Garcilaso de la Vega and the Material Culture of Renaissance Europe

‘A vibrant, truly scholarly study that deserves pride of place in any collection (library or personal)… Essential.’

K.M Sibbald, Choice Magazine vol 52:12:2015

‘Barnard’s studies of Garcilaso’s Naples period are excellent approaches to his politics and his representations of emotional states…. Barnard’s book is worthy of careful attention of anyone interested in Renaissance verse.’

Eric Clifford Graf, Renaissance Quarterly vol 69:01:2016

‘Barnard’s book will prove to be of great interest and benefit to students of early modern poetry by offering a timely exploration of how objects allow a poetic speaker to constitute himself as a subject.’

Felipe Valencia, Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literature vol 71:02:2017

‘This book is an articulate and well-informed view of the poems that defined Garcilaso… Barnard’s sophisticated interpretations make an important contribution to our understanding of an author not coincidentally dubbed ‘principe de los peotas españoles.’

Antonio J. Arraiza Rivera, Bulletin of Spanish Studies vol 94:2017

“Garcilaso de la Vega was highly attuned to the material presence of things, and in his Neapolitan poems he wrote on a variety of items such as tapestries, paintings, urns, statues, musical instruments, and weapons as powerful carriers of culture. Barnard offers an original and sophisticated view of the nexus between object, text, and memory where even the body becomes a material site of inquiry, as a space for the investigation of melancholia as much as a celebration of earthly pleasures.  This is a magisterial take on Garcilaso’s exploration of the psychology of the self, on his engagement with cultural heritage, and on the interplay between orality and writing, and a timely intervention that connects his worldview with some of our most pressing concerns and fascinations with objects.”

Enrique Garcia Santo-Tomas, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan

“Mary E. Barnard’s book is a lively and original study of the presence and interplay of artifacts in Garcilaso de la Vega’s poetic texts. It is a welcome and timely contribution to our understanding of material culture in the Renaissance.”

Maria Cristina Quintero, Department of Spanish, Bryn Mawr College