Incomparable Realms: Spain during the Golden Age, 15001700

(Hardback)

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Incomparable Realms offers a vision of Spanish culture and society during the Golden Age, the period from 1500 to 1700 when Spain unexpectedly rose to become the dominant European power.

But in what ways was this a 'Golden Age', and for whom

The relationship between the Habsburg monarchy and the Church shaped the period, with both constructing narratives to bind Spanish society together. Incomparable Realms unpicks the impact of these on thought and culture, and examines the people and perspectives such powerful projections sought to eradicate.

The book shows that the tension between the heavenly and earthly realms, and in particular the struggle between the spiritual and the corporeal, defines Golden Age culture. In art and literature, mystical theology and moral polemic, ideology, doctrine and everyday life, the problematic pull of the body and of the material world is the unacknowledged force behind early modern Spain. Life is a dream, as the title of Calderon's famous play of the period proclaimed, but there is always a body dreaming it.

Reviews

"The book offers a superb introduction to a period of imperial brutality. . . Handsomely illustrated with color reproductions of stunning works. Incomparable Realms is a testament to the imbrication and the incommensurability of the earthly and sublime."-- "Times Literary Supplement"

Author Bio

Jeremy Robbins is Forbes Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Edinburgh, and his books include Arts of Perception: The Epistemological Mentality of the Spanish Baroque, 1580-1720 (2007).