Archpriest of Hita

Juan Ruiz (Alcalá de Henares, c. 1283-c. 1350), known as the archpriest of Hita, was the author of the Libro de buen amor, a predominantly narrative miscellaneous work considered one of the most important in medieval Spanish literature.

Biography

He was probably born in Alcalá de Henares —although Emilio Sáez and José Trenchs have postulated Alcalá la Real from Jaén with little acceptance—, around 1283. He must have studied in Toledo, Hita, Alcalá de Henares or some town in this area and surely he was imprisoned by order of the Archbishop of Toledo Gil de Albornoz. However, philologists such as Spitzer, M. R. Lida, and Salvatore Battaglia have questioned the rigor of many of these assumptions.

He was also a great music fan, as evidenced by his knowledge of the subject through the highly specialized lexicon he handles. He made reference to the blind singers and composed especially so that the blind could earn a living. He wrote, as far as is known, only one work, the Book of Good Love , perhaps written in prison. It has been estimated that his death occurred before 1351, since in that year he was no longer Archpriest of Hita, a position held by a certain Pedro Fernández on that date.

Controversy over place of birth

In the Book of Good Love it has been deduced that Juan Ruiz was born in a town called Alcalá. This is how Ramón Gonzálvez Ruiz stated it in a plenary session on the archpriest in 2002:

Throughout his book Juan Ruiz has been sowing data from his personal biography. He must have been born in Alcalá, as suggested by the famous verse with which Trotaconventos greets the Moor of the archpriest: "Prayer, much salutes you one from Alcalá" (estrofa 1510a). This statement is one of the facts that can be accepted as true, because it fits coherently with the rest of the personal news that appears in the Book of good love and in the arbitral ruling [where his name appears as "uenerabilibus Johanne Roderici archipresbitero de Fita"]. There appears to be no ground for doubting this fact of his biography.

Ramon Gonzálvez Ruiz, loc. cit., 2002.

Gonzálvez Ruiz, after analyzing the biographical journey of the archpriest of Hita, who is related to Talavera, Toledo, Alcalá de Henares and Hita, states:

By virtue of his position he has had to travel to Toledo frequently, perhaps more than once a year, and he is familiar with this city, Talavera and, by distrust, Alcalá de Henares, the villa he best knows, his place of birth and not removed from Hita.

Currently, two cities dispute to be the birthplace of this Castilian writer and clergyman: Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) and Alcalá la Real (Jaén). Both use different compelling reasons (and others not so much) to believe them to be its birthplace. Unless some kind of clear and concise biographical source on this is discovered, it is difficult to agree on both sides, already well entrenched by their defenders.

The main reason why Juan Ruiz is considered a native of Alcalá de Henares is the geographical proximity to Hita (Guadalajara), the place where he was archpriest, and of course, close to the most well-known episodes of his life: the order of the Archbishop of Toledo Gil de Albornoz to "supervise the lives of the clergy of Talavera" and his subsequent imprisonment in the convent of San Francisco de Guadalajara, archpriesthood of Hita, etc.

For its part, the Alcalá la Real hypothesis is a minority one and is not entirely clear. It starts from the hypothesis that Juan Ruiz would be a character with a name and surname: Juan Ruiz de Cisneros, bastard son of Arias González, Lord of Cisneros, who was held captive in that city from 1280 to 1305, the writer's date of birth. From there, examining the Book of Good Love, the authors who postulate this hypothesis point out some parallels with the life of this Juan Ruiz de Cisneros. An analysis of the style of the book is also sometimes carried out, emphasizing the features that could come from Muslim and Andalusian literature.

Acknowledgment

Calle Arcipreste de Hita in Alcalá de Henares.

It has dedicated streets in Alcalá de Henares and Madrid.