This 2-volume book on the literature of Spain and Portugal represents an extraction from Bouterwek's most significant critical work entitled Geschichte der Poesie und Beredsamkeit seit dem Ende der dreizehnten Jahrhunderts (History of Poetry and Eloquence from the Close of the Thirteenth Century), in which the author has taken an historical and critical survey of the literature of the principal nations of Europe. The first of the following volumes is devoted to the history of Spanish, and the second to the history of Portuguese Literature. The subdivisions of the work correspond with periods marked out by certain revolutions in taste, produced by the rise of eminent writers, or by other influential circumstances. These epochs in literary cultivation form convenient resting places for the student, and contribute to exhibit in a clear point of view the circumstances by which the advancement of polite learning has been accelerated or retarded. The specimens, which are numerous, and a great portion of which are selected from very scarce works, cannot fail to prove highly acceptable to the lovers of the literature of Spain and Portugal. For a general and comprehensive knowledge of that literature they will be found amply sufficient, and to those who wish to pursue its study more in detail, they will afford most useful assistance. In such a course of study, great advantage may also be derived from the numerous bibliographical notes introduced by the author.
