Literary Images of Russia in the Works of Baltasar Gracian

The imagery of nations in the work of Baltasar Gracian has been studied mainly in terms of the geographical itinerary. Less frequent has been the analysis of the imagery of a specific nation, usually limited to nations geographically and culturally close to Spain. The present research aims to analyse the images of Russia in Gracian's work since it is the European nation geographically farthest from Spain. For this purpose, a historical-literary methodology has been followed, giving primacy to primary sources over secondary ones. Almost all the images that appear seem to come from bibliographic sources, so the original source has been investigated. It has been established that Gracian faithfully follows Giovanni Botero's book Relaciones universales del mundo, from which he extracts the references. After a contrastive analysis is carried out, it is concluded that Muscovy appears in Gracian's work in the group of important nations of Europe, although within this same group, Gracian himself seems to give it less importance. There is also a gradual change in the level of images that coincide with the chronology of Gracian's work. In the early works, El Politico and El Discreto, mentions of Myscovy tend to be limited to physical geography and history, or to its telluric effects, such as the salutary qualities of the terrain. In the later works, in the three parts of El Criticon, a transition to moral and political meanings can be observed.