History of the Book Group talk: Juan de Mariana's 'History of Spain', from Madrid to Merton and beyond

Speaker: Professor David Hook, Faculty of Medieval & Modern Languages, Oxford.

The Spanish Jesuit theologian Juan de Mariana (1536-1624) had a mixed reputation even during his lifetime, with controversy being provoked by aspects of his historical and his political-moral writings alike. This session concentrated on his History of Spain, first printed in Latin (1592) and later translated into Spanish; Merton College Library has copies of two early editions of, one in Latin (Toledo 1592) and the other in Spanish (Madrid 1650), and the text is well represented elsewhere in Oxford libraries. Mariana’s work has an interesting history of reprinting, translation, and adaptation which was reviewed briefly here.

Attendees had an opportunity to view the Merton copies of works by Juan de Mariana.