Bartholomew Leonardo of Argensola

Bartolomé Juan Leonardo de Argensola (Barbastro, Huesca, August 26, 1562-Zaragoza, February 4, 1631) was a Spanish poet and historian of the Golden Age.

Biography

After a first apprenticeship in Barbastro, in 1574 he went to Huesca to study Philosophy and Jurisprudence, and later studied Greek, Rhetoric and Ancient History in Zaragoza under the direction of Andrés Escoto. Subsequently, he went to the University of Salamanca, where he studied Canon Law and Theology between 1581 and 1584. During this period he had the opportunity to meet Fray Luis de León with whom he shared a fondness for the classics. His first poetic compositions date from this time. That same year he was ordained a priest thanks to a papal dispensation, since at twenty-two he was not yet of canonical age to receive the ministry.

Between 1584 and 1586 Bartolomé and his brother Lupercio were protected by Fernando de Aragón y Gurrea, fifth Duke of Villahermosa. He served as parish rector of the Duke's estates until his death in 1592, from which he received the name "rector of Villahermosa". In 1601 he was appointed chaplain to Empress María de Austria and, upon her death in 1603, he ended up in Valladolid, where the Court moved, and from there to Madrid, in 1609 and 1610, where he published the Conquest of the Islands. Moluccas, commissioned by the Count of Lemos, president of the Council of the Indies. During these years he met Cervantes and Lope de Vega and made sporadic trips to Zaragoza where he was a prosecutor at the Academia Imitatoria, the best known of the Aragonese baroque literary circles.

In 1613, he accompanied the Count of Lemos in his entourage of writers on his departure to take possession of the Viceroyalty of Naples, where he would participate in the activities of the Academy of the Idle. On the death of his brother, Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola, that same year, he requested the position that he left vacant as chronicler of the Diputación del Reino de Aragón, being granted in 1615. That same year he obtained a canonry in the cathedral of Salvador de Zaragoza and in 1618 he was appointed senior chronicler of the Kingdom of Aragon.

He was a contemporary of Miguel de Cervantes (who praised him in the «Canto de Callíope» of La Galatea), of Luis de Góngora and of Lope de Vega. In his poetic work, which had a handwritten circulation until it was published together with his brother's in 1634, his classicism stands out, which is connected with Latin poetry, without following the conceptualist or Gongorist currents of the time. He also opposed, along with his brother, the novelties of Lope de Vega's dramaturgy.

His most imitated model is Horacio, impeccably translated by the two brothers, from whom they take the elegant diction and clarity of thought, transmitted by a fluid and refined verse after a patient work of filing and revision. They also admired their countryman Marcial, from whom they learned a taste for epigrams and satire, but always fleeing from the vulgar, as well as from Gongorian affectation and crude Latinism. This style is reflected in the epistle of Bartolomé that begins "Don Juan, ya ha me puedo en el cerbello":

Cover of the Rimas of the Argensola, Zaragoza, 1634.

By discerning words, it would be good

do not interweave the deserts and others
with which Spain favors and breeds;

'Cause if you don't mind the orders
in a living sentence, they'll sound locked
better than Rome and Athens.

With such a juncture, do not persuade
that by humble shall you go out vulgar,

or, as chosen, affected.

It will tend, then, towards a diaphanous style, which does not abuse bold metaphors or far-fetched images. Of his poetic work, the sonnets "To see you, Inés, what greedy lattices", "Firmio, there is no slight danger at your age", "Tell me, common Father, Well, you are fair" or the satirical "To a woman who shaved and looked beautiful" (very well known, although its authorship is disputed between the two brothers), and the moral epistles, classical compositions that are characterized by the seriousness of their tone and a predominance of the reflective spirit. He also composed songs, epigrams, satires, epistles, and translated psalms and odes of Horace.

His poetic works were compiled by his nephew together with those of Lupercio, and published under the title: Rhymes of Lupercio and Doctor Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola in 1634.

