College of Charleston Hispanic Studies Professor, Carl Wise, Ph.D. spent part of his summer doing research at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. He was awarded a highly competitive Folger Research Fellowship for his book project, Baroque Theologies in the Theater of Antonio Mira de Amescua, which will be published in late 2014. The Folger Library is home to one of the world’s largest collections of Renaissance and Early Modern European manuscripts.

Photo on 8-7-13 at 12.15 PMWise’s research focuses on a forgotten seventeenth-century Spanish playwright from the outskirts of Granada, Antonio Mira de Amescua.

“Almost nothing is known about him,” Wise explains. “Which makes him somewhat of a mystery. Nevertheless, his works influenced an entire generation of Spanish authors. What’s most amazing about Mira de Amescua, however, is that he marketed his radical theological ideas about human autonomy to mass audiences right under the nose of the Spanish Inquisition.”

In addition to his residency at the Folger this summer, Wise has also conducted archival research at the Biblioteca nacional in Madrid, Spain. His publications include topics on the literary history of the Spanish Empire.

For more information, Wise can be reached at wiseca@cofc.edu.