Torres Villarroel and Poetry in Astrological Almanachs

Abstract

Diego de Torres Villarroel plays a key role in the enormous increase that occurred in the writing of annual astrological almanacs and pronostications during the first half of the eighteenth century in Spain. He made great innovations in this genre of imprints, in order to transform them into literary creations beyond their astrological contents; amidst them, we can include a systematical use of poetry in the judicial sections of the almanacs. This paper analyses the evolution and characteristics of these poetical parts in the pronostications.