CASTILIAN LITERATURE.--CULTIVATION OF THE COURT.--CLASSICAL LEARNING.--
SCIENCE.
Early Education of Ferdinand.--Of Isabella.--Her Library.--Early Promise
of Prince John.--Scholarship of the Nobles.--Accomplished Women.--
Classical Learning.--Universities.--Printing Introduced.--Encouraged by
the Queen.--Actual Progress of Science.
We have now arrived at the period, when the history of Spain becomes
incorporated with that of the other states of Europe. Before embarking on
the wide sea of European politics, however, and bidding adieu, for a
season, to the shores of Spain, it will be necessary, in order to complete
the view of the internal administration of Ferdinand and Isabella, to show
its operation on the intellectual culture of the nation. This, as it
constitutes, when taken in its broadest sense, a principal end of all
government, should never be altogether divorced from any history. It is
particularly deserving of note in the present reign, which stimulated the
active development of the national energies in every department of
science, and which forms a leading epoch in the ornamental literature of
the country. The present and the following chapter will embrace the mental
progress of the kingdom, not merely down to the period at which we have
arrived, but through the whole of Isabella's reign, in order to exhibit as
far as possible its entire results, at a single glance, to the eye of the
reader.
We have beheld, in a preceding chapter, the auspicious literary promise
afforded by the reign of Isabella's father, John the Second, of Castile.
Under the anarchical sway of his son, Henry the Fourth, the court, as we
have seen, was abandoned to unbounded license, and the whole nation sunk
into a mental torpor, from which it was roused only by the tumults of
civil war. In this deplorable state of things, the few blossoms of
literature, which had begun to open under the benign influence of the
preceding reign, were speedily trampled under foot, and every vestige of
civilization seemed in a fair way to be effaced from the land.
The first years of Ferdinand and Isabella's government were too much
clouded by civil dissensions, to afford a much more cheering prospect.
Ferdinand's early education, moreover, had been greatly neglected. Before
the age of ten, he was called to take part in the Catalan wars. His
boyhood was spent among soldiers, in camps instead of schools, and the
wisdom which he so eminently displayed in later life, was drawn far more
from his own resources, than from books. [1]
Isabella was reared under more favorable auspices; at least more favorable
to mental culture. She was allowed to pass her youth in retirement, and
indeed oblivion, as far as the world was concerned, under her mother's
care, at Arevalo. In this modest seclusion, free from the engrossing
vanities and vexations of court life, she had full leisure to indulge the
habits of study and reflection to which her temper naturally disposed her.
She was acquainted with several modern languages, and both wrote and
discoursed in her own with great precision and elegance. No great expense
or solicitude, however, appears to have been lavished on her education.
She was uninstructed in the Latin, which in that day was of greater
importance than at present; since it was not only the common medium of
communication between learned men, and the language in which the most
familiar treatises were often composed, but was frequently used by well-
educated foreigners at court, and especially employed in diplomatic
intercourse and negotiation. [2]
Isabella resolved to repair the defects of education, by devoting herself
to the acquisition of the Latin tongue, so soon as the distracting wars
with Portugal, which attended her accession, were terminated. We have a
letter from Pulgar, addressed to the queen soon after that event, in which
he inquires concerning her progress, intimating his surprise, that she can
find time for study amidst her multitude of engrossing occupations, and
expressing his confidence that she will acquire the Latin with the same
facility with which she had already mastered other languages. The result
justified his prediction; for "in less than a year," observes another
contemporary, "her admirable genius enabled her to obtain a good knowledge
of the Latin language, so that she could understand without much
difficulty whatever was written or spoken in it." [3]
Isabella inherited the taste of her father, John the Second, for the
collecting of books. She endowed the convent of San Juan de los Reyes at
Toledo, at the time of its foundation, 1477, with a library consisting
principally of manuscripts. [4] The archives of Simancas contain
catalogues of part of two separate collections, belonging to her, whose
broken remains have contributed to swell the magnificent library of the
Escurial. Most of them are in manuscript; the richly colored and highly
decorated binding of these volumes (an art which the Spaniards derived
from the Arabs) show how highly they were prized, and the worn and
battered condition of some of them prove that they were not kept merely
for show. [5]
The queen manifested the most earnest solicitude for the instruction of
her own children. Her daughters were endowed by nature with amiable
dispositions, that seconded her maternal efforts. The most competent
masters, native and foreign, especially from Italy, then so active in the
revival of ancient learning, were employed in their tuition. This was
particularly intrusted to two brothers, Antonio and Alessandro Geraldino,
natives of that country. Both were conspicuous for their abilities and
classical erudition, and the latter, who survived his brother Antonio, was
subsequently raised to high ecclesiastical preferments. [6] Under these
masters, the infantas made attainments rarely permitted to the sex, and
acquired such familiarity with the Latin tongue especially, as excited
lively admiration among those over whom they were called to preside in
riper years. [7]
A still deeper anxiety was shown in the education of her only son, Prince
John, heir of the united Spanish monarchies. Every precaution was taken to
train him up in a manner that might tend to the formation of the character
suited to his exalted station. He was placed in a class consisting of ten
youths, selected from the sons of the principal nobility. Five of them
were of his own age, and five of riper years, and they were all brought to
reside with him in the palace. By this means it was hoped to combine the
advantages of public with those of private education; which last, from its
solitary character, necessarily excludes the subject of it from the
wholesome influence exerted by bringing the powers into daily collision
with antagonists of a similar age. [8]
A mimic council was also formed on the model of a council of state,
composed of suitable persons of more advanced standing, whose province it
was to deliberate on, and to discuss, topics connected with government and
public policy. Over this body the prince presided, and here he was
initiated into a practical acquaintance with the important duties, which
were to devolve on him at a future period of life. The pages, in
attendance on his person, were also selected with great care from the
cavaliers and young nobility of the court, many of whom afterwards filled
with credit the most considerable posts in the state. The severer
