Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Black Legend
(1,128 words)

1. Term

The Black Legend (Spanish leyenda negra) denotes the (proto-)nationalist negative stereotype of the Spanish in the early modern period. The term itself was coined in 1813 [7], but the roots of the Black Legend stretch back to the late medieval expansion of Catalonia into the Mediterranean sphere. The Italians held the merchants of the Iberian Peninsula to be cunning and avaricious, and they found the mixed religious culture of Jews, Muslims, and Christians …

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Schmidt, Peer, “Black Legend”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 11 December 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_027286>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20160907



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