BIBLIOPHILE CONSEQUENCES OF THE EMBASSIES BETWEEN SPAIN AND IRAN IN THE 17TH CENTURY

Abstract

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, an unusual number of books were published that had  as their object the trip to the East and the political analysis of that and other territories. These publications were given in the context of the Hispanic Monarchy and are good evidence of the interest in those lands and the political importance that still maintained a structure in decline.

Some of these texts are a direct consequence of the important movement of embassies that occurred between Spain and Iran in a few years, but others respond to a broader vision and to more global interests. The success of these texts was uneven, but it is not an exaggeration to speak of the significant importance of several of them. Some of the studies or narrations became bibliophile material because of the relevance of the book but also because of its almost total ignorance, so we can talk about hidden gems in private libraries that delighted a few until they were published, some of them centuries later of his writing.

The mere enumeration of these books, concentrated in a few years, surprises, and their texts form a corpus of knowledge about Iran or about the world that was being explored in those years (European vision) that was relevant for a long period of time.