Talavera y Nebrija: Lenguaje para convencer, gramática para pensar

This paper highlights the importance of mediating influences in the process of unification brought about by the Catholic Monarchs. Particular attention is devoted to the actions of Hernando de Talavera, a confessor and advisor to Isabel and Ferdinand, who at different times and in various ways lent his support to initiatives, such as those of Antonio de Nebrija which aimed at developing and homogenizing Spain’s cultural sphere. Both these figures and their environment recognized the usefulness of new instruments of mediation, especially of language, in the establishment of a new religious and political idiom directed at educating, unifying and disciplining people to become good «loyal subjects».