Humanismo en España. Revisión Crítica. Di Camillo

Interpretations of the Renaissance in Spanish Historical Thought
Author(s): Ottavio Di Camillo

Source: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 2 (Summer, 1995), pp. 352-365
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of America
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Interpretations of the Renaissance in Spanish
Historical Thought
by OTTAVIO Di CAMILLO
T HERE ARE SEVERAL REASONS for presenting an overview of what

the terms Renaissance and humanism have meant to Spanish
historians and literary critics during the past one hundred fifty
years. Despite the fact that these historiographical categories have
not received the same attention in Spain as they have in other parts
of Europe, it is still useful to identify certain recurring assumptions
regarding the nature of the Spanish Renaissance and to point out
how these underlying presuppositions are usually linked, directly
or indirectly, to the historical development of the concept of the Re-
naissance elaborated elsewhere in Europe. One hopes that this brief
exposition will be of some benefit to those students of the Spanish
Renaissance who are unaware of the ideological currents and meth-
odological trends that have motivated, and to a certain extent de-
termined, the major interpretations of the period that have been
proposed. For scholars who are unfamiliar with the views and ideas
of Spanish historians and literary critics of the Renaissance this out-
line may serve as an introduction to their works and as an aid in
assessing their contributions.
The period under review is relatively short, spanning approxi-
mately one hundred fifty years, that is, from the second half of the
last century, when the first interpretations of the Renaissance were
formulated, to the present. But long before any theoretical treat-
ment of the concept of the Renaissance in Spanish historical thought
was undertaken, the idea of a rebirth of Spanish letters had already
enjoyed a long tradition. The earliest documented evidence of a re-
vival of learning can be dated, in fact, to around the middle of the
fifteenth century. Isolated occurrences of expressions relating to a
cultural renewal, such as "dispelling the darkness of ignorance,"
"illuminating Spain with new light," or "driving out the barbarians
from schools and universities," which are first recorded in the writ-
ings of this time, began to appear at an increasing rate in letters,
books and treatises during the next two centuries, when both the
notion of a cultural reawakening and the role of the movement re-
sponsible for bringing it about--what we call today humanism-
[352]
SPANISH INTERPRETATIONS OF THE RENAISSANCE 353
were widely acknowledged.I The idea that a cultural r

taken place within a well-defined period in Spanish civ
came the most significant feature in the first histories of
poetry and eloquence composed in the second half of the
century mainly by Jesuit scholars who took refuge in
their expulsion from Spain.2 It was also at this time th
teenth century, a period of unprecedented achievemen
ture, arts and sciences, came to be known as the Siglo de
Golden Age, as it is usually referred to in English. This d
rapidly gained wide acceptance and eventually came to
term Renaissance. The question ofperiodization, a new
tant feature of the incipient national history, was resolv
of dividing the literary culture of Spain into three perio
itive stage that lasted to the end of the fifteenth century
Age in the sixteenth century and a third period from
teenth century on. Jose Luis Velasquez was the only hi
believed that the literature and culture of the fifteen
should constitute a separate period because of certain
characteristics which set it apart from both the previous
stage and the Siglo de Oro of the following century.3
Interest in the Renaissance as a cultural rebirth waned
first part of the nineteenth century when the predominan
interpretations of Spanish literature, generally writte
Spain, stressed the originality, purity and spontaneity
tional creative genius as this manifested itself in the M
All artistic expressions associated with the restoration
'With the exception, perhaps, of Italy, nowhere in Europe was the

ologism "humanist" as widespread as in sixteenth-century Spain. Used
dicate the teacher of the studia humanitatis, it soon acquired a variety
came to designate the dangerous scholar with reformist ideas, the pedant
student of the humanities, the rogue and, with this same meaning, it w
to a feminine literary character. By the end of the sixteenth century, th
to put an end to the trivialization of such a designation and the true ro
manist" became the subject of two extensive treatises: Juan Lorenzo P
cabalario del humanista (Valencia, 1569) and Baltasar de C6spedes, Discur
humanas llamado el humanista, written in i600, which circulated in man
2See among others: Juan Francisco de Masdeu, Historia cr(tica de Espana y
espanola, 20 vols. (Madrid, I783-I805);Juan Andr6s, Del origen, progreso
de toda literatura (Madrid, I784).
30rfgenes de la poesia castellana (Madrid, I754). His work was to have
fluence both in and outside of Spain. It became known in Europe in Germ
by the famous philologist Johan Andre Diez in 1769.
354 RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY
learning or with any form of erudition, from the fiftee

