Lope de Vega and the Meanings of Book Ownership

Abstract

Lope de Vega’s late poem «Ayer vi la librería» appears at first sight to be a laudatory description of King Felipe IV’s personal library. Upon close inspection, and within the broader context of book history in Spain, the poem brings to light a quiet ambivalence about book ownership. This is related at once to Lope’s own disappointments with the Monarchy and the contradictory attitudes to the functions of books in Spain in the XVIIth century.