Tópicos y preceptos de la épica en los preliminares de Fernando de Valverde y de Luis Antonio de Oviedo y Herrera

Abstract

I should like to examine the preliminary texts of the works of Fernando de Valverde (Santuario de nuestra señora de Copacabana en el Perú, Lima 1641), and Luis Antonio de Oviedo y Herrera (Vida de santa Rosa de Santa María, natural de Lima y patrona del Perú, poema heroico, Madrid 1711, written some tens years earlier), with the aim of considering the ideas that the authors have as regards epic poetry. I have centred my study on two works of a religious nature that belong to the latter period of epic poetry, a fact that enables us to explore some of the topoi that were frequently used from the 16th century on.