discipline of the prince was relieved by attention to more light and
elegant accomplishments. He devoted many of his leisure hours to music,
for which he had a fine natural taste, and in which he attained sufficient
proficiency to perform with skill on a variety of instruments. In short,
his education was happily designed to produce that combination of mental
and moral excellence, which should fit him for reigning over his subjects
with benevolence and wisdom. How well the scheme succeeded is abundantly
attested by the commendations of contemporary writers, both at home and
abroad, who enlarge on his fondness for letters, and for the society of
learned men, on his various attainments, and more especially his Latin
scholarship, and above all on his disposition, so amiable as to give
promise of the highest excellence in maturer life,--a promise, alas! most
unfortunately for his own nation, destined never to be realized. [9]
Next to her family, there was no object which the queen had so much at
heart, as the improvement of the young nobility. During the troubled reign
of her predecessor, they had abandoned themselves to frivolous pleasure,
or to a sullen apathy, from which nothing was potent enough to arouse
them, but the voice of war. [10] She was obliged to relinquish her plans
of amelioration, during the all-engrossing struggle with Granada, when it
would have been esteemed a reproach for a Spanish knight to have exchanged
the post of danger in the field for the effeminate pursuit of letters. But
no sooner was the war brought to a close, than Isabella resumed her
purpose. She requested the learned Peter Martyr, who had come into Spain
with the count of Tendilla, a few years previous, to repair to the court,
and open a school there for the instruction of the young nobility. [11] In
an epistle addressed by Martyr to Cardinal Mendoza, dated at Granada,
April, 1492, he alludes to the promise of a liberal recompense from the
queen, if he would assist in reclaiming the young cavaliers of the court
from the idle and unprofitable pursuits, in which, to her great
mortification, they consumed their hours. The prejudices to be encountered
seem to have filled him with natural distrust of his success; for he
remarks, "Like their ancestors, they hold the pursuit of letters in light
estimation, considering them an obstacle to success in the profession of
arms, which alone they esteem worthy of honor." He however expresses his
confidence, that the generous nature of the Spaniards will make it easy to
infuse into them a more liberal taste; and, in a subsequent letter, he
enlarges on the "good effects likely to result from the literary ambition
exhibited by the heir apparent, on whom the eyes of the nation were
naturally turned." [12] Martyr, in obedience to the royal summons,
instantly repaired to court, and in the month of September following, we
have a letter dated from Saragossa, in which he thus speaks of his
success. "My house, all day long, swarms with noble youths, who, reclaimed
from ignoble pursuits to those of letters, are now convinced that these,
so far from being a hindrance, are rather a help in the profession of
arms. I earnestly inculcate on them, that consummate excellence in any
department, whether of war or peace, is unattainable without science. It
has pleased our royal mistress, the pattern of every exalted virtue, that
her own near kinsman, the duke of Guimaraena, as well as the young duke of
Villahermosa, the king's nephew, should remain under my roof during the
whole day; an example which has been imitated by the principal cavaliers
of the court, who, after attending my lectures in company with their
private tutors, retire at evening to review them with these latter in
their own quarters." [13] Another Italian scholar, often cited as
authority in the preceding portion of this work, Lucio Marineo Siculo, co-
operated with Martyr in the introduction of a more liberal scholarship
among the Castilian nobles. He was born at Bedino in Sicily, and, after
completing his studies at Rome under the celebrated Pomponio Leto, opened
a school in his native island, where he continued to teach for five years.
He was then induced to visit Spain, in 1486, with the admiral Henriquez,
and soon took his place among the professors of Salamanca, where he filled
the chairs of poetry and grammar with great applause for twelve years. He
was subsequently transferred to the court, which he helped to illumine, by
his exposition of the ancient classics, particularly the Latin. [14] Under
the auspices of these and other eminent scholars, both native and foreign,
the young nobility of Castile shook off the indolence in which they had so
long rusted, and applied with generous ardor to the cultivation of
science; so that, in the language of a contemporary, "while it was a most
rare occurrence, to meet with a person of illustrious birth, before the
present reign, who had even studied Latin in his youth, there were now to
be seen numbers every day, who sought to shed the lustre of letters over
the martial glory inherited from their ancestors." [15]
The extent of this generous emulation may be gathered from the large
correspondence both of Martyr and Marineo with their disciples, including
the most considerable persons of the Castilian court; it may be still
further inferred from the numerous dedications to these persons, of
contemporary publications, attesting their munificent patronage of
literary enterprise; [16] and, still more unequivocally, from the zeal
with which many of the highest rank entered on such severe literary labor
as few, from the mere love of letters, are found willing to encounter. Don
Gutierre de Toledo, son of the duke of Alva, and a cousin of the king,
taught in the university of Salamanca. At the same place, Don Pedro
Fernandez de Velasco, son of the count of Haro, who subsequently succeeded
his father in the hereditary dignity of grand constable of Castile, read
lectures on Pliny and Ovid. Don Alfonso de Manrique, son of the count of
Paredes, was professor of Greek in the university of Alcalá. All ages
seemed to catch the generous enthusiasm; and the marquis of Denia,
although turned of sixty, made amends for the sins of his youth, by
learning the elements of the Latin tongue, at this late period. In short,
as Giovio remarks in his eulogium on Lebrija, "No Spaniard was accounted
noble who held science in indifference." From a very early period, a
courtly stamp was impressed on the poetic literature of Spain. A similar
character was now imparted to its erudition; and men of the most
illustrious birth seemed eager to lead the way in the difficult career of
science, which was thrown open to the nation. [17]
In this brilliant exhibition, those of the other sex must not be omitted,
who contributed by their intellectual endowments to the general
illumination of the period. Among them, the writers of that day lavish
their panegyrics on the marchioness of Monteagudo, and Doña Maria Pacheco,
of the ancient house of Mendoza, sisters of the historian, Don Diego
Hurtado, [18] and daughters of the accomplished count of Tendilla, [19]
who, while ambassador at Rome, induced Martyr to visit Spain, and who was
grandson of the famous marquis of Santillana, and nephew of the grand
cardinal. [20] This illustrious family, rendered yet more illustrious by
