«IL PECCADIGLIO DI SPAGNA» : INCREDULITÀ, SCETTICISMO E POLITICA IMPERIALE NELL’ITALIA DEL PRIMO CINQUECENTO

‘Marranos’, anti-trinitarians, unbelievers, skeptics. The image of Spaniards in the first half of sixteenth century is far from that of the devout and intransigent Catholics that would rapidly take its place. Hypocritical and treacherous, the Spanish stand out for their mixed blood and their uncertain and shifting faith, as well as for an innate tendency toward doubt that arises from their contamination with Jews and Muslims. First used by Ariosto, the phrase ‘peccadiglio di Spagna’ (the Spanish little sin or pecadillo) was transformed in the work of later authors and in popular vulgarizations: from an anti-semitic accusation against the marranos, it became synonymous with anti-trinitarian doubt and, ultimately, with incredulity and skepticism. By retracing the contours of this particular semantic shift, the essay will narrow the focus onto the history of skepticism and unbelief starting from fifteenthcentury Spain, through the Sephardic Diaspora and into the Italian peninsula in the first half of the sixteenth century. In doing so the essay pinpoints a particular moment in Spanish intellectual history whose development took place, however, beyond Spain’s borders.