Forging the Past: Invented Histories in Counter-Reformation Spain
Forging the Past: Invented Histories in Counter-Reformation Spain
Cite
Abstract
Spain’s infamous “false chronicles” were alleged to have been unearthed in 1595 in a monastic library deep in the heart of the German-speaking territories of the Holy Roman Empire by the Jesuit priest Jerónimo Román de la Higuera. Though rife with anachronisms and chronological inaccuracies, these four volumes of invented “truths” about Spanish sacred history radically transformed the religious landscape in Counter-Reformation Spain and were not definitively exposed as forgeries until centuries later, after nearly two hundred years of scholarly debate. This book explores the history, author, and legacy of one of the world’s most compelling and consequential frauds. The book examines how a relatively obscure Jesuit priest so successfully fabricated a set of supposedly historical documents that they were accepted as authentic for generation after generation. The chronicles’ influence was so powerful, in fact, that they continued to shape scholarly discourse, religious practice, and local heritage throughout Spain well into the twentieth century, despite having been debunked as forgeries in the eighteenth. This analysis brings together intellectual, cultural, religious, and political history while reinvigorating an ongoing debate on the uses and abuses of history and the nature of historical and religious truth.
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Front Matter
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An Introduction to History and Myth in Early Modern Spain
Katrina B. Olds
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Part I Creation
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1
The Forger between Friends and Enemies in Toledo
Katrina B. Olds
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2
The Jesuits, the Inquisition, and History
Katrina B. Olds
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3
How to Forge a History: The Authentic Sources of the False Chronicles
Katrina B. Olds
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4
Jews, Arabic-Speakers, and New Saints: The False Chronicles and Controversy
Katrina B. Olds
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5
The Debut of the Chronicles: Higuera’s Republic of Sacred Letters
Katrina B. Olds
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6
In Defense of Local Saints: Higuera Versus Rome
Katrina B. Olds
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1
The Forger between Friends and Enemies in Toledo
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Part II Reception
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Conclusion: New Saints, New Histories in Modern Spain
Katrina B. Olds
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End Matter
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