they “simply do not appear to have formed part of medieval Castilian devotional culture before the final decade of the fifteenth century.” ² Furthermore, she points out that not “until the final decade of the fifteenth century did Isabelline reform sponsor the first Castilian translations of such widely distributed European devotional classics as the Meditationes Vitae Christi, Bonaventure’s Lignum vitae, and Ludolph of Saxony’s Vita Christi.”³ This new interest in exploring Christ’s humanity did not go unnoticed by church authorities, including Talavera. His 1496 treatise Deuoto tractado de lo que representan y nos dan a entender las cerimonias dela missa (henceforth De las cerimonias) specifically aims to comment on and influence this topic by connecting Christ’s life to the most theatrical elements of the Mass.⁴ By linking Christ’s humanity to specific memorable liturgical moments, the archbishop both provides opportunities for and controls affective responses to Christ’s human existence.

In a study of Isabel of Castile’s retable, Chiyo Ishikawa credits Talavera, in part, with fomenting this Christocentric trend during the crown’s reform efforts, calling him a “force behind the resurgence of the life of Christ as a theme for literature and art.”⁵ Talavera also specifically supported the use of Christocentric imagery in private devotion in his well-known Católica impugnacion (1480). As Felipe Pereda points out, “Talavera aplaudía el rumbo emocional que había tomado la imaginería, pero lo hacía pensando en los beneficios espirituales que podían obtener los espectadores”⁶ [Talavera applauded the emotional course that the use of images had taken, but he did so with an awareness of the spiritual benefits that spectators could obtain].⁷ Talavera clearly understood how strongly an observer could react to religious imagery focused on Christ.

Talavera’s interest in educating spectators also included live public spectacle. Citing his interest in the practice of “obispillo” (the Boy Bishop), during which a child took on the ceremonial role of bishop for a day, Isabella Iannuzzi explains that the “importancia de utilizar la teatralidad como instrumento catequista resultaba muy clara a Talavera” [importance of using theatricality as a catechistic instrument was very clear to Talavera].⁸ She later states that “aquí la teatralidad está al servicio de un catequista que convierte en actores a sus espectadores, al mismo público que tiene que educar” [here, theatricality is at the service of a catechist that converts his spectators into actors, the same public that he needs to educate].⁹ José Fradejas confirms the theatrical nature of the Boy Bishop, asserting that the “celebración del obispillo en la sede granatense durante el arzobispado de fray Hernando adquiere todas las connotaciones de una representación teatral, o parateatral, litúrgica” [celebration of the Boy Bishop in the office of Granada during the archbishopric of Fray Hernando acquires all the connotations of a theatrical or paratheatrical liturgical representation]. ¹⁰ Fradejas draws a direct connection between the theatrics of the Boy Bishop and other liturgical representations. Talavera was clearly interested in how visual stimuli and public performance would affect the faithful. Perhaps for this reason, he was particularly focused on the celebration of the Mass as well. After...