María Rosa Menocal (April 9, 1953 - October 15, 2012) was a Cuban-born scholar of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

culture and history and

Sterling Professor Sterling Professor, the highest academic rank at Yale University, is awarded to a tenured faculty member considered the best in his or her field. It is akin to the rank of university professor at other universities. The appointment, made by the ...

of Humanities at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

. Menocal earned a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

. Before joining the Yale faculty in 1986, she taught Romance

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

at the University of Pennsylvania. Menocal's 1987 book ''The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History'' challenged the assumption that medieval European culture developed without influence from Arabic and Hebrew literature. This challenge continue throughout her work, and had a lasting impact on the treatment of Arabic texts in medieval literary study. In 2002, Menocal wrote the book ''The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain'', which has been translated into many languages, and includes an introduction by fellow Yale

in the Humanities

Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking worl ...

. The book focuses on tolerance in

Medieval Spain Spain in the Middle Ages is a period in the History of Spain that began in the 5th Century following the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and ended with the beginning of the Early modern period in 1492. The history of Spain is marked by waves ...

within the Muslim and Christian kingdoms through political examples as well as cultural examples. Menocal was director of the Yale Whitney Humanities Center for several years and was the co-editor of ''The Literature of Al-Andalus'' in the ''Cambridge History of Arabic Literature'' series. She was the mentor of numerous scholars of medieval Iberia, including H. D. Miller, Maria Willstedt, Lourdes Maria Alvarez, Ryan Szpiech, Nadia Altschul, Abigail Balbale, Camilo Gómez-Rivas, Hussein Fancy, and the author Carolina Sanín. She was elected a Fellow of the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until c. 1980) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes ...

in 2011 and inducted into the Fellows of the Medieval Academy in March 2012. Menocal died of

melanoma Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye ( ...

on October 15, 2012.Obituario: María Rosa Menocal, estudiosa de la cultura medieval hispana
, ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'' Cultural, 28 October 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2019.

Publications

*''The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History: A Forgotten Heritage'' (1987, 2004) *''Writing in Dante's Cult of Truth: From Borges to Boccacio'' (1991) *''Shards of Love: Exile and the Origins of the Lyric'' (1994) *''Culture in the Time of Tolerance: Al-Andalus as a Model for Our Time'' (2000) *Co-editor, ''The Literature of Al-Andalus'' (2000), Cambridge History of Arabic Literature series *''The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain'' (2002) *''The Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture'' (2008) *''The Song of the Cid'' (Penguin Books), translation by Burton Raffel; introduction and notes by Maria Rosa Menocal (2009)

References

External links

*
The Culture of Translation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Menocal, Maria Rosa 1953 births 2012 deaths Cuban emigrants to the United States University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty Yale University faculty Yale Sterling Professors Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America