its merits than its birth, is worthy of specification, as affording
altogether the most remarkable combination of literary talent in the
enlightened court of Castile. The queen's instructor in the Latin language
was a lady named Doña Beatriz de Galindo, called from her peculiar
attainments _la Latina_. Another lady, Doña Lucia de Medrano, publicly
lectured on the Latin classics in the university of Salamanca. And
another, Doña Francisca de Lebrija, daughter of the historian of that
name, filled the chair of rhetoric with applause at Alcalá. But our limits
will not allow a further enumeration of names, which should never be
permitted to sink into oblivion, were it only for the rare scholarship,
peculiarly rare in the female sex, which they displayed, in an age
comparatively unenlightened. [21] Female education in that day embraced a
wider compass of erudition, in reference to the ancient languages, than is
common at present; a circumstance attributable, probably, to the poverty
of modern literature at that time, and the new and general appetite
excited by the revival of classical learning in Italy. I am not aware,
however, that it was usual for learned ladies, in any other country than
Spain, to take part in the public exercises of the gymnasium, and deliver
lectures from the chairs of the universities. This peculiarity, which may
be referred in part to the queen's influence, who encouraged the love of
study by her own example, as well as by personal attendance on the
academic examinations, may have been also suggested by a similar usage,
already noticed, among the Spanish Arabs. [22]
While the study of the ancient tongues came thus into fashion with persons
of both sexes, and of the highest rank, it was widely and most thoroughly
cultivated by professed scholars. Men of letters, some of whom have been
already noticed, were invited into Spain from Italy, the theatre, at that
time, on which, from obvious local advantages, classical discovery was
pursued with greatest ardor and success. To this country it was usual also
for Spanish students to repair, in order to complete their discipline in
classical literature, especially the Greek, as first taught on sound
principles of criticism, by the learned exiles from Constantinople. The
most remarkable of the Spanish scholars, who made this literary pilgrimage
to Italy, was Antonio de Lebrija, or Nebrissensis, as he is more
frequently called from his Latin name. [23] After ten years passed at
Bologna and other seminaries of repute, with particular attention to their
interior discipline, he returned, in 1473, to his native land, richly
laden with the stores of various erudition. He was invited to fill the
Latin chair at Seville, whence he was successively transferred to
Salamanca and Alcalá, both of which places he long continued to enlighten
by his oral instruction and publications. The earliest of these was his
_Introducciones Latinas_, the third edition of which was printed in
1485, being four years only from the date of the first; a remarkable
evidence of the growing taste for classical learning. A translation in the
vernacular accompanied the last edition, arranged, at the queen's
suggestion, in columns parallel with those of the original text; a form
which, since become common, was then a novelty. [24] The publication of
his Castilian grammar, "_Grammatica Castillana_," followed in 1492; a
treatise designed particularly for the instruction of the ladies of the
court. The other productions of this indefatigable scholar embrace a large
circle of topics, independently of his various treatises on philology and
criticism. Some were translated into French and Italian, and their
republication has been continued to the last century. No man of his own,
or of later times, contributed more essentially than Lebrija to the
introduction of a pure and healthful erudition into Spain. It is not too
much to say, that there was scarcely an eminent Spanish scholar in the
beginning of the sixteenth century, who had not formed himself on the
instructions of this master. [25]
Another name worthy of commemoration, is that of Arias Barbosa, a learned
Portuguese, who, after passing some years, like Lebrija, in the schools of
Italy, where he studied the ancient tongues under the guidance of
Politiano, was induced to establish his residence in Spain. In 1489, we
find him at Salamanca, where he continued for twenty, or, according to
some accounts, forty years, teaching in the departments of Greek and
rhetoric. At the close of that period he returned to Portugal, where he
superintended the education of some of the members of the royal family,
and survived to a good old age. Barbosa was esteemed inferior to Lebrija
in extent of various erudition, but to have surpassed him in an accurate
knowledge of the Greek and poetical criticism. In the former, indeed, he
seems to have obtained a greater repute than any Spanish scholar of the
time. He composed some valuable works, especially on ancient prosody. The
unwearied assiduity and complete success of his academic labors have
secured to him a high reputation among the restorers of ancient learning,
and especially that of reviving a livelier relish for the study of the
Greek, by conducting it on principles of pure criticism, in the same
manner as Lebrija did with the Latin. [26]
The scope of the present work precludes the possibility of a copious
enumeration of the pioneers of ancient learning, to whom Spain owes so
large a debt of gratitude. [27]
The Castilian scholars of the close of the fifteenth, and the beginning of
the sixteenth century, may take rank with their illustrious contemporaries
of Italy. They could not indeed achieve such brilliant results in the
discovery of the remains of antiquity, for such remains had been long
scattered and lost amid the centuries of exile and disastrous warfare
consequent on the Saracen invasion. But they were unwearied in their
illustrations, both oral and written, of the ancient authors; and their
numerous commentaries, translations, dictionaries, grammars, and various
works of criticism, many of which, though now obsolete, passed into
repeated editions in their own day, bear ample testimony to the generous
zeal with which they conspired to raise their contemporaries to a proper
level for contemplating the works of the great masters of antiquity; and
well entitled them to the high eulogium of Erasmus, that "liberal studies
were brought, in the course of a few years, in Spain to so flourishing a
condition, as might not only excite the admiration, but serve as a model
to the most cultivated nations of Europe." [28]
The Spanish universities were the theatre on which this classical
erudition was more especially displayed. Previous to Isabella's reign,
there were but few schools in the kingdom; not one indeed of any note,
except in Salamanca; and this did not escape the blight which fell on
every generous study. But under the cheering patronage of the present
government, they were soon filled, and widely multiplied. Academies of
repute were to be found in Seville, Toledo, Salamanca, Granada, and
Alcalá; and learned teachers were drawn from abroad by the most liberal
emoluments. At the head of these establishments stood "the illustrious
city of Salamanca," as Marineo fondly terms it, "mother of all liberal
arts and virtues, alike renowned for noble cavaliers and learned men."
