4. Spanish grammaticography and the teaching of Spanish in the sixteenth century

The first printed grammar of a European vernacular was Nebrija’s grammar of (Castilian) Spanish (1492), published at the end of the peninsular Reconquista and coinciding with Columbus’ arrival in America. In the sixteenth century castellano, the language of the Spanish Habsburg Empire, became prominent in Europe, for political, economic and religious reasons, a position strengthened in the seventeenth century by Spain’s cultural prestige. This contribution focuses on the first hundred years of Spanish language studies in Western Europe (Flanders, Italy, England, France). It offers an overview of grammatical and language-didactic tools for teaching and learning Spanish published in the sixteenth century. The relevant source texts (and their authors) are presented and analysed, and set in their political and cultural context.