Text as Topos in Religious Literature of the Spanish Golden Age

The central component of this study is an index of the numerous motifs through which topoi of the text as symbol are articulated in the religious poetry, sermons, and sacramental plays of Golden Age Spain. Paired with the index is an anthology of the texts on which the book is based. In her introduction, Louise Salstad discusses the transmission and transformation of the topoi as they appear in the Old and New Testaments, classical literature, church writings, and medieval texts, and she considers the influence of the contemporary milieu on the shaping of these motifs. The book also includes an explanatory introduction to the index, biographical notes on authors, a chronology of works, a bibliography, and key word indexes of motifs in English and Spanish. The most extensive investigation of specific topoi undertaken in Spanish studies, this book will also be of interest to art historians and cultural historians whose focus is theology, the history of spirituality, and the history of the book.