[29] Such was its reputation, that foreigners as well as natives were
attracted to its schools, and at one time, according to the authority of
the same professor, seven thousand students were assembled within its
walls. A letter of Peter Martyr, to his patron the count of Tendilla,
gives a whimsical picture of the literary enthusiasm of this place. The
throng was so great to hear his introductory lecture on one of the Satires
of Juvenal, that every avenue to the hall was blockaded, and the professor
was borne in on the shoulders of the students. Professorships in every
department of science then studied, as well as of polite letters, were
established at the university, the "new Athens," as Martyr somewhere
styles it. Before the close of Isabella's reign, however, its glories were
rivalled, if not eclipsed, by those of Alcalá; [30] which combined higher
advantages for ecclesiastical with civil education, and which, under the
splendid patronage of Cardinal Ximenes, executed the famous polyglot
version of the Scriptures, the most stupendous literary enterprise of that
age. [31]
This active cultivation was not confined to the dead languages, but spread
more or less over every department of knowledge. Theological science, in
particular, received a large share of attention. It had always formed a
principal object of academic instruction, though suffered to languish
under the universal corruption of the preceding reign. It was so common
for the clergy to be ignorant of the most elementary knowledge, that the
council of Aranda found it necessary to pass an ordinance, the year before
Isabella's accession, that no person should be admitted to orders who was
ignorant of Latin. The queen took the most effectual means for correcting
this abuse, by raising only competent persons to ecclesiastical dignities.
The highest stations in the church were reserved for those who combined
the highest intellectual endowments with unblemished piety. Cardinal
Mendoza, whose acute and comprehensive mind entered with interest into
every scheme for the promotion of science, was archbishop of Toledo;
Talavera, whose hospitable mansion was itself an academy for men of
letters, and whose princely revenues were liberally dispensed for their
support, was raised to the see of Granada; and Ximenes, whose splendid
literary projects will require more particular notice hereafter, succeeded
Mendoza in the primacy of Spain. Under the protection of these enlightened
patrons, theological studies were pursued with ardor, the Scriptures
copiously illustrated, and sacred eloquence cultivated with success.
A similar impulse was felt in the other walks of science. Jurisprudence
assumed a new aspect, under the learned labors of Montalvo. [32] The
mathematics formed a principal branch of education, and were successfully
applied to astronomy and geography. Valuable treatises were produced on
medicine, and on the more familiar practical arts, as husbandry, for
example. [33] History, which since the time of Alfonso the Tenth had been
held in higher honor and more widely Cultivated in Castile than in any
other European state, began to lay aside the garb of chronicle, and to be
studied on more scientific principles. Charters and diplomas were
consulted, manuscripts collated, coins and lapidary inscriptions
deciphered, and collections made of these materials, the true basis of
authentic history; and an office of public archives, like that now
existing at Simancas, was established at Burgos, and placed under the care
of Alonso de Mota, as keeper, with a liberal salary. [34]
Nothing could have been more opportune for the enlightened purposes of
Isabella, than the introduction of the art of printing into Spain, at the
commencement, indeed in the very first year, of her reign. She saw, from
the first moment, all the advantages which it promised for diffusing and
perpetuating the discoveries of science. She encouraged its establishment
by large privileges to those who exercised it, whether natives or
foreigners, and by causing many of the works, composed by her subjects, to
be printed at her own charge. [35]
Among the earlier printers we frequently find the names of Germans; a
people, who to the original merits of the discovery may justly add that of
its propagation among every nation of Europe. We meet with a
_pragmática_, or royal ordinance, dated in 1477, exempting a German,
named Theodoric, from taxation, on the ground of being "one of the
principal persons in the discovery and practice of the art of printing
books, which he had brought with him into Spain at great risk and expense,
with the design of ennobling the libraries of the kingdom." [36]
Monopolies for printing and selling books for a limited period, answering
to the modern copyright, were granted to certain persons, in consideration
of their doing so at a reasonable rate. [37] It seems to have been usual
for the printers to be also the publishers and venders of books. These
exclusive privileges, however, do not appear to have been carried to a
mischievous extent. Foreign books, of every description, by a law of 1480,
were allowed to be imported into the kingdom, free of all duty whatever;
an enlightened provision, which might furnish a useful hint to legislators
of the nineteenth century. [38]
The first press appears to have been erected at Valencia, in 1474;
although the glory of precedence is stoutly contested by several places,
and especially by Barcelona. [39] The first work printed was a collection
of songs, composed for a poetical contest in honor of the Virgin, for the
most part in the Limousin or Valencian dialect. [40] In the following year
the first ancient classic, being the works of Sallust, was printed; and,
in 1478, there appeared from the same press a translation of the
Scriptures, in the Limousin, by Father Boniface Ferrer, brother of the
famous Dominican, St. Vincent Ferrer. [41] Through the liberal patronage
of the government, the art was widely diffused; and before the end of the
fifteenth century, presses were established and in active operation in the
principal cities of the united kingdom; in Toledo, Seville, Ciudad Real,
Granada, Valladolid, Burgos, Salamanca, Zamora, Saragossa, Valencia,
Barcelona, Monte Rey, Lerida, Murcia, Tolosa, Tarragona, Alcalá de
Henares, and Madrid.
