Florida del Inca, Byzantine novel

Abstract

This text aims to explore the relationship between Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and the Spanish peninsular literary context in which he lived. Did Cervantes read Garcilaso’s work? Did Garcilaso read Cervantes? To connect these two major authors, we will follow two approaches: firstly, we will try to analyse the relationship between Garcilaso and the fiction genre, through a summary look at his library, whose inventory is kept at the Provincial Archive in Córdoba; then, we will focus on the Byzantine novel genre, cultivated by Cervantes in his last work, Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (1617). An adventure novel closely related not only to the Byzantine novel’s standards, but also to Inca Garcilaso’s La Florida, where we will also find a certain influence of the same genre.