Historiography from the Aragonese Kingdom to the Spanish Viceroyalty

The innovations in the field of historiography show a relevant aspect of Renaissance or Humanism in Southern Italy. Since the arrival of Alfonso the Magnanimous in Italy, we can observe an explosion in the production of historical works. Sometimes, these works have been classified as “courtesan”, but they offer “mirrors for princes”, or even a representation and a justification for the actions of the king. The relationship between writing of history and celebration, between narration of events and “propaganda” was really evident, by giving the rules, never written before in the Latin world, for that literary genre. The end of the fabulous Aragonese season, in the late XVth and in the XVIth century, gave way to new models and new conceptions of history: it was no longer possible to celebrate the present, but it was necessary to reconstruct the past, in order to understand it.