Hilosophy of arms as a transformation of a given cultural idea. Carranza and Cervantes

The traditional literary image and cultural ideal of the man de armas et letras experiences a significant transformation acquiring a new aesthetic sense in the literary tradition of the 16 th century. The article presents adaptation, interpretation and transformation of this idea in Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote and Jeronimo de Carranza’s Philosophy of the Arms. Both books are shown to contain a sort of reaction against the changes of the traditional notions of armas and letras that tends to restore their original meaning of ‘warrior’ and ‘scholar, book lover’. Therefore, Carranza’s treatise can be interpreted not only as one of the sources, but, moreover, as an important ideological impetus for the general conception of Don Quixote.