«Glosar la intención»: Baltasar Gracián, the Secret of State and the Historian’s Ingenuity

Abstract

From Lodovico Castelvetro to Alonso López Pinciano, the scholarly tradition of Aristotelian poetics laid down a contrast between poet and historian according to which the former was granted the privilege (and the responsibility) of showing acuity of wit through the invention of plots capable of awaking wonder in the audience. In contrast, the historian was tied to facts that effectively took place, and therefore would be denied the possibility of arousing admiration through invention. However, historiographical trends inspired in Tacitus’ works and popularized in the late sixteenth century gave rise to a reinterpretation of the historian’s duty (culminating in Baltasar Gracián’s 1648 Agudeza y arte de ingenio), which opened for the latter a space for invention, and therefore for the exercise of acuity of wit through the task of «unveiling» or inventing «secrets of state» and intentions that the princes had been able to «dissimulate».

Keywords

• poética
• historia
• aristóteles
• lodovico castelvetro
• baltasar gracián
• disimulación
• secreto de estado
• agudeza de ingenio