The reception of Cartagena's thought in the late fifteenth century and its fate in the golden age

Alfonso de Cartagena was a prominent figure in the cultural revolution of the early Renaissance, widely read and praised both in Spain and abroad, and in correspondence with humanist scholars and political leaders in both Latin and the vernacular. The high esteem in which he was held was expressed in numerous texts up to his death in 1456; and yet by the end of the century only a limited proportion of his works were still in circulation, and his name was systematically silenced even by those who knew it. As a consequence, he disappeared from the register of important authors, not to be rediscovered until the mid-twentieth century. This essay seeks to expound and quantify these facts, comparing them with parallel cases such as Alfonso de Madrigal, Santillana, and Juan de Mena, and concludes by outlining the likely causes of the conspiracy of silence (for instance, prejudice against his Jewish ancestry), taking as a starting point the portrayal of him in fellow converso Juan de Lucena's De vita beata of 1463.