From ‘Marranos’ to ‘Unbelievers’: The Spanish Peccadillo in Sixteenth-Century Italy

Abstract

‘Alla Spagna le armi, all’Italia le lettere’ (‘Arms for Spain and Letters for Italy’): On one side, a rough and warlike Spain, on the other, a languid post-Renaissance Italy. A glance at the titles of the numerous studies on the relations between Italy and Spain, or on the effect of the Spanish presence in Italy under Charles V (r. 1519–1556) and Philip II (r. 1556–1598) — that have swelled due to the centenary celebrations that have flooded Italian and Spanish scholarship in both history and cultural studies over the past decade — ¹ is sufficient to confirm that, when all is said and done, we have not moved far from this intriguing simplification, first concocted by Gran Capitán González de Córdoba (1453–1515). According to this simplified view, Italy remained a haven of art, literature and culture, of a Renaissance whose brilliance was perhaps clouded but which still possessed a certain measure of cultural hegemony. Spain, on the other hand, was the great, rising Empire but was kept in an unequivocal relationship of cultural subjection which contrasted with its political and military supremacy. It was thus a case of politics and military prowess versus culture, but at the same time that of an empire that was expanding and gaining legitimacy in the shadow of the Papacy. The Catholic Church thus became the common factor that was bringing Italy and Spain closer together. Although this is a somewhat crude simplification of the scholarly consensus, I believe that this particular formula has held sway in historical studies, from Benedetto Croce’s early treatment of the subject through to Thomas Dandelet’s latest depiction of Italian-Spanish relations in the early modern era.²