Los militares y sus libros en el siglo XVIII

Abstract

The Eighteenth Century presents, within the purview of the military, the triumph of book-based education over experience alone. In this context, the military -most especially the marines and the officers' corps- take part in the Republic of Letters. The military manifest interest in specific themes and preference for printing locations in strict relationship with their profession, as well as a publishing timeline that is closely in tune with the boom at the end of the century. Works created for the moral education of both authors and readers stress the increasingly important role played by reading in their daily lives and the abiding influence of the strictest Catholic orthodoxy. Likewise, military writers, as they themselves attest, will have to confront specific obstacles in their creative toil coming from opposition by a few sectors within the military to school education as a guarantee to quality in military training, stressing rather esperience.