Ancient history

Presentation of El Cid. History and myth of a warlord

We are pleased to invite you to the presentation of El Cid. History and myth of a warlord , which will take place at the Marcial Pons bookstore (Pl. del Conde del Valle de Súchil, 8) on Tuesday, December 10 at 7:00 p.m. . There we will have the presence of its author, David Porrinas González, researcher and professor at the University of Extremadura, and Alberto Pérez Rubio, co-editor of Desperta Ferro Ediciones, who will talk about such a controversial figure as the Campeador. Free admission until full capacity.

About David Porrinas

David Porrinas González he is a researcher and professor at the University of Extremadura. He has a degree and a doctorate in History from the UEX with the thesis War and chivalry in the Middle Ages. War conditions and attitudes, Castilla y León, XI-XIII centuries , directed by F. García Fitz, with Extraordinary Prize. He has published works related to medieval warfare and chivalry, and the Cid Campeador, including El Cid. History and myth of a warlord (Wake up Ferro, 2019). He is a member of the project Religious violence in the peninsular Middle Ages:war, apologetic discourse and historiographic account, 10th-15th centuries , directed by C. de Ayala Martínez and S. Palacios Ontalva (UAM).

About El Cid. History and myth of a warlord

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar , El Cid Campeador, is one of the most deeply rooted historical figures in the collective imagination of the Spanish, since the Cantar de Mío Cid to the Anthony Mann movie starring Charlton Heston and Sofia Loren. But was the Cid a hero , a symbol of Crusader Christianity, as it has often been portrayed? What precisely distinguishes the historical Cid is his quality as an antihero, as a warlord capable of forging his destiny with iron and carving out his own kingdom. David Porrinas, one of the greatest experts on the subject, as evidenced by his numerous publications, captures in this book everything that historical research has shed light on the Campeador, focusing in particular on little-treated perspectives such as those of war and The chivalry. A book, moreover, beautifully illustrated and to which Desperta Ferro Ediciones has added more than twenty brand-name maps, essential to understand this convulsive period. The work therefore presents the character in his time, his mentality and his circumstances:the setting for the epic of the Campeador is an Iberian peninsula where the Christian kingdoms begin to expand at the expense of the weak Andalusian taifas, with mutable and permeable borders, and where Almoravid fanatics burst in on the one hand and the idea of ​​a crusade on the other. El Cid. History and myth of a warlord is a worthy follower of La España del Cid by Ramon Menendez Pidal. A work that, like its protagonist, will make history.