Italian Literature in the Hispanic World during the Early Modern Period (Seville and Mexico City)

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the authors (Italian or Spanish) and their work, also on their audience, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the impact of Italian influences on Spanish culture in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Ambrogio Calepino , as the book was known, was the most popular multilingual dictionary of the age, and according to our findings also the most commonly used in Seville and Mexico. The influence of Giovanni Boccaccio's prose was equally relevant. The investigation has shown that Italian literature was not consumed by women in the Hispanic world, not even when the works were dedicated to or directed at women. The libraries under study have shown the considerable impact of Italian culture in Seville and Mexico, demonstrating that the literary culture of the New World was similar to that of the metropolis, with some interesting qualifications. Keywords: Ambrogio Calepino ; Giovanni Boccaccio; Hispanic world; Italian literature; literary culture; Mexico; Seville