Diego de Saavedra Fajardo

Portrait of Diego Saavedra Fajardo by Fernando Selma (1791, Portraits of illustrious Spanish).

Diego de Saavedra Fajardo (Algezares, Murcia, May 6, 1584 – Madrid, August 24, 1648) was a Spanish writer and diplomat.

Biography

Diego de Saavedra, son of Don Pedro de Saavedra y Avellaneda and Doña Fabiana Fajardo Brián, was born in Algezares, a small town located about 5 km south of the Murcian capital, where his family owned property. His baptismal document was registered in the Parish Church of Nuestra Señora de Loreto del Lugar de Algezares. His family was related to the Marquises of Vélez.

He studied Law and canons at the University of Salamanca between 1600 and 1608. In 1607 he was granted a habit of the Order of Santiago; in 1610 he went to Rome, there he began his diplomatic career when he was appointed, in 1612, cipher secretary of Cardinal Gaspar de Borja or Borgia, Spanish ambassador in Rome. He also traveled to Naples and Sicily as charge d'affaires, and even at one time worked as Secretary of State and War of Naples. Although he did not receive major orders, he was named canon of Santiago in 1617, which earned him the importunations of the chapter, since he never attended his position; he did, contrary to the conclaves that elected the popes Gregory XV (1621) and Urban VIII (1623).

Signature of the Münster Treaty in which the Spanish representatives, including Don Diego de Saavedra Fajardo, are seen at the center of the image.

From this date his diplomatic activity knew no rest, as he had earned the trust of Felipe IV and was in charge of managing a very important part of his political and diplomatic relations for thirty-five years in Italy, Germany and Switzerland, in full decline of Habsburg political rule. He was ambassador in Rome (1631) and marched to Bavaria in 1633, eastern territory in the center and axis of the fiercest struggles of those that occurred in the Thirty Years' War and where the rogue Estebanillo González runs from one side to the other, with the position of resident ambassador in the court of Maximilian of Bavaria, leader of the so-called Holy League, union of the forces favorable to the German Emperor Ferdinand II and Catholicism. In this year, after the death of his antagonist, King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden, in the battle of Lützen, a tense calm was established, only interrupted by the assassination of Marshal Wallenstein, head of the armies of Emperor Ferdinand II, at discover his treason in favor of Sweden.

In 1634 the battle of Nördlingen took place between the Swedish armies and those of the German empire supported by Spanish tercios, which ended with their victory. In 1636 Emperor Ferdinand II died, and the Regensburg Diet took place for the election of his successor, where Saavedra attended as a representative of Spain.

Saavedra's diplomatic activity intensifies in what is the hardest part of his career with the declaration of war by France ruled by Richelieu on the Spanish crown in 1635 and the successive defeats of Spanish troops at the hands of the French. Between 1635 and 1648 the periods of war followed one another with various attempts to settle by means of treaties, in a large part of which Saavedra intervened trying to defend the interests of Spain as plenipotentiary minister in the Westphalia peace congress, actively participating in the sessions that took place in the city of Muñiste —the seat of the negotiations involving Catholic princes— where the independence of the Netherlands was signed. Although he left the congress before the conclusion of peace, it is undeniable that Diego de Saavedra had to deal with one of the most bitter periods in the history of Spain, that of the loss not only of territorial possessions, but of the hegemony of the Spanish Empire in Europe, of which he was well aware and of which he was the direct protagonist. Testimony of those years are some satirical-political booklets such as Locuras de Europa and others.

After the signing of the Treaty of Münster, Saavedra returned to Madrid ill and died, retired in the Convent of Agustinos Recoletos (in the current Paseo de Recoletos, where today the National Library of Spain is located), on August 24, 1648, with the post of Counselor of the Indies. He is buried in a chapel of Blessed Andrés Hibernón in the Murcia Cathedral.

Examination of his most important works

Cover of the Idea of a Christian political prince.

His main work was that of a political thinker. In this field, his greatest work is the Idea of a Christian political prince, represented in a hundred companies (1640), a very erudite work that makes use of the literary genre of the emblem, made fashionable by Andrea Alciato with his Emblemata translated in 1549 and which has a mainly moral and philosophical character; Saavedra's work is rather inspired by another compilation of emblems, the one composed by Jacobo Bruck Angermunt, Emblemata política (1618).

The purpose of the author is to compose a guide for the adequate political formation of a Christian prince. As a historian, his most important work stands out as the Gothic, Castilian and Austrian Crown (1648), which was intended to be a biographical repertoire of the Gothic, Castilian and Austrian kings, although only the first appeared. part, the Gothic Crown, in which the author narrates, always with a moralizing and political approach, the story of the thirty-five Gothic kings; in 1681 the writer Alonso Núñez de Castro continued and finished it.

