La musa refractada: Literatura y óptica en la España del Barroco by Enrique García Santo Tomás (review)

Enrique García Santo Tomás’s most recent book situates itself among a number of recent studies dedicated to contesting traditional historical perspectives that have emphasized Spain’s purported exceptionalism where modernity—economic, political, scientific, etc.—is concerned. More specifically, the author uses the many figurative, metaphorical, allegorical and emblematic representations of scientific and technological developments in optics, i.e., spectacles, telescopes, etc., to support his claim that Spanish letters and science were well versed in, if not universally well disposed towards, Galileo’s fervent and problematic propagation of Copernicanism. The Preliminares section draws a fine line between the censure of Copernicanism in Counter Reformation Spain and possible apertures in what Francisco Sánchez would call the ‘literary republic,’ with the goal of showing that “el ingenio barroco ni era tan dogmatico ni tan reaccionario como a veces se ha creído” (15). Statements like this appear throughout the study, which attempts to redefine the Spanish baroque genius, all the while overlooking the problematic—and exceptionalist—nature of the concept of a national ingenio itself. One of the more interesting rhetorical moves is the way in which García Santo Tomás reads pro-Aristotelian (Ptolemaic) and anti-Copernican diatribes as symptoms of the internal struggle to come to terms with the impending—and necessary, in impeccably Historicist terms—scientific revolution.

The Introduction begins with an allusion to Galileo’s attempt, ultimately unsuccessful, to install himself in Spain as the court astronomer/philosopher in response to the Spanish monarchy’s announcement of a ‘reward’ for whoever could find a systematic way to determine oceanic longitude. Rather than read this as an allegory of Spain’s ultimate refusal of Galilean science, as played out in the Court as well as the De Auxilis controversy, the author reads it as an indication of Galileo’s influence, an influence that is almost impossible to detect directly in the Golden Age archive in spite of the fact that published studies of astronomy were second only to medicine in the growing field of scientific publishing. To supplement this discursive absence, García Santo Tomás focuses on the abundance of optical metaphors in Spanish Baroque letters, metaphors that are used more often than not to establish morally, politically, or ethically authoritative perspectives as opposed to empirical facts or scientific truths. The body of the book consists of the enumeration and analysis of optical metaphors, double-entendres, and wordplay in a wide range of genres and texts, some well known and others that were previously unknown to this reader. Chapter One follows the technical and scientific history of optics from the late Middle Ages to the Baroque, dwelling on Galileo’s role as both a scientist and optical technician of the first order as well the importance of scientific theory and practice in his negotiation of the political obstacle course of early modern scientific thought. It also maps the growth in Spain of the field of mathematics, as the monarchy endeavoured to enhance mathematics and its strategic importance in matters of national security, while seeking to limit its potentially progressive impact on traditional thought and social hierarchies.

Chapter Two begins the consideration of optical literary tropes by underlining the fantastic and speculative motifs and plots of works by authors such as Lope de Vega and Cervantes as well as by teasing out the scientific knowledge offered by their fictional works. García Santo Tomás’s erudition helps guide the reader through a veritable catalogue of baroque authors and works that the author resituates according to an emergent definition of ‘local science fiction’ (104). It is here where optical devices are analyzed as a way to both focus the reader’s attention on specific details as well as provide a distancing mechanism for the author/narrator, who, in modern fashion, often occupies a superior perspective on the ‘reality’ around him. Garc...