It is painful to notice amidst the judicious provisions for the
encouragement of science, one so entirely repugnant to their spirit as the
establishment of the censorship. By an ordinance, dated at Toledo, July
8th, 1502, it was decreed, that, "as many of the books sold in the kingdom
were defective, or false, or apocryphal, or pregnant with vain and
superstitious novelties, it was therefore ordered that no book should
hereafter be printed without special license from the king, or some person
regularly commissioned by him for the purpose." The names of the
commissioners then follow, consisting mostly of ecclesiastics, archbishops
and bishops, with authority respectively over their several dioceses. [42]
This authority was devolved in later times, under Charles the Fifth and
his successors, on the Council of the Supreme, over which the inquisitor-
general presided _ex-officio_. The immediate agents employed in the
examination were also drawn from the Inquisition, who exercised this
important trust, as is well known, in a manner most fatal to the interests
of letters and humanity. Thus a provision, destined in its origin for the
advancement of science, by purifying it from the crudities and corruptions
which naturally infect it in a primitive age, contributed more effectually
to its discouragement, than any other which could have been devised, by
interdicting the freedom of expression, so indispensable to freedom of
inquiry. [43]
While endeavoring to do justice to the progress of civilization in this
reign, I should regret to present to the reader an over-colored picture of
its results. Indeed, less emphasis should be laid on any actual results,
than on the spirit of improvement, which they imply in the nation, and the
liberal dispositions of the government. The fifteenth century was
distinguished by a zeal for research and laborious acquisition, especially
in ancient literature, throughout Europe, which showed itself in Italy in
the beginning of the age, and in Spain, and some other countries, towards
the close. It was natural that men should explore the long-buried
treasures descended from their ancestors, before venturing on anything of
their own creation. Their efforts were eminently successful; and, by
opening an acquaintance with the immortal productions of ancient
literature, they laid the best foundation for the cultivation of the
modern.
In the sciences, their success was more equivocal. A blind reverence for
authority, a habit of speculation, instead of experiment, so pernicious in
physics, in short, an ignorance of the true principles of philosophy,
often led the scholars of that day in a wrong direction. Even when they
took a right one, their attainments, under all these impediments, were
necessarily so small, as to be scarcely perceptible, when viewed from the
brilliant heights to which science has arrived in our own age.
Unfortunately for Spain, its subsequent advancement has been so retarded,
that a comparison of the fifteenth century with those which succeeded it,
is by no means so humiliating to the former as in some other countries of
Europe; and, it is certain, that in general intellectual fermentation, no
period has surpassed, if it can be said to have rivalled, the age of
Isabella.
FOOTNOTES
[1] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 153.
[2] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 154, 182.
[3] Carro de las Doñas, lib. 2, cap. 62 et seq., apud Mem. de la Acad. de
Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 21.--Pulgar, Letras, (Amstelodami, 1670,) let. 11.
--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.--It is sufficient evidence of
her familiarity with the Latin, that the letters addressed to her by her
confessor seem to have been written in that language and the Castilian
indifferently, exhibiting occasionally a curious patchwork in the
alternate use of each in the same epistle. See Correspondencia Epistolar,
apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 13.
[4] Previous to the introduction of printing, collections of books were
necessarily very small and thinly scattered, owing to the extreme cost of
manuscripts. The learned Saez has collected some curious particulars
relative to this matter. The most copious library which he could find any
account of, in the middle of the fifteenth century, was owned by the
counts of Benavente, and contained not more than one hundred and twenty
volumes. Many of these were duplicates; of Livy alone there were eight
copies. The cathedral churches in Spain rented their books every year by
auction to the highest bidders, whence they derived a considerable
revenue.
It would appear from a copy of Gratian's Canons, preserved in the
Celestine monastery in Paris, that the copyist was engaged twenty-one
months in transcribing that manuscript. At this rate, the production of
four thousand copies by one hand would require nearly eight thousand
years, a work now easily performed in less than four months. Such was the
tardiness in multiplying copies before the invention of printing. Two
thousand volumes may be procured now at a price, which in those days would
hardly have sufficed to purchase fifty. See Tratado de Monedas de Enrique
III., apud Moratin, Obras, ed. de la Acad., (Madrid, 1830,) tom. i. pp.
91, 92. Moratin argues from extreme cases.
