Early printed books in spain and the exercicios of ignatius loyola

Our knowledge of the vernacular works of devotion popular in Spain during the first age of printing (c.1471-1520) has been extended in recent years by the appearance of reliable catalogues of their early editions and by the analysis of their authorship, contents and printing history, but questions remain about their reception, including the kinds of piety they encouraged, the habits of reading they instilled, and the extent to which they paved the way for later movements of Church reform in Spain. To these questions the article offers a partial answer by examining, as a case history, the role of early printed books in the religious conversion of Ignatius Loyola and in the origins of his Exercicios espirituales, which were drafted in Spain during the early 1520s. It examines the books he knew at the time, how he read them, and their impact on the Exercicios, before going on to consider, in the light of this, his place in the Spanish movement of reform associated with Erasmus. It concludes with some reflections on the reception of the Exercicios, in Spain and elsewhere, later in the century, after the text was printed in Rome in 1548.