[871] The Diálogo de las Lenguas was not printed till it appeared in Mayans y Siscar, “Orígenes de la Lengua Española,” (Madrid, 1737, 2 tom. 12mo); where it fills the first half of the second volume, and is the best thing in the collection. Probably the manuscript had been kept out of sight as the work of a well-known heretic. Mayans says, that it could be traced to Zurita, the historian, and that, in 1736, it was purchased for the Royal Library, of which Mayans himself was then librarian. One leaf was wanting, which he could not supply; and though he seems to have believed Valdés to have been the author of the Dialogue, he avoids saying so,—perhaps from an unwillingness to attract the notice of the Inquisition to it. (Orígenes, Tom. I. pp. 173-180.) Iriarte, in the “Aprobacion” of the collection, treats the Diálogo as if its author were quite unknown.
[872] Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. I. p. 97.
[873] Ibid., p. 98.
[874] Sandoval says that Charles V. suffered greatly in the opinion of the Spaniards, on his first arrival in Spain, because, owing to his inability to speak Spanish, they had hardly any proper intercourse with him. It was, he adds, as if they could not talk with him at all. Historia, Anvers, 1681, folio, Tom. I. p. 141.
[875] Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. II. pp. 127-133. The author of the Diálogo urges the introduction of a considerable number of words from the Italian, such as discurso, facilitar, fantasia, novela, etc., which have long since been adopted and fully recognized by the Academy. Diego de Mendoza, though partly of the Italian school, objected to the word centinela as a needless Italianism; but it was soon fully received into the language. (Guerra de Granada, ed. 1776, Lib. III. c. 7, p. 176.) A little later, Luis Velez de Guevara, in Tranco X. of his “Diablo Cojuelo,” denied citizenship to fulgor, purpurear, pompa, and other words now in good use.
[876] Mendez, Typographía, p. 175. Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. p. 333.
[877] Mendez, Typog., pp. 239-242. For the great merits of Antonio de Lebrixa, in relation to the Spanish language, see “Specimen Bibliothecæ Hispano-Mayansianæ ex Museo D. Clementis,” Hannoveræ, 1753, 4to, pp. 4-39.
[878] Mendez, pp. 243 and 212, and Antonio, Bib. Nova, Tom. II. p. 266.
[879] The Grammar of Juan de Navidad, 1567, is not an exception to this remark, because it was intended to teach Spanish to Italians, and not to natives.
[880] Clemencin, in Mem. de la Academia de Historia, Tom. VI. p. 472, notes.