According to seventeenth-century author Sebastian Covarrubias Orozco, representation consists in making something present through words or figures. This process, he pondered, was essential to record something in one's imagination. Departing from an analysis of frontispieces' engravings and other images, this article considers the relationship between political imagination, on one hand, and the extension of the Spanish dominion, on the other. The debate on figurative representation contributes to the understanding of political culture in Modern Age, as it suggests a reflection on the accurate dimensions of an overseas empire.
political imagination; frontispieces; engravings; Spanish empire; iconography.