[236] “Tractado de las Drogas y Medicinas de las Indias Orientales, por Christóval Acosta,” Burgos, (1578, 4to,) where its author was a surgeon; but there are other editions, (1582 and 1592,) and early Italian and French translations. The “Tractado en Loor de las Mugeres, por Christóval Acosta, Affricano,” was printed at Venice, 1592, 4to, and I know no other edition. Barbosa, in his life of Acosta, spells his name Da Costa.
[237] Preface to Obras de Luis de Granada, Madrid, 1657, folio, and Preface to Guia de Pecadores, Madrid, 1781, 8vo. Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. II. p. 38. Llorente, Hist., Tom. III. p. 123. His works are numerous, and he enjoys the singular honor of having had an edition of them published by Planta, at the expense of the Duke of Alva, the minister and general of Philip II.
[238] Obras de San Juan de la Cruz, Sevilla, 1703, folio, twelfth edition.
[239] Obras de Santa Teresa, (Madrid, 1793, 2 tom. 4to,) Tom. I. p. 393. Of her letters I have spoken, ante, [p. 135], and an excellent discussion of her character, and that of the mystical school to which she belonged, may be found in the Christian Examiner, No. 152, Boston, March, 1849. Her works are accompanied with many offers of indulgence to those who read a chapter or a letter of any of them, or hear it read. For her troubles with the Inquisition, see Llorente, Tom. III. p. 114. Santa Teresa was beatified in 1614, and canonized in 1622; besides which, in 1617 and 1626, the Cortes chose her to be the co-patroness and advocate of Spain with Santiago; an honor that was long resisted, but was urged anew by the testament of Charles II., and confirmed by the Cortes of 1812, June 28, at the urgent petition of the Carmelites, in a spirit worthy of the age in which she lived. See Southey’s Peninsular War, London, 1832, 4to, Tom. III. p. 539.
[240] Malon de Chaide was an Augustinian monk, and Professor at Salamanca; and there are editions of his Magdalen of 1592, Alcalá, 12mo, of 1596, 1603, 1794, etc. A somewhat similar book had preceded it, “The History of the Queen of Sheba, when she discoursed with King Solomon in Jerusalem.” It was written by another Augustinian monk, Alonso de Horosco, a somewhat voluminous writer, and was printed at Salamanca, in 1568, 12mo. But it is little more than a collection of ordinary sermons, some of which do not mention the Queen of Sheba at all, and is to be regarded only as a courtly offering to Isabella, wife of Philip II., whose chaplain Horosco was.
[241] An edition of 1583 is cited by Antonio, (Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 178,) but this cannot be. See Viage, Madrid, 1640, 12mo, f. 66. a. The first edition must be that of Madrid, 1603, cited in the Index Expurgatorius, 1667, where it is roughly handled, but since which it has been often reprinted. Clemencin, (Don Quixote, Tom. III. p. 395,) when speaking of Spanish actors, rightly calls the Viage of Roxas “libro magistral en la materia.” Another work, imputed to Roxas, which I have never seen, called “El Buen Repúblico,” was wholly prohibited.
[242] “El Pasagero, Advertencias utilíssimas á la Vida Humana, por el Doctor Christ. Suarez de Figueroa,” Madrid, 1617, 12mo, ff. 492. Figueroa also published (Madrid, 1621, 4to) a volume of five hundred pages, entitled, “Varias Noticias importantes á la Humana Comunicacion,” which he divides into twenty essays, entitled “Variedades.” It is less well written than the Pasagero, falling more into the faults of the time. The seventeenth Essay, however, which is on Domestic Life, with illustrations from Spanish history, is pleasant. His “Plaza Universal de las Ciencias,” first printed at Madrid, in 1615, 4to, and reprinted in folio, with large changes and additions, in 1737, is an attempt at a compendium of human knowledge, curious in the first edition, as showing the state of knowledge and opinion at that time in Spain, but of little value in either.
A more serious book of travels might here have been added; that of Pedro Ordoñez de Cevallos, entitled “Viage del Mundo,” and first printed at Madrid, 1614, 4to. It is an agreeable and often interesting autobiography of its author, beginning with his birth at Jaen and his education at Seville, and giving his travels, for thirty-nine years, all over the world, including China, America, many parts of Africa, and the northern kingdoms of Europe. Its spirit is eminently national, and its style simple and Castilian.
[243] “El Governador Christiano, deducido de las Vidas de Moyses y Josua, por Juan Marquez.” There are editions of 1612, 1619, 1634, etc., with translations into Italian and French. The same author wrote, also, “Dos Estados de la Espiritual Jerusalem,” 1603. He was born in 1564, and died in 1621. Capmany (Eloquencia, Tom. IV. pp. 103, etc.) praises him highly.
[244] “El Embaxador, por Don Juan Antonio de Vera y Zuñiga,” Sevilla, 1620, 4to, 280 leaves. I have noticed him as an epic poet, Vol. II. p. 500.