Luis de León


 

Luis de León, (b. 1527, Belmonte, Cuenca Province, Spain—d. Aug. 23, 1591, Madrigal de las Altas), mystic and poet who contributed greatly to Spanish Renaissance literature.

León was a monk educated chiefly at Salamanca, where he obtained his first chair in 1561. Academic rivalry between the Dominicans and the Augustinians, whom he had joined in 1544, led to his denunciation to the Inquisition for criticizing the text of the Vulgate, imprudent at that period in Spain, particularly because one of his great-grandmothers had been Jewish. After almost five years’ imprisonment (1572–76), he was exonerated and restored to his chair, which, however, he resigned in favour of the man who had replaced him. But he subsequently gained a new one, also at Salamanca; a second denunciation, in 1582, did not succeed. His prose masterpiece, De los nombres de Cristo (1583–85), a treatise in the dialogue form popularized by the followers of Erasmus on the various names given to Christ in Scripture, is the supreme exemplar of Spanish classical prose style: clear, lofty, and, though studied, entirely devoid of affectation. His translations from Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Italian include the Song of Solomon (modern edition by J. Guillén, 1936) and the Book of Job, both with commentary. León’s poems, containing many of the motifs of De los nombres de Cristo, were posthumously published by Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas in 1631 because their sincerity of expression and emphasis on content rather than form were useful in the struggle against the attempts of the Gongorists to re-Latinize the language. The Spanish classicists of the 18th century used his lyrics as models. Among his more familiar poems are “Vida retirada” (1557; “Withdrawn Life”) and “Noche Serena” (1571; “Serene Night”). His poetic works reflect the tension between his Horatian ideals of moderation and the turbulent life of a man of an honest and naturally pugnacious temperament inhabiting a world of ecclesiastical intrigue and rancorous academic politics. His other works include theological treatises and commentaries in Latin on various psalms and books of the Bible and La perfecta casada (1583; “The Perfect Married Woman”), a commentary in Spanish on Proverbs 31, incorporating elements of the medieval ascetic tradition of misogyny interspersed with picturesque glimpses of feminine customs of the day.