[Recibido: 01-09-2014 /Aceptado: 06-10-2014] http://dx.doi.org/10.5209/rev_INGE.2014.v8.47758 114 Como ‘si se conversase con los muertos’. La prudencia y su centralidad en la confección de la historia durante el siglo XVII

Abstract

This paper addresses the significance of prudence as a fundamental historiographical concept at the beginning of 17th century in Spain. Making the attempt to explain the influence and repercusions imposed by the cult of prudence in History, I will show in the work of two authors, Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas and Luis Cabrera de Córdova, both of them historians and courtiers of King Philip III, how methodological outlines and points of view were introduced into the discourse. By doing so, I finally describe the rhetorical, pragmatical and epistemological basis of this particular conception of history and, last but not least, its supposed utility as an intellectual tool for decision making of military and statesmen.