[5] Navagiero, Viaggio fatto in Spagna et in Francia, (Vinegia, 1563,)
fol. 23.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust, 17. The largest
collection comprised about two hundred and one articles, or distinct
works. Of these, about a third is taken up with theology, comprehending
Bibles, psalters, missals, lives of saints, and works of the fathers; one-
fifth, civil law and the municipal code of Spain; one-fourth, ancient
classics, modern literature, and romances of chivalry; one-tenth, history;
the residue is devoted to ethics, medicine, grammar, astrology, etc. The
only Italian author, besides Leonardo Bruno d'Arezzo, is Boccaccio. The
works of the latter writer consisted of the "Fiammetta," the treatises "De
Casibus Illustrium Virorum," and "De Claris Mulieribus," and probably the
"Decameron;" the first in the Italian, and the three last translated into
the Spanish. It is singular, that neither of Boccaccio's great
contemporaries, Dante and Petrarch, the former of whom had been translated
by Villena, and imitated by Juan de Mena, half a century before, should
have found a place in the collection.
[6] Antonio, the eldest, died in 1488. Part of his Latin poetical works,
entitled "Sacred Bucolics," was printed in 1505, at Salamanca. The younger
brother, Alessandro, after bearing arms in the Portuguese war, was
subsequently employed in the instruction of the infantas, finally embraced
the ecclesiastical state, and died bishop of St. Domingo, in 1525. Mem. de
la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.--Tiraboschi, Letteratura Italiana,
tom. vi. part. 2, p. 285.
[7] The learned Valencian, Luis Vives, in his treatise "De Christianâ
Feminâ," remarks, "Aetas noster quatuor illas Isabellae reginae filias,
quas paullo ante memoravi, eruditas vidit. Non sine laudibus et
admiratione refertur mihi passim in hae terrâ Joannam, Philippi conjugem,
Caroli hujus matrem, extempore latinis orationibus, quae de more apud
novos principes oppidatim habentur, latine respondisse. Idem de reginâ
suâ, Joannae sorore, Britanni praedicant; idem omnes de duabus aliis, quae
in Lusitaniâ fato concessere." (De Christianâ Feminâ, cap. 4, apud Mem. de
la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.)--It appears, however, that
Isabella was not inattentive to the more humble accomplishments, in the
education of her daughters. "Regina," says the same author, "nere, suere,
acu pingere quatuor filias auas doctas esse voluit." Another contemporary,
the author of the Carro de las Doñas, (lib. 2, cap. 62, apud Mem. de la
Acad. de Hist., Ilust. 21,) says, "she educated her son and daughters,
giving them masters of life and letters, and surrounding them with such
persons as tended to make them vessels of election, and kings in Heaven."
Erasmus notices the literary attainments of the youngest daughter of the
sovereigns, the unfortunate Catharine of Aragon, with unqualified
admiration. In one of his letters, he styles her "egregie doctam;" and in
another he remarks, "Regina non tantum in sexus miraculum literata est;
nec minus pietate suspicienda, quam eruditione." Epistolae, (Londini,
1642,) lib. 19, epist. 31; lib. 2, epist. 24.
[8] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Deza.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist.,
tom. vi. Ilust. 14.
[9] Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 14.
Juan de la Eucina, in the dedication to the prince, of his translation of
Virgil's Bucolics, pays the following compliment to the enlightened and
liberal taste of Prince John. "Favoresceis tanto la sciencia andando
acompañado de tantos e tan doctísimos varones, que no menos dejareis
perdurable memoria de haber alargado e estendido los límites e términos de
la sciencia que los del imperio." The extraordinary promise of this young
prince made his name known in distant parts of Europe, and his untimely
death, which occurred in the twentieth year of his age, was commemorated
by an epitaph of the learned Greek exile, Constantine Lascaris.
[10] "Aficionados á la guerra," says Oviedo, speaking of some young nobles
of his time, "_por su Española y natural inclinacion_." Quincuagenas,
MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.
[11] For some account of this eminent Italian scholar, see the postscript
to Part I. Chap. 14, of this History.
[12] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 102, 103.
Lucio Marineo, in a discourse addressed to Charles V., thus notices the
queen's solicitude for the instruction of her young nobility. "Isabella
praesertim Regina magnanima, virtutum omnium maxima cultrix. Quae quidem
multis et magnis occupata negotiis, ut aliis exemplum praeberet, a primis
grammaticae rudimentis studere coepit, et omnes suae domûs adolescentes
utriusque sexûs nobilium liberos, praeceptoribus liberaliter et honorifice
conductis erudiendos commendabat." Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi.
Apend. 16.--See also Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial.
36.
[13] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 115.
[14] A particular account of Marineo's writings may be found in Nic.
Antonio. (Bibliotheca Nova, tom. ii. Apend. p. 369.) The most important of
these is his work "De Rebus Hispaniae Memorabilibus," often cited, in the
Castilian, in this History. It is a rich repository of details respecting
the geography, statistics, and manners of the Peninsula, with a copious
historical notice of events in Ferdinand and Isabella's reign. The
author's insatiable curiosity, during a long residence in the country,
enabled him to collect many facts, of a kind that do not fall within the
ordinary compass of history; while his extensive learning, and his
familiarity with foreign models, peculiarly qualified him for estimating
the institutions he describes. It must be confessed he is sufficiently
partial to the land of his adoption. The edition, referred to in this
work, is in black letter, printed before, or soon after, the author's
death (the date of which is uncertain), in 1539, at Alcalá de Henares, by
Juan Brocar, one of a family long celebrated in the annals of Castilian
printing. Marineo's prologue concludes with the following noble tribute to
letters. "Porque todos los otros bienes son subjectos a la fortuna y
mudables y en poco tiempo mudan muchos dueños passando de unos señores en
otros, mas los dones de letras y hystorias que se ofrescen para
perpetuidad de memoria y fama son immortales y prorogan y guardan para
siempre la memoria assi de los que los reciben, como de los que los
ofrescen."
