Medieval biographies, theoretical and historiographical problems. Specially referred to those of Castilian women

Abstract

Biography allows to approach with great coherence the short times, the times of a life, to locate the personage in its individuality and the surroundings of people and circumstances that have fitted their life. Single it can give to the historians the dimension of the time of a life, the one that lived biographied men and women. The new interest on biography comes women’s history, the daily life, from the interest on popular culture. It is necessary to reconstruct the “social surface” on which each individuality moves constantly in a plurality of fields. We have tried to introduce, following general cases, particular problems, not only of high feminine personages but also of small lives of common women.