on, were unconditionally branded as foreign, imitative
art.4 Such an unmitigated characterization of the Re
which made even the Spanish translators uneasy, proved
a passing fad.
In the years during which Michelet was preparing t
volume of his monumental history of France dedicated
the Renaissance period, a Spanish historian, Jose Am
Rios, was also working on a massive history of Spain.
Amador de los Rios' work never reached the sixteenth cen
century that in Michelet's history bears the title of La R
the Spaniard's last volume, the seventh in a series, dea
sively with the fifteenth century, is clearly written with
ception of the Renaissance in mind. Consistent with his i
history, based on the literary culture of the national t
not only included under literature Latin and vernacula
also other humanistic disciplines. His positive evaluation
erary production inspired by the classical revival, stil
many romantic literary critics, made him the lone defen
new learning that accompanied the revival of antiquity in
century Spain.
His liberal concerns and his appropriation of Germa
which are at the root of his search for strong persona
marked sense of freedom of thought and expression, led
vestigate the life and works of the Marquis of Santillana.
fifteenth-century poet, who, in addition to being a le
was also actively involved in the political life of the ti
to Amador de los Rios a paradigmatic figure in whose act
4There were several histories of literature in translation circulating in

the first half of the nineteenth century, including Frederick Bouterweck
literatura espafola, trans. J. G6mes de la Cortina and N. Hugalde de Moll
I829); andJ. C. L. Simonde de Sismondi, Historia de la literatura espanola,
de Figueroa andJos6 Amador de los Rios (Seville, 1841). In these and othe
one can see how the Spanish translators went to great lengths to try to
foreign author had disregarded or to mitigate the excessively harsh jud
on Renaissance authors accused of pedantry because of their erudition
sit is very likely that J. Michelet, Histoire de la France, 5 vols. (Pari
which covered French history up to the end of the fifteenth century, in
de los Rios to undertake a similar enterprise. The publication of the s
of the Spaniard's Historia crftica de la literatura espanola (Madrid, I861-6
deals with the fifteenth century, coincided with the appearance of Mic
(1862) on the sixteenth century, entitled La renaissance.
revealed the workings of the national spirit at a cruci

Spain's history. As a member of the highest nobility,
bodied the traditional chivalric values and the social re
commensurate with his rank. But what most likely at
dor de los Rios to Santillana was the latter's intellectual endeavors
as well as his openness to the latest trends in learning and ideas.
should be noted that the library assembled by Santillana, whic
Amador de los Rios tried to reconstruct, contained one of the be
collections of classical texts in Europe and a significant number
works by contemporary Italian humanists in either their origin
Latin or in Spanish and Italian translations.
The attention he paid to Santillana and to the century in whic
he lived is a clear indication that Amador de los Rios recognized
this period the beginning of a new era that was to culminate in the
sixteenth century.6 In his reluctance, however, to refer to this pe-
riod as the Renaissance, he was perhaps following Michelet, wh
in those same years reserved the use of this term exclusively for t
sixteenth century. His uncertainty about whether the fifteenth cen
tury represented the beginning of the Renaissance is best illustrate
by his efforts to reevaluate the works of the humanists (he is still
unaware of the newly coined term "humanism") while at the sam
time refusing to recognize their role as promoters of the new era.
This apparent contradiction can be explained by his general concep-
tion of history as a series of stages, somewhat static in natur
wherein the culture of each period is characterized by a differen
manifestation of the national spirit. Within this scheme, the reviva
of learning in the fifteenth century was simply the door, as it were
leading to the true Renaissance. This basic interpretation, with
minor variations, has dominated Spanish Renaissance studies t
this day.
His rehabilitation of fifteenth-century poets, historians, moral-
ists and learned men who up to that time had been described by ro-
mantic literary critics as slaves to fashionable trends coming from
Italy, needed a plausible explanation that would justify their works
6Jos6 Amador de los Rios, Vida del Marques de Santillana, reprinted by Espasa Calpe
(Madrid, 1947), 83-84: "Aquel inextinguible amor al estudio, aquella insaciable sed de
nuevas y mas luminosas ideas que le anim6 toda su vida estableciendo vivos y estrechos
comercios con los pueblos mas cultos de Europa," which "dotaron a Castilla de ina-
preciables tesoros y contribuyeron poderosamente a preparar la venturosa era de Isabel
la Cat6lica, epoca de verdadero renacimiento."
as legitimate expressions of the national spirit. Mindful o

