[847] It is republished in the volume mentioned in the last note; but we know nothing of its author.
[848] Diálogos muy Subtiles y Notables, etc., por D. Pedro de Navarra, Obispo de Comenge, Çaragoça, 1567, 12mo, 118 leaves. The first five Dialogues are on the Character becoming a Royal Chronicler; the next four on the Differences between a Rustic and a Noble Life; and the remaining thirty-one on Preparation for Death;—all written in a pure, simple Castilian style, but with little either new or striking in the thoughts. Their author says, it was a rule of the Academia, that the person who arrived last at each meeting should furnish a subject for discussion, and direct another member to reduce to writing the remarks that might be made on it,—Cardinal Poggio, Juan d’Estuñiga, knight-commander of Castile, and other persons of note, being of the society. Navarra adds, that he had written two hundred dialogues, in which there were “few matters that had not been touched upon in that excellent Academy,” and notes especially, that the subject of Preparation for Death had been discussed after the decease of Cobos, a confidential minister of Charles V., and that he himself had acted as secretary on the occasion. Traces of any thing contemporary are, however, rare in the forty dialogues he printed;—the most important that I have noticed relating to Charles V. and his retirement at San Yuste, which the good Bishop seems to have believed was a sincere abandonment of all worldly thoughts and passions. I find nothing to illustrate the character of Cortés, except the fact that such meetings were held at his house.
[849] Silva de Varia Leccion, por Pedro Mexia. The first edition (Sevilla, 1543, fol., lit. got., 144 leaves) is in only three parts. Another, which I also possess, is of Madrid, 1669, and in six books, filling about 700 closely printed quarto pages. It was long very popular, and there are many editions of it, besides translations into Italian, German, French, Flemish, and English. One English version is by Thomas Fortescue, and appeared in 1571. (Warton’s Eng. Poetry, London, 1824, 8vo, Tom. IV. p. 312.) Another, which is anonymous, is called “The Treasure of Ancient and Modern Times, etc., translated out of that worthy Spanish Gentleman, Pedro Mexia, and Mr. Francisco Sansovino, the Italian,” etc. (London, 1613, fol.). It is a curious mixture of similar discussions by different authors, Spanish, Italian, and French. Mexia’s part begins at Book I. c. 8.
[850] The earliest edition of the Dialogues, I think, is that of Seville, 1547, 8vo. The one I use is in 12mo, and was printed at Seville, 1562, black letter, 167 leaves. The second dialogue, which is on Inviting to Feasts, is amusing; but the last, which is on subjects of physical science, such as the causes of thunder, earthquakes, and comets, is now-a-days only curious or ridiculous. At the end of the Dialogues, and sometimes at the end of old editions of the Silva, is found a free translation of the Exhortation to Virtue by Isocrates, made from the Latin of Agricola, because Mexia did not understand Greek. It is of no value.
[851] Diálogo de la Verdadera Honra Militar, por Gerónimo Ximenez de Urrea. There are editions of 1566, 1575, 1661, etc. (Latassa, Bib. Arag. Nueva, Tom. I. p. 264.) Mine is a small quarto volume, Zaragoza, 1642. One of the most amusing passages in the Dialogue of Urrea is the one in Part First, containing a detailed statement of every thing relating to the duel proposed by Francis I. to Charles V.
[852] As late as 1592, when the “Conversion de la Magdalena,” by Pedro Malon de Chaide was published, the opposition to the use of the Castilian in grave subjects was continued. He says, people talked to him as if it were “a sacrilege” to discuss such matters except in Latin. (f. 15.) But he replies, like a true Spaniard, that the Castilian is better for such purposes than Latin or Greek, and that he trusts before long to see it as widely spread as the arms and glories of his country. (f. 17.)
[853] A full account of Juan Lopez de Vivero Palacios Rubios, who was a man of consequence in his time, and engaged in the famous compilation of the Spanish laws called “Leyes de Toro,” is contained in Rezabal y Ugarte (Biblioteca, pp. 266-271). His works in Latin are numerous; but in Spanish he published only “Del Esfuerzo Belico Heroyco,” which appeared first at Salamanca in 1524, folio, but of which there is a beautiful Madrid edition, 1793, folio, with notes by Francisco Morales.
[854] Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 8. He flourished about 1531-45. His “Agonía del Tránsito de la Muerte,” a glossary to which, by its author, is dated 1543, was first printed from his corrected manuscript, many years later. My copy, which seems to be of the first edition, is dated Alcalá, 1574, and is in 12mo. The treatise called “Diferencias de Libros que ay en el Universo,” by the same author, who, however, here writes his name Venegas, was finished in 1539, and printed at Toledo in 1540, 4to. It is written in a good style, though not without conceits of thought, and conceited phrases. But it is not, as its title might seem to imply, a criticism on books and authors, but the opinion of Vanegas himself, how we should study the great books of God, nature, man, and Christianity. It is, in fact, intended to discourage the reading of books then much in fashion, and deemed by him bad.
[855] He died in 1569. In 1534 he was in the prisons of the Inquisition, and in 1559 one of his books was put into the Index Expurgatorius. Nevertheless, he was regarded as a sort of Saint. (Llorente, Histoire de l’Inquisition, Tom. II. pp. 7 and 423.) His “Cartas Espirituales” were not printed, I believe, till the year of his death. (Antonio, Bib. Nova, Tom. I. pp. 639-642.) His treatises on Self-knowledge, on Prayer, and on other religious subjects, are equally well written, and in the same style of eloquence. A long life, or rather eulogy, of him is prefixed to the first volume of his works, (Madrid, 1595, 4to,) by Juan Diaz.
[856] A life of Guevara is prefixed to the edition of his Epístolas, Madrid, 1673, 4to; but there is a good account of him by himself in the Prólogo to his “Menosprecio de Corte.”