As a chronicler, he diversified his interest among various subjects: he continued the Annals of the Crown of Aragon by Jerónimo Zurita, wrote Alteraciones populares de Zaragoza en 1591 (revolts that witnessed together with his brother Lupercio) and the History of the Malucas Islands (1609), following the conquest of the island of Ternate.

Works

Poetry

Complete

• Rimas de Lupercio and Dr. Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola, Zaragoza, s. d., 1634. It was subsequently edited in Madrid, in 1786, in 4o.

Scatter

• Eighth in praise of Order of Mercy.
• Sátira del Incógnito (manuscript).

Prose

• Address history1590. Published in the Memory addressed to the Deputies of the Kingdom of Aragon where he requested the square of his Cronist.
• Warnings to the Deputies of the Kingdom of Aragon of the parties to have the perfect coronist. Reflections on the History methodology attached to the History speech... 1590.
• Popular Alterations of Zaragoza. Year 1591. It was unfinished, because when the first part was presented in 1624 to the deputies of the kingdom, it was not his pleasure, surely because it was too risky. There is current edition of Gregorio Colás Latorre (Zaragoza, Institución «Fernando el Católico», 1996). Archive in pdf
• Apology, Madrid, s. d., 1609. Written in defense of a sonnet of yours that 1604 against the art of fencing.
• Comments to a letter from King Fernando the Catholic. Written to the count of Ribagorza, viceroy of Naples, in defense of the Royal jurisdiction.
• Comments for the History of Aragon. These comments are from 1615 to 1626, manuscript in which the author narrates European events of his contemporary history. For a long time this work was lost, but it was located in the Municipal Library of Zaragoza, ms. 10. There is currently a critical edition by Javier Ordovás Esteban (Zaragoza, Institución "Fernando el Católico", 2016).
• Conquest of the Moluccas Islands, Madrid, Alonso Martín, 1609. 409 pages in folio. It was the most famous historical work abroad of this author. Translated to French (Histoire de la conquête des isles Moluques par les espagnols, par les portugais et par les hollandois, Amsterdam, Jacques Desbordes, 1706, 3 vols.); to English (John Stevens, «The discovery and conquest of the Molucco and Philippine Islands», en A new collection of voyages and travelsLondon, J. Knapton, 1708, vol. I; reissue in 1711) and German (Beschreibung der Molukischen InsulnFrankfurt, M. Rohrlach, 1710, and Continuation der Beschreibung der Molukischen Insuln, 1711; reissued in 1781.
• Litigant Menipo, Democrit, Give it up. (c. 1585-1598). Three more lucian dialogues than platonics; the first is satire of judges and lawyers, the second against various modes of madness of men and the third addresses the Alterations of Aragon, the case of Antonio Pérez, the legitimacy of the reason of state and the disappointment, with allusions to the Somnium Scipionis.
• First part of the Anaes de Aragón, which continues those of Secretary Gerónimo Zurita since the year MDXVI of the Birth of Our Redeemer, Zaragoza, Juan de Lanaja, 1630, in folio. They range from 1516 to 1520. History in detail the first five years of the reign of Carlos I, with attention also to the American facts. Joaquín Ramírez Cabañas (Mexico, P. Robredo, 1940) published the chapters concerning the Mexican conquest. There is currently a philological edition by Javier Ordovás Esteban (Zaragoza, Institución "Fernando el Católico", 2013), which can be consulted here.

Several letters are also preserved, in Latin and Spanish, one of them addressed to Juan Briz Martínez, abbot of the monastery of San Juan de la Peña with observations on a project on the History of Navarre.

Translations

• Benedicto de Canfield (William Fitch), Rule of perfection, Zaragoza, Juan de Lanaja, 1628. Latin translation.
• Metaphrastes, Simon, Life and martyrdom of Saint Demetrius, s. d. Latin translation and commissioned by the Empress Mary of Austria.
• Mercury Dialogue and the virtue of LucianoThe Greek.

Editions

• On behalf of the Diputación del Reino de Aragón, published in 1624 a new compilation of the Fueros y Observancias del Reyno de Aragón with an introductory prologue written from his hand.