Portugal in the Works of Bartolomé Jiménez Patón (1569-1640)

Abstract

Throughout his works, Bartolomé Jiménez Patón mentions Portugal and some of its writers on a number of occasions. In the books that have been recovered of his Comentarios de erudición (1621), he cites authors such as Fernando López de Castañeda or Joao de Barros, who are associated with the popular vogue of the period for portentous works, of which the Spanish Humanist was so fond of. A large number of his commentaries concerning Portugal center on justifying dynastic unity, based on his interpretation of the history of Gregorio López Madera, who he admired so much, which has as its background the image of Hispania. To a certain extent, the new government of Olivares would try to carry out this policy. Of no less interest is his description of the city of Lisbon in which he presents the idea of ‘exemplariness’, a notion he has in common with other descriptions by Mateo Alemán, Cervantes or Tirso, although in Patón’s, such exemplariness appears in contrast with the picturesque depiction of the rogues of the Rua Nova.