“La correspondencia con los que escriben la Historia destos tiempos”: the Spanish Monarchy and historiographical production between Castile and Italy (1630-1661)

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse how the ministers of Philip IV's monarchy related to the writing of history books. The obsession with history writing - widely shared at the European level - stemmed from the desire to monitor the flow of information, both in the form of notices and gazettes and in manuscripts and printed works, which were considered an important vehicle for cultural and political propaganda. The interest of Philip IV's ministers in the study of the past was not matched by an investment of resources, both material and immaterial, capable of competing with the ability of the French court to establish effective and solid links with the most successful Italian historians of the time. Unable to count on famous authors willing to write about recent events from a perspective favourable to the Monarchy, the Catholic king's ministers ended up intensifying censorship practices in the Iberian Peninsula.