Common Souls, Autonomous Bodies: the Language of Unification Under the Catholic Monarchy 1590-1630

The ideas that Olivares conveyed to his sovereign in his grand memorandum on a future union of the kingdoms of Spain have often been regarded as a first attempt at political centralization in modern Spain. The timely contextualization of his arguments and the recovery of the language used by this favourite of the King reveal the existence of a range of forms of union as sophisticated and varied as they are foreign to any idea of centralization.