lemic between Spanish and Italian historians that had tak
in the previous century, especially the one between Lamp
Tiraboschi, 7 over which country had fostered a true classic
or "Risorgimento," and believing as well in the Latin nationa
acter or genius of the Spanish people, he explained the r
antiquity in the fifteenth century as the normal manifestat
cultural trait which was not entirely new to Spanish culture
dor de los Rios was influenced by the views of Mme. de S
had divided European civilization into three racial group
with specific cultural characteristics, and who had plac
with France and Italy because of their common Latin herita
Spain's national spirit was shaped by the language and ci
of the Latin group to which it belonged, he argued that it w
natural that a classical revival would reappear from time to
Spanish history, whenever the socio-political circumsta
particular period were favorable. The Latin cultural substrat
fact, had first revealed itself, however dimly, in the thirte
tury during the reign of Alphonse the Wise. It reappeared a
a much more assertive way at the court ofJohn II of Castile
phonse V of Aragon in Naples; and it manifested itself in al
titude during the following century. On the strength of th
ment, Amador de los Rios introduced the Latin and vern
works written at the court of Alphonse V in Naples as an
part of the Spanish cultural world.
In spite of the vast amount of source material with which
umented his history, Amador de los Rios did not propose
scheme regarding the periodization of Spanish history.
cause he did not accept any continuity between the Mid
and the Renaissance of the sixteenth century, he had to place
ture of the fifteenth century within the medieval period. It
to note how the cultural activities at the Aragonese court at
7The polemic started when G. Tiraboschi attributed the decline of Ital

sance culture to the Spanish domination of the country. Saverio Lampilla
these and many other charges in a work written in Italian which is, in effec
history of Spain: Saggio storico-apologetico della letteratura spagnuola contro le
opinioni di alcuni moderni scrittori italiani, 4 vols. (Geneva, 1772-1782). A Sp
lation of this work was published in Zaragoza in 1783. The exchange of lett
ing the controversy between these two scholars is reproduced in G. Tirabo
della letteratura italiana, I vols. (Modena, 1772-1782).
as well as the figure of Alphonse V were interpreted d

Amador de los Rios and Burckhardt, who was writi
imately the same time. If Burckhardt, in The Civilizat
naissance in Italy (I860), views Alphonse V as the pr
Renaissance prince intent on creating "the state as a
Amador de los Rios relegates this patron of famous
the Middle Ages, even while acknowledging his contrib
revival of antiquity.
Due to the work of Amador de los Rios, humanist
"humanism," had finally appeared in the literary histo
They were reintegrated into the literary mainstream
first time, considered an important factor in the unfo
national culture. Convinced that there were two Re
Latin and a vernacular one, each vying for hegemon
los Rios paid as much attention to Latin as to vernacula
opening two lines of further investigation.8 For ou
significance of his work lies in his having establish
logical limits for the Middle Ages and the Renaissan
history, a model that has been accepted by later histor
finished history, which extends only to the end of
century, was taken up years later by a young schol
Menendez y Pelayo, who broadened considerably th
own research by exploring different areas of the R
by focusing on the underlying connections among l
thetics, philosophy, religious ideas, ethics, history and
One of Menendez y Pelayo's earliest studies, indic
of the scholarly orientation he was to take, wa
sixteenth-century humanists written in 1878. His m
was to show that a knowledge of the Spanish literat
Latin during the I 50os is essential for the understand
nacular literature of the time. In this study the ter
was utilized, to my knowledge, for the first time in S
sance studies.9 Menendez y Pelayo used the word e
describe the intellectual movement that promoted t
vival and produced a body of Latin writings in Spai
8Historia, VI, 9-Io.

