Nuanced understanding of the reciprocal nature of Spanish-Italian relations and the rich cultural production that was the product of the far-reaching exchanges between the two peninsulas throughout the early modern period guides the nineteen essays in this volume. The key political reality of sixteenth and seventeenth-century Spanish imperial domination in Italy—formal (Sicily, Sardinia, Naples, Milan), informal (Rome, Genoa, Tuscany), and more neutral or independent (Venice)—introduces the investigation in this volume into the methods and mechanisms of control and collaboration, cooperation and cooptation, assimilation and resistance. The connections between topics and problems in social, administrative, economic, and cultural history follow from political theory and practice. Politics, society, economy, and religion help us see both Spain and Italy more clearly.