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Abstract
This dissertation reconsiders how ancient Greek was studiedand how its study was portrayedamong Spanish humanist authors ranging from the mid-fifteenth century to the early seventeenth. In previous scholarship on Greek studies in early modern Western Europe, Spains Hellenist legacy has frequently been overlooked; a narrative emphasizing certain historical limitations on Spanish humanists access to Greek has dominated scholarly discussion of Spain and this key area of Renaissance humanism. The present study, however, will argue that these very limitations forced Spanish humanists to develop creative textual strategiesoften virtuosic displays of rhetorical misdirectionto convince readers that, despite these factors, they were both capable and consummate Hellenists. This project will consist of three case studies: (1) the poet Juan de Mena (14111456) and his 1444 text the Omero romanado, a purported translation of Homers epic in reality based on the Latin epitome known as the Ilias Latinaa fact that Mena cleverly spins to his advantage; (2) the grammarian Pedro Simn Abril (15301595) and his 1585 Gramtica de la lengua griega escrita en lengua castellana, the first Castilian-language grammar of Greek that outlines a radical pedagogical platform designed to correct Spains international reputation for deficient Greek studies; and (3) Francisco de Quevedo (15801645) and two of his Greek-related projects, the first his 1609 translation of the Anacreontic corpus, the Anacren Castellano, famously lampooned by Luis de Gngora, in which the poet self-consciously presents himself as a philologist on par with prominent international Hellenists, the second his encomiastic prologue to his Hellenist colleague Vicente Mariners translation of Julians In regem solem ad Salustium Panegyricus and Mariners revealing praise of Quevedos Hellenism in the same work. Analysis of these contexts will show that, precisely because of the limitations facing its Hellenists, Spain, rather than being a dead end in the historical narrative of ancient Greeks spread in the Western European Renaissance, represents an ideal test-case in which to examine Greek studies as a tool for self-presentation and as an international signifier of humanist status.