The Cavana Family. Family, Economic, and Noble Networks in the Life and Work of Agustín Moreto y Cavana

Abstract

The ultimate aim of this study is to initiate a series of investigations that will make it possible to unravel the family, economic, and noble networks of the family of the writer Agustín Moreto y Cavana. The starting point is the individuals mentioned in his father’s will of 1626, with the ultimate intention of determining their scope and influence in his life and in his dramatic production. This study analyzes the Genoese Cavana family (merchants and financiers), the most prominent in the will, and documents the individuals cited, grouped according to mercantile, financial (asentistas), noble (primarily of Ebolist origin), or military networks. A transcription of this interesting document is provided as an appendix so that it may be of use both to scholars of the author and to those interested in the Early Modern period. In the transcription and in the citation of all early texts, current philological methodology has been applied; spelling has been modernized–within the limits of phonetics–as has punctuation.