ABSTRACT
As evidenced by historical theorists’ sophisticated precepts of historiographical style, literary theorists’ meticulous conceptualisation of poetic verisimilitude and prosaists’, poets’ and dramatists’ recurrence to historical characters and themes, such a culture de facto throve in Spain between 1550 and 1650. Turning to the historiography of Golden Age lyrical and epic poets there are, again, important differences between the examined cases but there are certainly also notable similarities, especially when compared with the parts of the aesthetic-historical corpus which more explicitly paraded as historiographical. The examination of purported minor works by major authors and of major works by so-called minor writers demonstrates how the idea of a Golden Age aesthetic-historical culture indeed has the potential to challenge habitual thinking about the period. In Mariana’s General History of Spain, skilful construction of the argument and exemplarity took clear precedence over factual accuracy.