9Marcelino Men6ndez y Pelayo, "Humanistas espafioles del siglo
in Estudios y discursos de crftica historica y literaria, ed. E. Sanchez Rey
11.3.
explained, the term should not apply solely to the sixteenth

but to the fifteenth century as well, since the use of this cla
guage for literary and historical compositions had also
prevalent at the court ofAlphonse V in Naples and, sometim
at the court of the Catholic Kings. In connection with his de
of humanism he also gave his interpretation of the Renai
the rebirth of forms and ideas of the classical world. I
But this revival of classical antiquity, he cautioned, cannot an
should not be taken literally, for such a cultural phenomenon would
have been historically impossible. There were, in his view, a num
ber of historical factors that affected in a decisive way the outcom
of the classical revival. Christianity and the barbarian invasions, fo
example, were two major conditioning forces that prevented cla
sical culture from being reborn in its pristine form. Equally crucia
in shaping the development of the classical rebirth were the differ
ent cultural traditions and institutions that emerged with the for-
mation of European nations during the Middle Ages.
To Menendez y Pelayo, who saw the Renaissance as an histor
ically identifiable phenomenon, the term itself was a misnomer, be
cause classical civilization had never completely disappeared, esp
cially in countries like Spain and Italy. In twelfth-century Spain, fo
example, even when French influences seemed to dominate Spani
letters, the Latin substratum still survived as a cultural undercu
rent. And when this latent current reemerged in the fifteenth cen
tury, its driving force was characterized by the desire to recove
"the ancient form in all its totality, even in its smallest component
of language and rhythm."I But unlike Amador de los Rios, wh
saw a clearly defined trend toward the restoration of classical a
tiquity from the very beginning of the century, Menendez y Pelay
tended to dismiss these early efforts, attracted as he was by the full
display of the classical revival in the last quarter of the century, dur
ing the reign of the Catholic Kings. Borrowing an expression from
an eighteenth-century scholar, Mayans y Siscar, on whom Mene
dez y Pelayo relied a great deal in many of his works, he chara
terized the Renaissance period as the time when Spaniards final
I°Ibid.: "Por renacimiento entiende todo el mundo la resurrecci6n de las ideas y de

las formas de la antiguedad clasica."
"Ibid., 11.5: "la forma antigua en toda su amplitud, hasta en sus ultimas concre
ciones de lengua y de ritmo."
regained their "critical awareness and stylistic art."

noted that by "critical awareness" Mayans y Siscar
to the humanist attack on scholastic learning, a f
turned into the criterion for marking the end of one
Ages) and the beginning of the other (the Golden Age
which Menendez y Pelayo also stressed, but to a less
never been fully clarified since later historians hav
mized the scope of this issue or dismissed it outrig
Regarding the classical revival of fifteenth-centu
nendez y Pelayo was far more critical than Amado
when it came to associating it with the Renaissance. T
numerous indications of a revival of classical learni
breakdown of the chivalric spirit-part of a general
dissolution of the Middle Ages -he still maintained tha
culture of the period was essentially medieval. He e
any manifestations of new intellectual trends were pa
tation period when all the elements of the national
gether in order to form the "proper and more gran
sance of the sixteenth century.I3 According to
historical continuation, he believed that any period
lectual and artistic expression was necessarily prece
lesser cultural excellence. For these reasons he defined the fifteenth
century as "una especie de p6rtico de nuestro renacimiento" (a kind
of portal to our Renaissance),14 a metaphor in which the impres-
siveness of the entrance is overshadowed by the monumental in-
terior to which it leads. Though Menendez y Pelayo's metaphorical
meaning has been lost on later historians and the portal has been
taken for a mere door, the transitional character it conveyed has
become emblematic of this century.
Menendez y Pelayo's study of sixteenth-century humanists
marked a turning point in Spanish historical thought and literary
criticism. Charting a new course amidst past and present historical
interpretations and literary theories, this youthful essay, strongly
'"Ibid., 11.6: "espfritu critico y arte del estilo." Mayans y Siscar may have learned
about the humanist attack on scholastic learning from Luis Vives, In Pseudodialecticos.
It should be noted that the only edition of Vives' complete works that has ever been
published in Spain is the one prepared by Mayans y Siscar in 1782.
'3Ibid., II. 8: "todos los elementos se determinaron con su propio y grandioso
caracter."
'4Marcelino Men6ndez y Pelayo, Poetas de la corte de Don Juan II (Madrid), I.
resembling a manifesto, contained in a germinal state mo

