Las Naves de Lepanto, las Glorias de Jerónimo Corte Real

Abstract

The epic poem Felicissima victoria concedida del cielo al señor don Juan de Austria en el golfo de Lepanto de la poderosa armada otomana is a literary glorification of the battle of Lepanto. Written by the Portuguese writer Jeronimo Corte Real in the last third of the 16th century, it is based on mythological tales, the classical authors and the literature of the Renaissance. The writer’s continual references to the supernatural infuse the text and its illustrations with nuances that play on a combination of the imaginary and the real, and the pagan and the Christian.