The dialogue Coluras de Europa is actually a pamphlet with political intent intended to be disseminated in Muñiste.

Politics and reason of state of the Catholic King Fernando proposes, as Baltasar Gracián had done in his treatise The politician or long before them Nicolás Machiavelli, to the Aragonese king as a model of all shrewd monarch in politics.

The literary republic is a Lucianesque satire in the form of a dream about an imaginary state made up of writers and artists of all kinds and is preserved in two versions, the first printed after the death of the author (1655) and a second, handwritten, with notable textual divergences, which was discovered at the end of the XVIII century by Pedro Estala. The author takes advantage of this work to make fine literary criticism, although some reference to Cervantes, La Celestina or theater in general is missing; on the other hand, it provides some unique information about some scientists like Vesalius, Galen, jurists, artists, etc.

Plate in memory of Saavedra Fajardo on the gate of the National Library.

Saavedra Fajardo's style is baroque and sententious, sometimes weighed down by a dry and meticulous erudition and, when he does not try to moralize (in the Literary Republic, for example), it is more interesting.

Ángel González Palencia edited the Complete Works of Diego Saavedra Fajardo (Madrid: Aguilar, 1945). Of the Idea of a Christian political prince, represented in a hundred companies there are the editions of Vicente García de Diego (Madrid, Espasa Calpe, 1959, 4 vols.), that of Manuel Fraga Iribarne (Salamanca: Anaya, 1972), that of Quintín Aldea Vaquero (Madrid, Editora Nacional, 1976) and recently those of Francisco Javier Díez de Revenga (Barcelona: Planeta, 1988) and that of Sagrario López Poza (Madrid: Cátedra, 1999). There is also a facsimile (Madrid, Taurus, 1967). There is a Madrid edition of the Gothic Crown (1648): Aguilar, 1944.

Since 2002, the Saavedriano-themed magazine has been published in Murcia, a European and Spanish-American reference.

The last of the great ensemble studies on Saavedra Fajardo, along with the classics by Fraga Iribarne and Francisco Murillo Ferrol, is that of the Austrian Christian Romanoski from Graz: Tacitus Emblematicus. Diego Saavedra Fajardo und seine Empresas Políticas (Wiedler Buchverlag, Berlin, 2006, 624 pp. ISBN 3-89693-460-0).

Souvenir of Saavedra Fajardo in Murcia

There is currently a Secondary School that bears his name, located in the Infante Don Juan Manuel neighborhood of Murcia.

In Algezares, his homeland, there is a bust placed in a garden with the same name, where every May 6th a tribute is paid to him by placing a laurel wreath on the occasion of the celebration of his birth.^{[ citation required]} The one in Algezares is the only existing sculpture by Saavedra Fajardo in the entire Region of Murcia.^{[citation required]} In addition to the bust, there is a school in Algezares, the main street of the town, a lyrical association and a folkloric group that bear the name of the writer.

Since 2008 there is an Association in the Senior Classroom of the University of Murcia that bears the name of «Saavedra Fajardo Association of students of the Senior Classroom of the University of Murcia».

Works

Literary Republic (Alcalá de Henares, 1670)

Exemplar of Idea of a Christian political prince exhibited in the House of European History.