ideas on the Renaissance. Much of his later works, in fact, ar
to clarify and support with documentary evidence, his origi
derstanding of the Renaissance. For example, his multi-volum
tory of aesthetic ideas in Spain is primarily concerned with
that Spanish literature, especially in the Renaissance, is inde
on certain philosophical considerations regarding the na
beauty in artistic and literary works. But it was also mea
pose certain neoromantic historians who attributed to t
phisticated utterances of primitive bards the true expression
nation's literary genius, while accusing Renaissance authors o
ing buried their artistic creations in dead and worn-out form
of having hindered the normal development of literatu
larly, his extensive investigations into the history of religio
erodoxy in Spain served as a rebuttal to northern Europe
rians who equated the true Renaissance with the Reforma
closer to home, as a defense against the attacks of Neothomi
ultra-conservative intellectuals who viewed Renaissance humanists
as having at best antagonized the Church and at worst as having
practiced all sorts of heresy. His stated purpose, in fact, was to dem
onstrate that in the sixteenth century, the period of most intense re
ligious upheaval, the Latin spirit of the nation, strengthened by the
Renaissance ("vivificado por el renacimiento") was able to immu
nize Spanish society from the contagious disorder of Protestantism
and thus prevent the intrusion of the Reformation, that "offspring
of Teutonic individualism."I5
This exceedingly partisan interpretation of the Renaissance, con
ditioned in many ways by the post-Burckhardtian versions of
tional Renaissances being elaborated in other parts of Europe, w
never seriously questioned and mutatis mutandi set the stage fo
new approach to the study of this period. As we know, the or
inality of Burckhardt's interpretation of the Italian Renaissa
caught the attention of many scholars, some of whom in tur
sought to provide a comparable assessment of that period in th
respective countries. Unable to arrive at a synthesis similar t
Burckhardt's achievement, they had to rely on the kind of rev
I5M. Men6ndez y Pelayo, Historia de los heterodox os espanoles, 2 vols. (Madrid, I9

1.45: "el espiritu latino, vivificado por el Renacimiento, protest6 contra la Reforma
es hija legitima del individualismo teut6nico."
of learning, often associated with religious issu

itself in their particular national tradition. With
text, the religious component that Menendez y P
the discussion of the Spanish Renaissance is no
found, to varying degrees, among historians o
whose interpretation of the Renaissance gave
to the religious concerns of their most distin
Given the outrageous bias of some cultural th
the turn of the century, it is understandable that
tween Catholic and Protestant scholars, begun pr
of the Renaissance and kept alive throughout the
inertia than by fervor, would again flare up with
fueled at this time by nationalistic and ethnic
At issue was the meaning each national cultur
to this crucial period of European history, an
coming increasingly identified with the begin
age. Emphasis on the religious aspect of the R
European countries carried with it certain mor
plications that determined in part the way in
their own cultural revival, a revival that was fun
ent from the Italian model proposed by Burck
son, even the classical rebirth first promoted b
came to be considered a foreign import, main
whose influence played only a secondary role i
the national culture. In Germany, for example, t
seen as the prelude to a more important period a
reduced considerably to the years from the midd
century to the beginning of the Reformation.
Spain, unlike Italy, did not produce a pagan re
but used instead its imperial power to retain a
dieval form of Catholicism (the Counter Refor
it was presumed that its culture remained esse
the basis of this argument, some German histori
would argue that Spain had never experienced
As a reaction to the theories advanced by Pro
who identified the true Renaissance with the Reformation and
even rejected the Italian Renaissance for its paganism, Menen
I6Indicative of this position is V. Klemperer, "Gibt es eine spanische Renaissa

