Hurtado de Mendoza in the nineteenth-century press: Biographies for the canon

Abstract

The article proposes a reconstruction and assessment of an episode of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza's incorporation into the canon of national literature and his so considered golden age. It focuses on the comparison of four biographies published in the periodical press between 1818 and 1848; it relates them to publishing projects that compose collections of illustrious classics; and it frames them in the institutionalization process between from Velázquez's treatise (1754) and Gil de Zárate's Manual (1842-1844). These last dates, precisely, frame a significant nucleus in the reworking of the profile of Hurtado de Mendoza offered to readers. The heterogeneity of editorial channels, between collection volumes and newspapers, raises the relationship between rhetorical models and specific audiences, within a strategy for the development and implementation of a national canon.