• Literary republicAccording to Francisco Javier Díaz de Reven, the oldest manuscript is 1612 and was published as a posthumous work in 1655. Other editions, Alcalá, María Fernández, at the expense of Nicolás de Xamares, 1670, Brussels, Lamberto Marchant, 1677 and Antwerp, Juan Bautista Verdussen, 1678... Translated into English in London, 1705 and London, 1727 and German in Leipzig, Joh. Erk Kappens, 1748; Italian, by Francesco Gerbault, Pisa, per Pompeo Polloni e comp., 1767. French, Lausanne, F. Grasset, 1770. Spanish edition corrected by Gregorio Mayáns and Siscar in Valencia, Antonio Valle, 1730, reprinted in Madrid, Juan de Zúñiga, 1735. P. Pineda Edition, with a prologue from Mayans, London, 1744. Porres, Madrid, Angel de Apontes, 1759. Edition with news from García Prieto, Madrid, Benito Cano, 1788. Another manuscript: Curious, sharp and learned discourse about the multitude of books that are published every day and Judgment of the authors in all faculties, as well as modern as ancient: wrote to him M. de M. Secretary of S. M., Spanish reading Cabinet, or Collection of many curious papers of Ancient and Modern Writers of the Nation, Editor D. Isidoro Bosarte. Madrid, s. n., s. a. [1793]. Literary Republic of Don Diego Saavedra Fajardo [primitive text] edition of Manuel Serrano and Sanz. Madrid, Ibérica, 1907. Edition and notes by Vicente García de Diego, Madrid, "La Lectura", 1922; Salamanca: Anaya, 1967, introduction, edition and notes by John Dowling; edition of José Berrio Jiménez, Esplugues de Llobregat, Orbis, 1983; edition of José Carlos de Torres, Esplugues de Llobregat, Plaza & Janés, 1985 and Madrid, Libertarias/Prodhufi, Murcia, Barcelona
• Idea of a Christian Political Prince represented in a hundred companies. Munich, Nicolao Enrico, 1640; also Milan, 1642; very reprinted and translated. Italian translation by Dr. Paris Cerchieri, Venice, Marco Garzoni, 1648. First Latin translations, Brussels, Ioannes Mommartius et Francisci Vivieni, 1649 and Cologne, Constantinum Munich, 1649. First German, Amsterdam, Johan Janssonio, dem Jüngern, 1655. To the French, by I. Rou, Paris, Compagnie des Libraires du Palais, 1658. To Dutch, Amsterdam, Arent vanden Heuvel, 1663; to English, by J. Astry London, Matt. Gylliflower and Luke Meredith, 1700... Vicente García de Diego, Madrid, La Lectura, 1927-1930, 4 vols. [Clásicos Castellanos, 76, 81, 87 and 102]; review of the previous one is that of Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, 1942-1946, 4 vols. [Clásicos Castellanos, 76, 81, 87 and 102]; there was a third, same place and editorial; edition and selection of Manuel Fraga Iribarne, Salamanca, Anaya, 1972. A complete of Quintín Aldea Vaquero, facsimile of Milan, 1642, with preliminary studies by Rodrigo Fernández Carvajal, Francisco Javier Guillamón Álvarez and J. M. González de Zárate; edition, introduction and notes by Francisco Javier Díez de Reven, Barcelona, Planeta, 1988; edition of Sagrario López Poza, Madrid, Cátedra, 1999.
• Castilian and Austrian Gothic Crown politically illustrated. Munich, Juan Jansonio, 1646, very reprinted inside and outside Spain. Another edition: Barcelona, Daniel and Cortezo, 1887 and with studio by José Luis Villacañas Berlanga, Murcia, Tres Fronteras, 2008.
• Iuizio de las Artes y de las Ciencias. His author Don Claudio Antonio de Cabrera. Madrid, Iulian de Paredes, 1655.
• Works by Don Diego de Saavedra Faxardo cavallero of the Order of S. Iago, of the Council of his magestad in the Supreme of the Indies... They contain 1. Idea of a Christian political prince, represented in a hundred companies. 2. Corona Gothica, Austriaca and Castellana divided into two parts, the second part never printed. 3. The literary republicAntwerp, John the Baptist Verdussen, 1677-1678. It is reprinted in the same place, 1678-1687. 3 vols.
• Madness of Europe, s. l., s. i., 1748. [Germany]. Also printed in the centuryXIX and XX., highlighting that of Salamanca, Anaya, 1965 with introduction and notes by José M. Alejandro.
• Works. Madrid, M. Rivadeneyra, 1853. [Spanish Author Library, 25]. [Reissues in 1861, 1866, 1926 and 1947].
• His thoughts, his poetry, his opuscules preceded by a preliminary critical, biographical and bibliographical discourse on the life and works of the author and illustrated with notes, introductions and a genealogy of the house of Saavedra, by the Count of Roche and D. José Pío Tejera. Madrid, Fortanet, 1884.
• Works. Madrid, Hernando Successors, 1910. [Spanish Author Library, 25]. [Reissues in 1861, 1866, 1926 and 1947].
• Literary Republic, Locuras of Europe, Politics and State Reason of the Catholic King D. Fernandopreliminary note by Jacinto Hidalgo. Madrid, Atlas, 1944. [Central Collection, 71].
• Complete works, compilation, preliminary study, prologue and notes by Ángel González Palencia. Madrid, Aguilar, 1946.
• Introduction to the State Policy and Reason of the Catholic King Don Fernando1631; with preliminary study by Alberto Blecua, text by Jorge García López, Barcelona, Asociación de Bibliófilos de Barcelona, 1984.
• Relation of the things that are worthy to know of Rome for those who deal with the service of the King in Spain, edition of José María Díaz Fernández. La Coruña, Junta de Galicia, 2000.
• Dispertator to the Thirteen Cantons (1638)
• Proposal made to the Catholic Canton Diet in Lucerne (1639)
• News of the county neutrality treaty and duchy of Burgundy (1641).