“Ao muito alto e excelente senhor...”: um estudo sobre as dedicatórias quinhentistas

Based on printed books' dedications, this paper studies the relations between intellectuals and nobles in the sixteenth-century European Republic of Letters. It is based on thirty-two dedications from works published between 1531 and 1598. The analysis of the material revealed the following results: a) the dedications are part of a 16th century social institution, the literary patronage; b) this institution has at its core an exchange of homage, given by the intellectual, for protection, retributed by the nobleman. The interpretation of these findings led to conclude that the practice of dedicating books was both a device to reinforce the status of the nobles and a strategy for intellectuals to ascend in their careers. All this shows that the sixteenth-century dedication is a privileged document for the social history of ideas and intellectuals in the Cinquecento.