the insularity of Empire's culture

This passage, in Henry Kamen's "Empire:  How Spain became a World Power, 
1492-1763" jumped out at me in relation to something I posted a couple of days 
ago:

"Throughout the Habsburg centuries the existence of Spanish power fascinated 
other Europeans...  By contrast, as the master power Spain showed scant 
interest in the culture of other peoples, and did not extend to the rest of 
Europe the profound interest that it had at least evinced for Italian culture 
and technology...  As a class the Spanish elite, nobles and clergy, had little 
cultural sophistication... They travelled out of Spain very sledom..  and so 
had no perspective with which to make judgements...  Few foreign authors were 
translated into Castilian.  Europeans, however, knew Castilian works." (p. 
338-9)

Steven Sherman