Research bibliography

Not everything here was read it in its entirety, some things were read long before the Sea Beyond was a glimmer on our literary horizon, and some sources wound up being extremely tangential to the final product, but here — as complete as we can make it — is the record of what works influenced our fiction!

Spanish history and life

  • James M. Anderson, Daily Life During the Spanish Inquisition
  • Marcelin Defourneaux, Daily Life in Spain in the Golden Age
  • Robert Goodwin, Spain: The Centre of the World 1519-1682
  • H. Kamen, Golden Age Spain
  • Enrique Martínez Ruiz, Fiesta y tragedia: Vivir y morir in la España del Siglo de Oro
  • Hugh Thomas, World Without End: The Global Empire of Philip II
  • Giles Tremlett, España: A Brief History of Spain

Valencia and Valencian history

  • Robert Ignatius Burns, The Crusader Kingdom of Valencia: Reconstruction on a Thirteenth-Century Frontier
  • Robert Ignatius Burns, Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Crusader Kingdom of Valencia: Societies in Symbiosis
  • Robert Ignatius Burns, Islam Under the Crusaders: Colonial Survival in the Thirteenth-Century Kingdom of Valencia
  • Pablo Cisneros Álvarez, Curiosidades de València: Descubriendo una nueva ciudad paso a paso
  • Pablo Cisneros, La Valencia del XVII: La vida en Valencia de 1600. Costumbres, tradiciones y vivencias.
  • Michael Eaude, Sails and Winds: A Cultural History of Valencia
  • Richard Ford, A Handbook for Travelers in Spain
  • Rose Macaulay, Fabled Shore

Religion and religious orders

  • Henry Chadwick, Priscillian of Avila: The Occult and the Charismatic in the Early Church
  • William A. Christian, Jr., Local Religion in Sixteenth-Century Spain
  • Alan Forey, The Military Orders from the Twelfth to the Early Fourteenth Centuries
  • Juan García Atienza, trans. Federico E. Rodriguez Guerra, The Knights Templar in the Golden Age of Spain [note: this book turns out to use the term “Golden Age” rather differently than most histories do — the Templars being long gone by the usual Siglo de Oro; also, it was not a very good book]
  • Stephen McKenna, Paganism and Pagan Survivals in Spain up to the Fall of the Visigothic Kingdom
  • Elizabeth Rapley, The Lord as Their Portion: The Story of the Religious Orders and How They Shaped Our World
  • Teresa de Ávila, trans. David Lewis, The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, of the Order of Our Lady of Carmel

The Inquisition

  • Joseph Pérez, trans. Janet Lloyd, The Spanish Inquisition
  • Richard L. Kagan and Abigail Dyer, eds. and trans., Inquisitorial Inquiries: Brief Lives of Secret Jews and Other Heretics
  • Stephen Haliczer, Inquisition and Society in the Kingdom of Valencia 1478-1834

Folklore and esotericism

  • John Eberly, Al-Kimia: The Mystical Islamic Essence of the Sacred Art of Alchemy
  • David Hernández de la Fuente, Pequeña historia mítica de España: Mitos, figuras, y arquetipos
  • Charles Sellers, Tales from the Lands of Nuts and Grapes: Spanish and Portuguese Folklore
  • Robert Lebling, Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinns and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar

Marginalized groups

  • Barbara Fuchs, Exotic Nation: Maurophilia and the Construction of Early Modern Spain
  • L.P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain: 1500 to 1614
  • David Martín Sánchez, Historia del pueblo gitano en España
  • Konstantin Mierau, Capturing the Pícaro in Words: Literary and Institutional Representations of Marginal Communities in Early Modern Madrid
  • Mary Elizabeth Perry, The Handless Maiden: Moriscos and the Politics of Religion in Early Modern Spain
  • Zion Zohar, ed., Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry from the Golden Age of Spain to Modern Times

Women and gender

  • Melveena McKendrick, Woman and Society in the Spanish Drama of the Golden Age: A Study of the Mujer Varonil
  • Helen Nader, ed., Power and Gender in Renaissance Spain: Eight Women of the Mendoza Family, 1450-1650
  • Mary Elizabeth Perry, Gender and Disorder in Early Modern Seville
  • Magdalena S. Sánchez and Alain Saint-Saëns, eds., Spanish Women in the Golden Age: Images and Realities
  • Lisa Vollendorf, The Lives of Women: A New History of Inquisitional Spain

Biographies

  • Geoffrey Parker, Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II
  • Michele Stepto and Gabriel Stepto, trans., Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World: Catalina de Erauso
  • Patrick Williams, The Great Favourite: The Duke of Lerma and the court and government of Philip III of Spain, 1598-1621

Academia and scholarship

  • Richard L. Kagan, Students and Society in Early Modern Spain
  • H. de Ridder-Symoens (volume) and Walter Rüegg (series) ed., A History of the University in Europe, Vol. II: Universities in Early Modern Europe (1500-1800)
  • Luis Enrique Rodriguez-San Pedro Bezares, trans. J. David González-Iglesias González, The University of Salamanca from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance: 1218-1516/29: Historical Aspects, Power and Knowledge

Cosmography and cartography

  • María M. Portuondo, Secret Science: Spanish Cosmography and the New World
  • Norman J.W. Thrower, Maps and Civilization: Cartography in Culture and Society

Mythical islands

  • Donald S. Johnson, Phantom Islands of the Atlantic: Legends of Seven Lands That Never Were
  • Judyth A. McLeod, The Atlas of Legendary Lands: Fabled Kingdoms, Phantom Islands, Lost Continents and Other Mythical Worlds
  • Plato, trans. Benjamin Jowett, Critias
  • Plato, trans. Benjamin Jowett, Timaeus
  • Malachy Tallack, ill. Katie Scott, The Un-Discovered Islands: An Archipelago of Myths and Mysteries, Phantoms and Fakes

Seafaring

  • Robert Gardiner, ed., Cogs, Caravels, and Galleons: The Sailing Ship 1000-1650
  • John F. Guilmartin, Jr., Galleons and Galleys
  • Pablo E. Pérez-Mallaína, trans. Carla Rahn Phillips, Spain’s Men of the Sea: Daily Life on the Indies Fleets in the Sixteenth Century

Other topics

  • Jodi Campbell, At the First Table: Food and Society in Early Modern Spain
  • Elizabeth Hickman Du Bois, The Hundred Riddles of Symphosius
  • Esther Fernández, To Embody the Marvelous: The Making of Illusions in Early Modern Spain
  • Antonio Feros, Speaking of Spain: The Evolution of Race and Nation in the Hispanic World
  • Jeremy Robbins, Incomparable Realms: Spain During the Golden Age, 1500-1700
  • Scott K. Taylor, Honor and Violence in Golden Age Spain

Period literature

  • Anonymous, trans. anonymous, The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Fortunes and Adversities
  • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, trans. John Ormsby, Don Quixote
  • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, trans. Mariano J. Lorente, “Rinconete y Cortadillo”
  • Ausias March, ed. and trans. Arthur Terry, Selected Poems