The Master's thesis examines the influence of the Italian humanist and jurist Andrea Alciato's Emblematum liber (1531) –one of the biggest and most recognisable bestsellers of its time and a corner stone of the emblematic genre– on the Iberian Peninsula, particularly Spain. The opening chapter, devoted to the ambiguous and still unknown initial conception of the work and the innovations of the first printed editions that ensured its dissemination throughout German, French and Italian lands, thus through an analysis of the first Spanish translation moves on to the still poorly researched appearance of the Emblemata in the far west of the Continent. Based on our research regarding the first attested copies the key role was played by the familial-business links of the non-native printers and booksellers settled there. Meanwhile, in the case of the earliest echoes of a literary and artistic nature, it is the generation of students from the University of Salamanca whose works, primarily of a didactic and/or moral nature, introduce us to the second half of the thesis. The latter is largely devoted to outlining the development of Spanish emblematics – heralded by the first scholarly commentaries on Alciato's motifs, but quickly and markedly subordinated to the socio-political and economic situation of the kingdom – which reached its peak in the middle of the 17th century. Although, in addition to the references and reworkings present there, the Emblematum liber was also preserved in other works of an instructive type, including the allegorical novel El Criticón (1651–1657) by Baltasar Gracián, one of the greatest authors of Spanish Baroque prose.
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