Quite differently from what we might expect, for the 16th-century Spanish subjects the most momentous event was the Reconquista and the fall of Granada, not the discovery of the New World. Surely enough the Spanish people read eagerly the adventures of the conquistadores, but there are not many literary works about the New World, while the Reconquista had much greater appeal.
The essay wants to analyse one of the few texts dedicated to the theme, "La famosa comedia del Nuevo Mundo Descubierto por Cristòbal Colòn" by Lope de Vega, in order to investigate the reasons behind this conspicuous void. The main aim of Lope de Vega is to certify the ‘buen nascimiento’ of the main character and the fact that his enterprise received the blessing of the Lord, in addition to the help of the Reyes Catòlicos.
At the beginning of the 16th Century, the Conquista of the New Continent did not represent the ground for adventure and for heroic and chivalric deeds, which was still to be found, instead, in the Mediterranean area and in the war against the Ottoman Empire. Apparently, in America heroic deeds were too contaminated by the gold rush to be interesting and become matter for mythology.
