"In Naples, the most Spanish of Italian cities, under the government of the virrey don Pedro de Toledo, Juan de Valdés wrote a smart portrait of the Spanish language of his time which becomes also a portrait of that imperial Spain located outside of Spain . El Diálogo de la Lengua (1535) describes, under the disguise of a conversation between four characters, a very acute description of how the Spanish language was used in the sixteenth century, what ideological and aesthetic discussions awakened the language at this stage and what different types of people, native speakers or learners of Spanish, could coexist in the courtly circles of Naples during that period. This work recreates the way in which, in the early hours of a random afternoon, somewhere near the ocean, a conversation ensues and lasts until twilight; a sizzling dialogue, in a friendly yet not constrained tone."--Translated from publisher's website.