This paper offers a panorama of early Spanish paremiography, ranging from Latin proverbs found in the notes of an anonymous Aragonese student (1350) to the most important collections of proverbs published in the XVI century in vernacular language by humanists Pedro Vallés, Hernan Núňez and Juan de Mal Lara. The article analyses the influence that Erasmus’ Adagia exerted in Spain and describes terminological and etymological studies of Spanish paremiologists of the Golden Age.