JOSÉ PELLICER'S ALMA DE LA GLORIA DE ESPAÑA (1650): THE NATION AS A CULTURAL AND POLITICAL COMMUNITY

From what is known as the "modernist" perspective, most studies on the history of the nation maintain that, strictly speaking, it emerged in the late modern period. According to this widespread vision, in periods prior to this, the term "nation" denoted at most an idea of community to which a common origin and characteristics were vaguely assigned. This mainstream standpoint does not consider the nation to have had a politically relevant dimension before that time. In this study, however, we argue that Jose Pellicer's work Alma de la gloria de Espana, published in 1650, demonstrates that an understanding of the concept of nation which did not correspond to these statements already existed in the mid-seventeenth century. Certain contents in Pellicer's book illustrate that, even at that time, the nation and in this case the Spanish nation, could be felt to be an intense source of group identification, perceived as a primordial community and the basis for deep-seated collective features. Moreover, Pellicer's work shows that even then the idea existed that it was natural and appropriate for this nation to be represented by a political entity in its own right.