Which events mark the beginning and end of Spain’s Golden Age of literature?

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St. Luke the Evangelist — Spanish literature St. Luke, illuminated page from the Beatus Apocalypse, Mozarabic, 975; in the Gerona Cathedral, Spain.

Spain’s Golden Age (or Siglo de Oro) of literature is a celebrated period in Spanish literature that spanned both the Renaissance and Baroque eras.

While the period is sometimes associated with the political unification of Spain around 1500, scholars frequently define the literary era by specific milestones:

Beginning: The period is often dated from the publication of the first picaresque novel, Lazarillo de Tormes, in 1554.12
End: The era is considered to have concluded with the death of the renowned dramatist and poet Pedro Calderón de la Barca in 1681.12

This era represents the high point of Spanish literary history, producing iconic works such as Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote and the establishment of a national theatre tradition by Lope de Vega.12