This book brings together articles by over twenty specialist Spanish and Italian authors who explore, in their respective languages, various facets, episodes and key figures of an intense and mutually-enriching flow of knowledge, doctrines, languages and forms exchanged by Spain and Bologna over the centuries: from medieval architecture and illuminated manuscripts to Renaissance humanism and the shaping of the imperial image; from the presence of Spanish musicians in Bologna to the fortunes of the painters of the Bolognese school in Spain; from Cardinal Albornoz to Pope Benedictine XIV Lambertini; from Pellegrino Tibaldi to Guido Reni; from Nebrija to Cervantes; and from Tomás Luis de Victoria to Farinelli.

Amadeo Serra Desfilis holds a doctorate in History from the University of Bologna and teaches Art History at Valencia University. His teaching and research activities are centered on the history of architecture and town planning in the late Middle Ages, as well as on artistic relations between Spain and Italy.

José Luis Colomer holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Bologna and a degree in Art History from the Sorbonne. He currently directs the Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica and the Center for Spain in America. His research addresses cultural relations between Spain and Italy in the seventeenth century through diplomatic agents and the exchange of gifts of artworks between the European courts and Spanish kings and queens, as well as Velázquez’s second journey to Rome and his connections with prominent Italians at the court of Madrid.