Logos, XVI, 1927.
Pelayo claimed that it was only in sixteenth-century Spain th

true Renaissance took place. The explanation he gave and r
in many of his writings was that only Spanish humanists ha
able to "christianize" the Italian revival of arts and letter
northern humanists, in rejecting the achievements of Ita
manism, had only replaced it with heresy and thus "barb
In denying the existence of a northern European Renaissance
basis that Protestant thinkers, because of their race and cult
ditions could not understand Italian humanism and the lessons it
had to offer, Menendez y Pelayo was even critical of Erasmus and
of "Erasmism," a word he coined to describe a certain spiritual
movement, heterodox in nature, that spread among Erasmus' fol-
lowers in early sixteenth-century Spain.
Despite his biased interpretation of the northern Renaissance and
derogatory assessment of Erasmus' works, Menendez y Pelayo
should at least be credited with analyzing the development of spir-
ituality as only one aspect of Renaissance humanism in Spain, a dis-
tinction which later Spanish critics and historians at times blurred,
confusing humanism with religious feelings and practices of wor-
ship. By the turn of the century, as the idea of a Christian human-
ism, whether Catholic or Protestant, gained acceptance among Eu-
ropean historians and Erasmus came to be seen as its most articulate
representative, Spanish intellectuals began to search for historical
causes that would explain the present political and intellectual crisis.
They identified the origin of their immediate problems, among
other factors, in the attempts at religious renovation and in the re-
pressive measures which frustrated Erasmian humanism in the six-
teenth century. The growing interest in Erasmus and, by exten-
sion, in the Christian humanism of northern Europe prompted
Adolfo Bonilla y San Martin to write a history of Erasmus' influ-
ence in Spain. 7 The study, published in 1907, can be considered the
forerunner of the more exhaustive investigation that a generation
later was undertaken by Marcel Bataillon. With Bonilla y San Mar-
tin, who called the presence of Erasmus in Spain another "another
chapter in the history of the Renaissance," the Christian aspect of
the intellectual activities of this period became the object of re-
newed attention. But it was only in 1937, with Marcel Bataillon's
I7Adolfo Bonilla y San Martin, "Erasmo en Espafia (Episodio de la historia del

Renacimiento)," Revue Hispanique 17 (1907): 379-548.
publication of his extensive investigations on th

fusion of Erasmus' works in Spain during th
that Erasmus took center stage in Spanish R
to the point that today there is hardly any wr
of letters "worth his salt" who has not been called at one time or
another an "Erasmist."I8
The influence of northern European historians in Spain at the b
ginning of this century was much more pervasive than one wo
suspect. Even in terms of periodization we find, for example, t
Bonilla y San Martin tried to reconcile the short-lived Renaissa
of the German historians with the chronological interpretatio
of the Spanish Golden Age tradition. In his study of Fernando
C6rdoba, a fifteenth-century schoolman whose works are a strang
mixture of scholastic and Renaissance elements, Bonilla y
Martin accepted the beginning of the Renaissance as the middle
the fifteenth century, but extended its duration from 1517 (the b
ginning of the Reformation) to an arbitrary I 5 50.19 His eclectic
often contradictory views reflected a vast array of sources rangin
from Voltaire and Vico to late nineteenth-century German a
French historians, including as well Menendez y Pelayo and a vagu
notion of the "revolt of the medievalists" against the Burckhardti
tradition.
For over half a century no new interpretations of the Renaissan
were advanced, even though there was a slight increase in the num
ber of studies on particular humanists and Renaissance autho
What is remarkable is that during the years in which the conc
of the Renaissance was undergoing a radical revision by histori
of the Middle Ages, none of the extreme interpretations that wer
then being proposed had any significant influence on medieval
Renaissance studies in Spain. This was due primarily to two dee
rooted assumptions which had remained constant in Spanish h
toriography: a consensus that strains of medieval culture survi
through the Renaissance and a firm belief in the idea of a Gold
Age mitigating any revisionist claim that would undermine t
original character of the period. The only trace left by the mediev
ists' revolt that can even vaguely be related to a new understandin
'8Marcel Bataillon, Erasme et l'Espagne (Madrid, I937).

