| Set within the context of the exceptional economic expansion fostered by the opening of the American trade in 1503 and the urban renewal that soon followed, this dissertation studies the formation process of a cultural elite that occurred in Seville over the sixteenth century. It argues for the emergence of a culture specific to early modern Seville, one that resulted from the presence and interaction of immigrants, merchants, artisans, clerics, and nobles within the city. Therefore, the first aim of this dissertation is to examine the social origins and social network of local men of letters in order to understand how and where they fit in the city's social fabric. Secondly, it focuses on the series of textual and patronage strategies worked out by a group of poets, scholars, and erudites, in the hope of achieving recognition and acquiring authority within the Spanish republic of letters, on an individual as well as collective level. Finally, it explores the intellectual practices of Seville's learned elite and the manner in which these contributed to fashion the image of a tightly-knit community and enhance its legitimacy. Another underlying theme of this dissertation is the ambiguous relationship Sevillian literati maintained with the court of Madrid and the University of Salamanca, at once attracted by their prestige and power and anxious to have their own city recognized as a center of culture and learning. Thus, by paying attention to the construction of its identity and its self-representation in print or manuscript, the example of Seville's cultural elite offers an insight into the rise of lettered groups in urban centers of early modern Europe, most notably merchant cities. |
