Americans Abroad in the Seventeenth Century: People, Buildings, and the Space of Empire

Museo de America (lightened)

One way to understand the network of Spanish Habsburg places in the early modern period is to think about individuals experiencing architecture. Zooming out to take in the wide space of empire allows us to explore how buildings and public spaces were shaped, often with coherent messages rendered through carved heraldry and ornament. Zooming in to consider the lived experience of individuals gives us an opportunity to consider how particular buildings functioned in society. This lecture examines seventeenth-century architecture on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean via the experiences two accomplished Dominican priests—the Mexican-born Antonio de Monroy and the Peruvian Juan Meléndez—who traversed the Spanish world, interacting with other imperial subjects. It also considers the experience of an exceptional American-born woman, Rose of Lima. Although far less mobile than her male Dominican counterparts, her reputation and image traveled widely in the seventeenth-century, even inspiring architectural undertakings fostered in part by Meléndez and Monroy.