Ruth, Jeffrey S.

Dr. Ruth is a Professor of Spanish Language and Literature at East Stroudsburg University. He received his Ph.D. in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures at City University of New York, Graduate Center.

Urban Honor in Spain: The "Laus Urbas" from Antiquity through Humanism

2012 0-7734-2561-6
Urban Honor in Spain is an historical study of Spain and the writing technique of laus urbis (praise of the city) during the 15th century. The book begins by providing an overview of laus urbis was developed and codified in oratory and classical literary texts during the Greco-Roman period. The book then explores how this powerful technique re-emerged during the Middle Ages to become a powerful corpus that formed an early national culture by praising cities and nations. In Medieval and Renaissance Spain, laus urbis, provided a sense of local community to city and town dwellers in the indefinite and blurry political frontier of Iberia during the Reconquista. Notwithstanding its historical significance, the book contributes to Spanish literary studies a profound and original examination of the theoretical and cultural reasons behind the concept of praising the city.