[15] Sepulveda, Democrites, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi.
Ilust. 16.--Signorelli, Coltura nelle Sicilie, tom. iv. p. 318.--
Tiraboschi, Letteratura Italiana, tom. vii. part. 3, lib. 3, cap. 4.--
Comp. Lampillas, Saggio Storico-Apologetico de la Letteratura Spagnuola,
(Genova, 1778,) tom. ii. dis. 2, sect. 5.--The patriotic Abate is greatly
scandalized by the degree of influence which Tiraboschi and other Italian
critics ascribe to their own language over the Castilian, especially at
this period. The seven volumes, in which he has discharged his bile on the
heads of the offenders, afford valuable materials for the historian of
Spanish literature. Tiraboschi must be admitted to have the better of his
antagonist in temper, if not in argument.
[16] Among these we find copious translations from the ancient classics,
as Caesar, Appian, Plutarch, Plautus, Sallust, Aesop, Justin, Boëthius,
Apulius, Herodian, affording strong evidence of the activity of the
Castilian scholars in this department. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi.
pp. 406, 407.--Mendez, Typographia Española, pp. 133, 139.
[17] Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, cap. 21.
Lucio Marineo Siculo, in his discourse above alluded to, in which he
exhibits the condition of letters under the reign of Ferdinand and
Isabella, enumerates the names of the nobility most conspicuous for their
scholarship. This valuable document was to be found only in the edition of
Marineo's work, "De Rebus Hispaniae Memorabilibus," printed at Alcalá, in
1630, whence it has been transferred by Clemencin to the sixth volume of
the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of History.
[18] His work "Guerra de Granada," was first published at Madrid, in 1610,
and "may be compared," says Nic. Antonio, in a judgment which has been
ratified by the general consent of his countrymen, "with the compositions
of Sallust, or any other ancient historian." His poetry and his celebrated
_picaresco_ novel "Lazarillo de Tormes," have made an epoch in the
ornamental literature of Spain.
[19] Oviedo has devoted one of his dialogues to this nobleman, equally
distinguished by his successes in arms, letters, and love; the last of
which, according to that writer, he had not entirely resigned at the age
of seventy.--Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 28.
[20] For an account of Santillana, see the First Chapter of this History.
The cardinal, in early life, is said to have translated for his father the
Aeneid, the Odyssey, Ovid, Valerius Maximus, and Sallust. (Mem. de la
Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.) This Herculean feat would put modern
school-boys to shame, and we may suppose that partial versions only of
these authors are intended.
[21] Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas,
MS., dial. de Grizio.
Señor Clemencin has examined with much care the intellectual culture of
the nation under Isabella, in the sixteenth _Ilustracion_ of his work. He
has touched lightly on its poetical character, considering, no doubt, that
this had been sufficiently developed by other critics. His essay, however,
is rich in information in regard to the scholarship and severer studies of
the period. The reader, who would pursue the inquiry still further, may
find abundant materials in Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Vetus, tom. ii. lib.
10, cap. 13 et seq.--Idem, Bibliotheca Hispana Nova, (Matriti, 1783-8,)
tom. i. ii. passim.
[22] See Part I. Chap. 8, of this History.
[23] For a notice of this scholar, see the postscript to Part I. Chap. 11,
of this History.
[24] Mendez, Typographia Española, pp. 271, 272. In the second edition,
published 1482, the author states, that no work of the time had a greater
circulation, more than a thousand copies of it, at a high price, having
been disposed of in the preceding year. Ibid., p. 237.
[25] Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. pp. 132-139.--Lampillas,
Letteratura Spagnuola, tom. ii. dis. 2, sec. 3.--Dialogo de las Lenguas,
apud Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, (Madrid, 1737,) tom. ii. pp. 46, 47.
Lucio Marineo pays the following elegant compliment to this learned
Spaniard, in his discourse before quoted. "Amisit nuper Hispania maximum
sui cultorem in re litterariâ, Antonium Nebrissensem, qui primus ex Italiâ
in Hispaniam Musas adduxit, quibuscum barbariem ex suâ patriâ fugavit, et
Hispaniam totam linguae Latinae lectionibus illustravit." "Meruerat id,"
says Gomez de Castro of Lebrija, "et multo majora hominis eruditio, cui
Hispania debet, quicquid habet bonarum literarum."
The acute author of the "Dialogo de las Lenguas," while he renders ample
homage to Lebrija's Latin erudition, disputes his critical acquaintance
with his own language, from his being a native of Andalusia, where the
Castilian was not spoken with purity. "Hablaba y escrivia como en el
Andalucia y no como en la Castilla." P. 92. See also pp. 9, 10, 46, 53.
[26] Barbosa, Bibliotheca Lusitana, (Lisboa Occidental, 1741,) tom. i. pp.
76-78.--Signorelli, Coltura nelle Sicilie, tom. iv. pp. 315-321.--Mayans y
Siscar, Origenes, tom. i. p. 173.--Lampillas, Letteratura Spagnuola, tom.
ii. dis. 2, sect. 5.--Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. pp. 170,
171.
