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.