PERFORM Log
July 1996
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Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 22:56:33 -0700
Reply-To: PERFORM - Medieval Performing Arts
Sender: PERFORM - Medieval Performing Arts
From: "Jesse D. Hurlbut"
Organization: Brigham Young University
Subject: MRDS Nominations
This is the last call for nominations for officers of the Medieval
Renaissance Drama Society. Nominations are open for President,
Vice-President and for two seats on the Council. Current nominees
include:
President: Larry Clopper (incumbent)
Vice-President: Milla Riggio (incumbent)
Council:
Robert Clark
Max Harris
Robert Potter
IMPORTANT: Please DO NOT make nominations by simply hitting the
REPLY button; nominations should not go out over the Listservs.
Instead, send your nominations to the Secretary, Jesse Hurlbut:
Jesse_Hurlbut@byu.edu
Thank you,
Jesse Hurlbut
MRDS Secretary
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Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 12:14:09 -0500
Reply-To: PERFORM - Medieval Performing Arts
Sender: PERFORM - Medieval Performing Arts
From: Max Harris
Subject: juegos de cana
Medieval and Renaissance dramatists:
Can anybody point me to a good, authoritative definition or, even better, a
lengthy, detailed description of a juego de canas? I know that this is a
Spanish variation of the medieval tournament melee, using breakable reeds or
bulrushes as makeshift spears or lances; I know of lots of references to
juego de canas taking place; and I have a number of modern scholarly
translations ("reedspear tournament", "mock tournament using bulrushes").
But that's about it. What exactly did the participants do? Did they throw
the canas at one another (as if they were spears)? Did they charge at one
another on horseback, breaking the bulrushes against one another's shields?
Why canas -- more economical, less dangerous? And, as some scholars suggest,
was this variety of mock battle/military exercise introduced to Spain by the
Moors? In which case, can anybody point me to an account of the Moorish
precursor of the juego de canas?
I look forward to hearing from some of you.
Max Harris
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Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 19:29:51 -0700
Reply-To: PERFORM - Medieval Performing Arts
Sender: PERFORM - Medieval Performing Arts
From: Stephen Lewis
Subject: Re: juegos de cana
At 12:14 PM 7/19/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Medieval and Renaissance dramatists:
>
>Can anybody point me to a good, authoritative definition or, even better, a
>lengthy, detailed description of a juego de canas?
Although I am not a medieval scholar, I know there were references to this
type of battle "in the spirit" in one of the Inquisitions trials in Italy,
which was dealt with recently (last six months) on television (TLC I think).
This 'phenomenon' is also covered in a novel Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. I
believe his sources were French from the south-east close to the borders
with Italy. I don't know if this will help, the section in the novel is
certainly interesting.
J. Stephen Lewis
Theatre Department
University of Victoria
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Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 14:34:31 -0700
Reply-To: PERFORM - Medieval Performing Arts
Sender: PERFORM - Medieval Performing Arts
From: MICHAEL ALLEN CRAMER
Subject: Re: juegos de cana
In-Reply-To: <199607191714.MAA43090@audumla.students.wisc.edu>
Without being able to provide an answer to your specific question, I can
give you a few possible clues.
I believe this is similar to the "brouhard" tournements which were fought
in northern Europe. These were tournements which were fought on foot in
light armor, usually of boiled leather, using weapons which were flexible
but still relatively heavy. Often these were the so called "whalebone"
swords of which a few examples survive today. However, there is at least
one instance of this type of tournement being fought with weapons made
of sugarcane, in a brouhard held at Jeruselem by Richard the Lionheart. In
these instances the cane weapons were apparently used like swords.
Perhaps the juego de canas was the same.
--Michael Cramer
Department of Theatre Arts
San Francisco State University
On Fri, 19 Jul 1996, Max Harris wrote:
> Medieval and Renaissance dramatists:
>
> Can anybody point me to a good, authoritative definition or, even better, a
> lengthy, detailed description of a juego de canas? I know that this is a
> Spanish variation of the medieval tournament melee, using breakable reeds or
> bulrushes as makeshift spears or lances; I know of lots of references to
> juego de canas taking place; and I have a number of modern scholarly
> translations ("reedspear tournament", "mock tournament using bulrushes").
> But that's about it. What exactly did the participants do? Did they throw
> the canas at one another (as if they were spears)? Did they charge at one
> another on horseback, breaking the bulrushes against one another's shields?
> Why canas -- more economical, less dangerous? And, as some scholars suggest,
> was this variety of mock battle/military exercise introduced to Spain by the
> Moors? In which case, can anybody point me to an account of the Moorish
> precursor of the juego de canas?
>
> I look forward to hearing from some of you.
>
> Max Harris
>
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Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996 09:41:07 -0500
Reply-To: PERFORM - Medieval Performing Arts
Sender: PERFORM - Medieval Performing Arts
From: Max Harris
Subject: Re: juegos de cana
To all those who responded to my enquiry about juegos de cana (and others
who may have listened in with interest):
I have now recovered from the depths of my filing system a single sheet of
paper that I filed some 25 years ago, whose origins and location I could not
remember, and whose apparent absence caused me to send out my call for help.
On the sheet is pasted a photocopy of _Enciclopedia Universal Ilustrada
Europeo Americana_ (Barcelona: Espasa-Calpe, n.d.), vol. 11, pp. 299-300,
which contains the only detailed description I have ever been able to find
of the juego de cana. (I filed it 25 years ago, thinking it would come in
useful some day. Now that I've found it, it has!) According to the
_Enciclopedia_ (and I'm summarizing here), the juegos de canas were
"equestrian exercises," involving two teams of some 24-32 knights apiece,
who would, after certain intitial formalities, charge one another, hurling
makeshift spears made of canas (canes, reeds, etc.) at one another with
their right hands, and defending themselves with shields held in their left
hands. It was introduced to Spain by the "Arabs." Part of my confusion arose
because the canas are often described in accounts of juegos de canas as
"lanzas," which made me think of lances and a different kind of
melee/jousting, but "lanza" can also (and, in this instance, does) mean
"spear," i.e. a thrown projectile.
Thanks for your input,
Max Harris