I9Adolfo Bonilla y San Martin, Fernando de Cordoba (1423?-1486?) y los origenes
Renacimiento filos6fico en Espafa. Episodio de la historia de la logica (Madrid, I9II),
of Renaissance humanism in Spain is the brief attenti

paid to the topic of "arms and letters." The social and
ality underlying this recurrent motif in fifteenth- and s
century writings was later turned into an embryonic int
of humanism. The theme of "arms and letters" was first discussed
by Americo Castro as one of the elements of the Spanish Renais
sance utilized by Cervantes.20 It was meant to show that the issu
dramatized by Cervantes originated in the social world of fifteenth
century men of letters who first became aware of the value of ed-
ucation as a means to social mobility. Though Castro, to my
knowledge, never returned to this topic in his later writings, th
"civic" humanistic dimension of the issue was further explored b
Jose Antonio Maravall, a young scholar who was to become one
of the major historians of post-war Spain.
Though Maravall's book on the "humanismo de las armas" in
Cervantes' Quijote, published in 1948,21 appeared in the guise of
literary analysis, it was really an essay on the intellectual life of th
Spanish Golden Age. His aim was to demonstrate how, through
this popular work, one could perceive the major currents o
thought operating within the society of the time. The term human
ism, used in the title in a generic sense, was in fact a synthesis o
the main interpretations circulating in Spain during the first part
this century. Maravall understood humanism in its broadest sens
as a movement that combined the spiritual, moral, social, politic
and even economic preoccupations of sixteenth-century thinkers
Their spirituality was not learned solely from the pages of Erasmus
for it derived also from the spiritual currents of the Spanish Middl
Ages. Their humanism was revealed in a yearning for personal r
form that would extend to society and, ultimately, to the state
Forced to live in an empire with aspirations alien to their own, they
longed for a Golden Age, a kind of political utopia which looke
both to the past and to the future.
Maravall's concept of humanism is not strictly related to the re-
vival of classical antiquity, for such a revival, though important
was incidental to the real concerns of the people of the sixteent
20Am6rico Castro, El pensamiento de Cervantes (Barcelona-Madrid, new ed., 1972),

215-I9.
"1Jose Antonio Maravall, El humanismo de las armas en Don Quijote. Pro
Menendez Pidal (Madrid, 1948).
century. Regarding his concept of the Renaissance, h

vinced that the period had been misunderstood by th
lieved that it represented a break with the Middle Ages.
in Maravall's mind, is a way of looking at something
and different point of view. Hence his belief in an unden
tinuity that linked the culture of the so-called Renais
Middle Ages.
Many of Maravall's early views developed along different lines
as he joined the ongoing discussion on the question of Renaissance
and humanism, a subject to which he returned many times and
explored at great length. His views were often controversial but
always stimulating. Those works in which he deals with the prob-
lem of the Renaissance deserve a more detailed examination.
In recent decades other studies have appeared that have made sig
nificant contributions to the field of Renaissance humanism. At a
later date, I hope to review these works, together with those
Maravall that I have not touched on here.
GRADUATE CENTER
CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

Humanismo en España. Revisión Crítica. Di Camillo

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Humanismo en España. Revisión Crítica. Di Camillo

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Interpretations of the Renaissance in Spanish Historical Thought

Author(s): Ottavio Di Camillo

Renaissance Society of America, Cambridge University Press are collaborating with

T HERE ARE SEVERAL REASONS for presenting an overview of what

were widely acknowledged.I The idea that a cultural r

'With the exception, perhaps, of Italy, nowhere in Europe was the

learning or with any form of erudition, from the fiftee

4There were several histories of literature in translation circulating in

revealed the workings of the national spirit at a cruci

as legitimate expressions of the national spirit. Mindful o

7The polemic started when G. Tiraboschi attributed the decline of Ital

as well as the figure of Alphonse V were interpreted d

8Historia, VI, 9-Io.

explained, the term should not apply solely to the sixteenth

I°Ibid.: "Por renacimiento entiende todo el mundo la resurrecci6n de las ideas y de

regained their "critical awareness and stylistic art."

resembling a manifesto, contained in a germinal state mo

I5M. Men6ndez y Pelayo, Historia de los heterodox os espanoles, 2 vols. (Madrid, I9

of learning, often associated with religious issu

I6Indicative of this position is V. Klemperer, "Gibt es eine spanische Renaissa

Pelayo claimed that it was only in sixteenth-century Spain th

I7Adolfo Bonilla y San Martin, "Erasmo en Espafia (Episodio de la historia del

publication of his extensive investigations on th

'8Marcel Bataillon, Erasme et l'Espagne (Madrid, I937).

of Renaissance humanism in Spain is the brief attenti

20Am6rico Castro, El pensamiento de Cervantes (Barcelona-Madrid, new ed., 1972),

century. Regarding his concept of the Renaissance, h

CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

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