La idea de nobleza en Castilla durante el reinado de Felipe II

This is undoubtedly a work of great interest. JAGB’s book is a text of remarkable historiographic value, since it deals with the first time that the grounds underlying the concept of nobility were truly examined in sixteenth-century Castile. La idea de nobleza en Castilla en tiempos de Filipe II [The idea of nobility in Castile in the time of Filipe II] is centered upon the conceptual analysis of two concrete texts, one by Francisco Miranda Villafañe and the other by Juan Benito Guardiola, whose works—published in 1582 and 1591, respectively—belong to the context of the profound changes affecting the mentality of noble families. The large number of authors writing treatises on this subject highlights the importance that the discourse legitimizing the nobility as a privileged group had at that time. Names such as Furio Ceriol, Frei Antonio de Guevara, Pedro de Rivadeneyra, Francisco de Gurrea, Juan de Mariana, Juan García, Arce de Otálora, López Madera, Bernabé Moreno de Vargas, Mendoza Bobadilla, Gerónimo de Gudiel, López de Montoya, López de Vega and Gutiérrez de los Ríos represent just a small selection of authors whose works are dedicated to the study of the noble and his place in society during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.