Abstract
Renaissance epic poetry has traditionally been regarded as a highly learned and aristocratic genre. The present essay, however, explores the relation between the emergence and success of the Hispanic epic by the second half of the sixteenth century and the social and cultural practices of a very specific socioprofessional group: the plebeian and hidalgo soldiery of Charles V's and Philip II's imperial armies. In contrast with the Italian romance and Spanish chivalric literature, as literary practices associated with the nobility of European aristocratic courts, epic will be the discourse of the professional soldiers ( soldados pláticos ) of the Habsburg military corporation, a social group articulated around the practices and spaces derived from the Renaissance's military revolution. Furthermore, the new epic will be shaped by a set of specific printing practices entailing important consequences for the distribution and reading of epic prints.
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