[27] Among these are particularly deserving of attention the brothers John
and Francis Vergara, professors at Alcalá, the latter of whom was esteemed
one of the most accomplished scholars of the age; Nuñez de Guzman, of the
ancient house of that name, professor for many years at Salamanca and
Alcalá, and the author of the Latin version in the famous Polyglot of
Cardinal Ximenes; he left behind him numerous works, especially
commentaries on the classics; Olivario, whose curious erudition was
abundantly exhibited in his illustrations of Cicero and other Latin
authors; and lastly Vives, whose fame rather belongs to Europe than his
own country, who, when only twenty-six years old, drew from Erasmus the
encomium, that "there was scarcely any one of the age whom he could
venture to compare with him in philosophy, eloquence, and liberal
learning." But the most unequivocal testimony to the deep and various
scholarship of the period is afforded by that stupendous literary work of
Cardinal Ximenes, the Polyglot Bible, whose versions in the Greek, Latin,
and Oriental tongues were collated, with a single exception, by Spanish
scholars. Erasmus, Epistolae, lib. 19, epist. 101.--Lampillas, Letteratura
Spagnuola, tom. ii. pp. 382-384, 495, 792-794; tom. ii. p. 208 et seq.--
Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 37.
[28] Erasmus, Epistolae, p. 977.
[29] "La muy esclarecida ciudad de Salamanca, madre de las artes
liberales, y todas virtudes, y ansi de cavalleros como de letrados
varones, muy ilustre." Cosas Memorables, fol. 11.--Chacon, Hist. de la
Universidad de Salamanca, apud Semanario Erudito, tom. xviii. pp. 1-61.
[30] "Academia Complutensis," says Erasmus of this university, "non
aliunde celebritatem nominis auspicata est quàm a complectendo linguae ac
bonas literas. Cujus praecipuum oramentum est egregius ille senex,
planéque dignus qui multos vincat Nestoras, Antonius Nebrissensis." Epist.
ad Ludovicum Vivem, 1521. Epistolae, p. 755.
[31] Cosas Memorables, ubi supra.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 57.--
Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, lib. 4.--Chacon, Universidad de Salamanca, ubi
supra.
It appears that the practice of scraping with the feet as an expression of
disapprobation, familiar in our universities, is of venerable antiquity;
for Martyr mentions, that he was saluted with it before finishing his
discourse by one or two idle youths, dissatisfied with its length. The
lecturer, however, seems to have given general satisfaction, for he was
escorted back in triumph to his lodgings, to use his own language, "like a
victor in the Olympic games," after the conclusion of the exercise.
[32] For some remarks on the labors of this distinguished jurisconsult,
see Part I. Chap. 6, and Part II. Chap. 26, of the present work.
[33] The most remarkable of these latter is Herrera's treatise on
Agriculture, which since its publication in Toledo, in 1520, has passed
through a variety of editions at home and translations abroad. Nic.
Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. p. 503.
[34] This collection, with the ill luck which has too often befallen such
repositories in Spain, was burnt in the war of the Communities, in the
time of Charles V. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.--
Morales, Obras, tom. vii. p. 18.--Informe de Ríol, who particularly
notices the solicitude of Ferdinand and Isabella for preserving the public
documents.
[35] Mendez, Typographia Española, p. 51.
[36] Archivo de Murcia, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 244.
[37] Mendez, Typographia Española, pp. 52, 332.
[38] Ordenanças Reales, lib. 4, tit. 4, ley 22.--The preamble of this
statute is expressed in the following enlightened terms; "Considerando los
Reyes de gloriosa memoria quanto era provechoso y honroso, que a estos sus
reynos se truxessen libros de otras partes para que con ellos se hiziessen
los hombres letrados, quisieron y ordenaron, que de los libros no se
pagasse el alcavala.... Lo qual parece que redunda en provecho universal
de todos, y en ennoblecimiento de nuestros Reynos."
[39] Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. part. 2, lib. 2, cap. 6.--Mendez,
Typographia Española, pp. 55, 93.
Bouterwek intimates, that the art of printing was first practised in Spain
by German printers at Seville, _in the beginning of the sixteenth
century_. (Bouterwek, Geschichte der Poesie und Beredsamkeit, (Göttingen,
1801-17,) band iii. p. 98.)--He appears to have been misled by a solitary
example quoted from Mayans y Siscar. The want of materials has more than
once led this eminent critic to build sweeping conclusions on slender
premises.
[40] The title of the book is "Certamen poetich en lohor de la Concecio,"
Valencia, 1474, 4to. The name of the printer is wanting. Mendez,
Typographia Española, p. 56.
[41] Ibid., pp. 61-63.
[42] Mendez, Typographia Española, pp. 52, 53.--Pragmáticas del Reyno,
fol. 138, 139.
[43] Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 13, art. 1.
"Adempto per _inquisitiones_," says Tacitus of the gloomy times of
Domitian, "et loquendi audiendique commercio." (Vita Agricolae, sec. 2.)
Beaumarchais, in a merrier vein, indeed, makes the same bitter
reflections. "Il s'est établi dans Madrid un système de liberté sur la
vente des productions, qui s'étend même a celles de la presse; et que,
pourvu que je ne parle en mes écrits ni de l'autorité, ni de culte, ni de
la politique, ni de la morale, ni des gens en place, ni des corps en
crédit, ni de l'Opéra, ni des autres spectacles, ni de personne qui tienne
à quelque chose, je puis tout imprimer librement, sous l'inspection de
deux ou trois censeurs," Mariage de Figaro, acte 5, sc. 3.