Roman paladino means the “plain Romance language,” paladino being derived, as I think, with Sanchez, from palam, though Sarmiento (in his manuscript on “Amadis de Gaula,” referred to, Vol. I. p. 322, note) says, when noticing this line: “Paladino es de palatino y este es de palacio.” The otro latino is, of course, the elder Latin, however corrupted. Cervantes uses the word ladino to mean Spanish, (Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 41, and the note of Clemencin,) and Dante (Par., III. 63) uses it once to mean plain, easy; both curious instances of an indirect meaning, forced, as it were, upon a word. Prosa means, I suppose, story. Biagioli (Ad Purgatorio, XXVI. 118) says: “Prosa nell’ Italiano e nel Provenzale del secolo xiii. significa precisamente istoria o narrazione in versi.” It may be doubted whether he is right in applying this remark to the passage in Dante, but it is no doubt applicable to the passage before us in Berceo, the meaning of which both Bouterwek and his Spanish translators have mistaken. (Bouterwek, Trad. Cortina, etc., 8vo, Madrid, 1829, Tom. I. pp. 60 and 119.) Ferdinand Wolf (in his very learned work, “Über die Lais, Sequenzen und Leiche,” Heidelberg, 1841, 8vo, pp. 92 and 304) thinks the use of the word prosa, here and elsewhere in early Spanish poetry, had some reference to the well-known use of the same word in the offices of the Church. (Du Cange, Glossarium, ad verb.) But I think the early Spanish rhymers took it from the Provençal, and not from the ecclesiastical Latin.
[457] Mondejar, Memorias del Rey D. Alonso el Sabio, fol., Madrid, 1777, pp. 450-452. Mariana, Hist., Lib. XIV. c. 7, and Castro, Bib., Tom. I. pp. 411, etc.
[458] Felipe Mey printed a volume of his own poems at Tarragona, in 1586, from which Faber, in his Floresta, Tom. II., has taken three sonnets of some merit. A Life of him may be found in Ximeno, (Tom. I. p. 249,) completed by Fuster (Tom. I. p. 213). As a translator of Ovid he is favorably noticed by Pellicer, Biblioteca de Traductores, Tom. II. p. 76.
[459] “Copióse de otra copia el año de 1606, en Madrid, 27 de Ebrero año dicho. Para el Señor Agustin de Argote, hijo del muy noble Señor (que sancta gloria haya) Gonzalo Zatieco de Molina, un caballero de Sevilla.” Zatieco occurs elsewhere, as part of the name of Argote de Molina, or of his family.
[460] “En otra escritura de 5 de Julio de 1597 deja por patronas de una capellanía fundada por él en la dicha iglésia de Santiago á Doña Francisca Argote de Molina y Mexia, su hija, y despues de ella á Doña Isabel de Argote y á Doña Gerónima de Argote sus hermanas, y á sus hijos y descendientes, y á Juan Argote de Mexia su hermano y á sus hijos,” etc.
[461] “En dicha Capilla hay una inscripcion del tenor siguiente: Esta capilla mayor y entierro es de Don Gonzalo Argote de Molina, Provincial de la Hermandad del Andalucia y Veintequatro que fué de Sevilla, y de sus herederos. Acabóse año de 1600.” He purchased this privilege, January 28, 1586, for 800 ducats.
[462] “Tuvo hijos que le precedieron en muerte, cuyo sentimiento hizo infausto el último término de su vida, turbando su juizio que, lleno de altivez, levantaba sus pensamientos á mayor fortuna.” Anales de Sevilla, fol., 1677, p. 706.
Vanflora, Hijos de Sevilla, No. II. p. 76, says: “Murió sin dexar hijos ni caudales y con algunas señas de demente.”
[463] “Da Livreria do Senhor Duque de Lafões.”
[464] I suspect Don Adolfo may have made another little mistake here; for I have had occasion, since I read his note, to read the “Conde Lucanor,” and, though I kept his criticism in mind, I did not notice the proverb in any form in any one of the tales. Sometimes it occurs in later authors in another form, thus: “Al buen callar llaman santo”; or, “He who knows when to hold his tongue is a saint.” But this is rare.