The Spanish American colonial city is often distinguished by its central plaza or square. These spaces still serve as the focus of urban life. But how did they come into existence? What purposes did they serve? Using maps and city views dating from the colonial era, this lecture explores the various meanings attached to the plaza, the differing ways they were used, together with their representation in both literature and art of the colonial era.
Richard Kagan specializes in the history of
Habsburg Spain and its overseas empire. He is author, among other publications,
of Students and Society in Early Modern Spain, Lawsuits and Litigants in Castile, 1500-1700,
Lucrecia’s Dreams: Politics and Prophecy
in Sixteenth-Century Spain, Urban
Images of the Hispanic World, 1493-1793, and Clio and the Crown: The Politics of History in Medieval and Early
Modern Spain. He is also editor, with Geoffrey Parker, of Spain, Europe, and the Atlantic World; editor
and translator, with Abigail Dwyer, of Inquisitorial
Inquiries: The Brief Lives of Secret Jews and Other Heretics; and editor,
with Philip Morgan, of Atlantic
Diasporas: Jews, Conversos and Crypto-Jews in the Age of Mercantilism,
1500-1800.
This event is free and open to the public
Center for the Humanities
and the Public Sphere
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
tel 352.392.0796
fax 352.392.5378
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University of Florida
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