Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the social and economic pre-conditions for the development of an intellectual and cultural elite in the unique urban environment of sixteenth-century Seville, by comparing it to other Renaissance Spanish and European merchant cities.

Paper long abstract:

Although sixteenth-century Seville is principally remembered today as a center of trade and commerce, this paper argues that it should also be considered as a space of knowledge and culture, perhaps one of the greatest and largest of the Spanish monarchy, rivalling even the court of Madrid as a center of power and patronage thanks to the spectacular influx of New World. It will do so by examining and comparing the socio-economic foundations of intellectual and cultural elites, as well as the material, political, institutional and even technological pre-conditions for the development of learning in merchant cities, both within in Spain (Valencia) and elsewhere in Europe (Lyon, Antwerp, Florence and Venice).