Although the Spanish Inquisition looms large in many conceptions of the early modern Hispanic world, relatively few studies have been made of the Spanish state and Inquisitionâs approach to book censorship in the seventeenth century. Merging archival and rare book research with a case study of the fiction of Baltasar Gracián, this book argues that privileged authors, like the Jesuit Gracián, circumvented publication strictures that were meant to ensure that printed materials conformed to the standards of Catholicism and supported the goals of the absolute monarchy. In contrast to some elite authors who composed readily transparent critiques of authorities and encountered difficulties with the state and Inquisition, others, like Gracián, made their criticisms covertly in complicated texts like El Criticón.
Patricia W. Manning (Ph.D., Yale University, 2000) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Kansas. She has published articles on a number of topics in seventeenth-century Spanish literature and culture.
Acknowledgements
A Note on Translations
Glossary
Episodes of El Critcon Mentioned in the Text
Introduction
1. Policing Printed Matter
2. (Not) Enforcing the Indices
3. Discordant Voices in the Inquisition
4. Sending Mixed Signals: Gracian and the Didactic Tradition
5. Landing on la isla de la Inmortalidad
6. The Reader's Journey
7. The Jesuit Subtext
Conclusion
Works Cited
Index
All those interested in the Spanish Inquisition, the history of censorship, seventeenth-century Spain, the Society of Jesus, Spanish literature and Baltasar Gracián.