“Al it'alico modo”: translatio of the sonnet in the 15th century Spanish poetry

The article deals with the sonnets by Íñigo López de Mendoza, Marquis de Santillana, who was the first to introduce this genre in Spanish poetry. The sonnets are analyzed within the context of the Castilian courtly love tradition ( cancionero poetry), in this special case represented by one of its basic genres - decir. Decires written by Santillana himself give us the most representative background. Analysis of the similar topoi (“love from afar”, “glorification of the lady”), as well as of fixed motives and patterns of the poetic language reveals that Santillana's sonnets demonstrate the birth of specific genre mind not due to borrowing or introducing of the new poetic models (Petrarchan or those of the “sweet new style” which show themselves quite sporadically) but to the new introspective optic that filtrates traditional courtly love topoi.