1 Francisco Marquez Villanueva, “Menosprecio de corte y alabanza de aldea” (Valladolid, 1539) y el tenia aulico en la obra de Fray Antonio de Guevara (Santander: Universidad de Cantabria, 1999), p. 150.

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Of approximating written language to the oral speech of the Court (the Didlogo itself pretends to transcribe a real conversation). In the Didlogo Valdes attributes to the vernacular a power to express his inner concepts (“el concepto de mi animo”) without unnecessary mediations; as a result, he transfers to language the longing for authenticity he also sought in religious experience.

Reformist trends spreading through Europe in the early sixteenth century share this topic. As far as Spain is concerned, Bataillon emphasized, in a landmark study, the enormous relevance of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) in Charles V’s time, and even beyond.2 At the center of Erasmian thought there is a sharp criticism of the corruption nurturing the Papacy’s secular ambitions and its prominence in the European political scene. According to Erasmus, ecclesiastic power has favored exterior and superstitious forms of popular devotion, which pervert Christ’s foundational message. The effort to restore this message in all its purity links Erasmus’ impressive work as a philologist to his militant enterprise against the ignorance promoted by jargon-ridden Scholastic commentators. These and other groups who belong to the Church apparatus claim to be closer to perfection than common believers, but Erasmus maintains that virtue can also be achieved in secular life on the condition that it peacefully contributes to the overall harmony of society.

Erasmus’ influence in the Iberian peninsula reached the emperor’s inner circles, and is evident in Alfonso de Valdes (1490-1532), his Secretary of Latin Letters. The elder brother of Juan de Valdes, Alfonso contributed to the formulation of imperial ideology in the wars for European hegemony. His position may seem to contradict Erasmus’ quest for universal peace, but Valdes believed this goal only to be attainable under the religious unity provided by the Empire. As a result of the fragmentation fostered by the rise of Protestantism and the growing power of national states, he notes how the Pope has become an obstacle to the reform of Christianity. Consequently, in the Didlogo de Lactancio y un arcediano (“Dialogue of Lactancio and an Archdeacon,” 1528), Valdes does not hesitate to see in the infamous Sack of Rome (1527) a manifestation of God’s designs. Providential ideology likewise articulates the lucianesque Didlogo de Mercurio y Caron (“Dialogue of Mercury and Charon,” 1529), in which a detailed account of the conflicts between Charles V and the French king Francis I is interspersed with the judgment of types representing contemporary society. The souls condemned in the other world invert the Erasmian principles that Charles V seeks to restore, and they contrast with the utopian vision conveyed by positive examples. In either case, the Didlogo stresses the

2 Marcel Bataillon, Erasmo y Espaiia: estudios sobre La historia espiritual del siglo XVI. Trans. Antonio Alatorre (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1966).

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Importance of self-knowledge and individual choice, as seen in the sinful nun sent to the convent against her will or in the blessedness achieved by a married man after he experiences an Augustinian process of conversion. A similar path toward moral awareness follows Polidoro, who personifies the perfect monarch; but his ideals of harmony and concord are already being rendered obsolete by Machiavelli’s prince, for whom the end famously justified the means.

Order, human differences, and female representations in the era of Felipe II

The era of Felipe II signals the triumph of the Counter-Reformist mentality inspired by the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and the official rejection of Erasmus. Still, several authors offer some resistance to the dogmatic atmosphere of a country increasingly hostile to foreign influences. Among them is the medical doctor Juan Huarte de San Juan (1529–1588), who in 1575 published the first version of Examen de ingenios (“The Examination of Men’s Wits”), a widely read treatise based on the “empiricist” assumptions of Hippocratic medicine. Huarte seeks to establish an inclusive theory accounting for the different types of psychological profiles (ingenios) found in human beings so that he can determine which profession best suits each ingenio. This word also points out our innate ability to “engender” provisional drafts or “representations” of diverse learning fields. At this point Huarte’s emphasis on creativity connects him with Juan Luis Vives (1492–1540) and, more generally, revives the Renaissance interest in the practical applications of human differences (according, for example, to Alfonso de Valde´s, moral awareness is hardly possible without knowing one’s “complexion” or organic predisposition). As Huarte underscores the relevance of his theory for effective social organization, however, he does not ignore the bureaucratic complexity demanded by modern states.

• Reading him, studying him, or teaching…

A carnival on stage: Calderon’s comic short plays Certainly, Calderon perfects the theatre as a fascinating mechanism of institutional propaganda, but he is also like the gigantic mirror of a gesticulating Spain that, in the absence of a rational and enlightened discourse, generates constant vacillations and counter-myths. Only thus is it

• IMPORTANT DATES about 1100-1000 BC Phoenicians began colonizing…

IMPORTANT DATES about 1100-1000 BC Phoenicians began colonizing Spain. Modern cities such as Cбdiz and Mбlaga were founded by the Phoenicians around this time. 400s BC The Carthaginians conquered much of Spain. 200s BC Spain became an important part of the Roman Empire following the Punic Wars. AD 573 The

• The latter epitomized the post-Second-World War slogan…

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 The literature of Franco Spain, 1939–1975 615 Related to the ubiquitousness of censorship throughout the Franco years is a factor that informs much of that period’s cultural production: the obsession with collective memory. This interest in history was widespread, yet the concept of “memory”

• He wrote eclogues (“Batilo,” 1780) and an abundance of odes. In all his work…

In a literary context it is possible to view erotic works like Samaniego’s Eljardin de Venus (“The Garden of Venus,” c. 1790) or Morat´ın’s Arte de las putas as yet another aspect of Neoclassicism, since allusions to Ovid, Martial, Juvenal, and Catullus abound. Equally present are contemporary philosophical and scientific

• Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1937; 2nd. edn. 1975. McDermott, Patricia. “Modernismo…

Society of Spanish and Spanish American Studies, 2000. Martinez-Breton, Juan Antonio. Libertad de expresion cinematogrdfica Durante la II Republica Espahola (1931-1936). Madrid: Editorial Fragua, 2000. Martinez Cachero, Jose Maria. La novela espahola entre 1936 y el fin de siglo. Historia de una aventura. Madrid: Castalia, 1997. Martinez Palacio, Javier, ed. Pio Baroja. Madrid: