ABSTRACT
A marked rise in translation activity coincided unsurprisingly with the Prince of Wales' sojourn in Madrid. 1623 was a bumper year for language learning material, from grammars to dialogues and English-Spanish dictionaries. The 1599 dictionary and grammar were augmented reeditions of an earlier text by Richard Percivall from 1591, the Bibliothecae Hispanicae Pars Altera. By enshrining words in sententious phrases, it proposed to revolutionise vocabulary acquisition, dominated according to the author up until this time by rote learning from dictionaries. In addition to the explosion of Spanish language learning material, a significant number of devotional and religious books aimed at Engand's recusant population appeared, printed both in London and at Catholic presses on the continent. Cesar Oudin had been the royal secretary and interpreter of foreign languages to the King of France and was almost certainly a spy.
