Spain's Eighteenth-Century Periodical Press

This is the first monographic study of the Semanario Erudito, one of the most important of the erudite periodicals published in late eighteenth-century Spain. The goal of its editor, Antonio Valladares de Sotomayor (1737-1820), was to recover the history of Spain and make it available to his readers for them to learn, and learn from. The book begins with a discussion of Valladares's life and works, before presenting the history of his periodical - specifically, the process of requesting permission to publish it, who printed it, who sold it, and who read it. Documents from Spain's Archivo Histórico Nacional illuminate the censorship process undertaken by each work he wished to publish. The documents also show that the censors' concerns were often not ideological, and that they worked to facilitate the publication of documents they considered valuable but problematic. The second half of the book examines what Valladares published, and his reasons for doing so.