Libros de viajes. A study of Castilian travel accounts from the 15th century on the eve of the great geographical discoveries

Abstract

At the beginning of the 15th century, Castile, like other countries located on the Iberian Peninsula, was struggling with a range of internal problems. Before it reached - together with Aragon - greatness as the Monarchy of the Catholic Kings, it had already taken an active interest in far-away lands, and its representatives made distant journeys, which they described in detail in their travel accounts. Over the course of the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain became a great power both externally and internally, and this period is often called the Golden Ages (siglos de oro) of Spanish literature. This was undoubtedly the period in which literature written on the Iberian Peninsula itself reached its highest level of excellence. Moreover, some literary genres, especially historiography and accounts of travels, conquests, and discoveries, became a tool of Charles V’s and Philip II’s official propaganda: they glorified their empire and passed on the message of Spain’s special role in the world and the greatness of its discoveries and conquests. Against this background, the article discusses the role and history of the publication of two fifteenth-century Castilian travel accounts, or libros de viajes, which report the expeditions of Ruy González de Clavijo and Pero Tafur. Their narratives were key elements of the image Spanish rulers crafted for themselves during both the Habsburg dynasty of the 16th and 17th centuries and the Bourbon dynasty of the 19th century.