CHAPTER XIX.

CASTILIAN LITERATURE.--CULTIVATION OF THE COURT.--CLASSICAL LEARNING.-- SCIENCE.

Early Education of Ferdinand.--Of Isabella.--Her Library.--Early Promise of Prince John.--Scholarship of the Nobles.--Accomplished Women.-- Classical Learning.--Universities.--Printing Introduced.--Encouraged by the Queen.--Actual Progress of Science.

We have now arrived at the period, when the history of Spain becomes incorporated with that of the other states of Europe. Before embarking on the wide sea of European politics, however, and bidding adieu, for a season, to the shores of Spain, it will be necessary, in order to complete the view of the internal administration of Ferdinand and Isabella, to show its operation on the intellectual culture of the nation. This, as it constitutes, when taken in its broadest sense, a principal end of all government, should never be altogether divorced from any history. It is particularly deserving of note in the present reign, which stimulated the active development of the national energies in every department of science, and which forms a leading epoch in the ornamental literature of the country. The present and the following chapter will embrace the mental progress of the kingdom, not merely down to the period at which we have arrived, but through the whole of Isabella's reign, in order to exhibit as far as possible its entire results, at a single glance, to the eye of the reader.

We have beheld, in a preceding chapter, the auspicious literary promise afforded by the reign of Isabella's father, John the Second, of Castile. Under the anarchical sway of his son, Henry the Fourth, the court, as we have seen, was abandoned to unbounded license, and the whole nation sunk into a mental torpor, from which it was roused only by the tumults of civil war. In this deplorable state of things, the few blossoms of literature, which had begun to open under the benign influence of the preceding reign, were speedily trampled under foot, and every vestige of civilization seemed in a fair way to be effaced from the land.

The first years of Ferdinand and Isabella's government were too much clouded by civil dissensions, to afford a much more cheering prospect. Ferdinand's early education, moreover, had been greatly neglected. Before the age of ten, he was called to take part in the Catalan wars. His boyhood was spent among soldiers, in camps instead of schools, and the wisdom which he so eminently displayed in later life, was drawn far more from his own resources, than from books. [1]

Isabella was reared under more favorable auspices; at least more favorable to mental culture. She was allowed to pass her youth in retirement, and indeed oblivion, as far as the world was concerned, under her mother's care, at Arevalo. In this modest seclusion, free from the engrossing vanities and vexations of court life, she had full leisure to indulge the habits of study and reflection to which her temper naturally disposed her. She was acquainted with several modern languages, and both wrote and discoursed in her own with great precision and elegance. No great expense or solicitude, however, appears to have been lavished on her education. She was uninstructed in the Latin, which in that day was of greater importance than at present; since it was not only the common medium of communication between learned men, and the language in which the most familiar treatises were often composed, but was frequently used by well- educated foreigners at court, and especially employed in diplomatic intercourse and negotiation. [2]

Isabella resolved to repair the defects of education, by devoting herself to the acquisition of the Latin tongue, so soon as the distracting wars with Portugal, which attended her accession, were terminated. We have a letter from Pulgar, addressed to the queen soon after that event, in which he inquires concerning her progress, intimating his surprise, that she can find time for study amidst her multitude of engrossing occupations, and expressing his confidence that she will acquire the Latin with the same facility with which she had already mastered other languages. The result justified his prediction; for "in less than a year," observes another contemporary, "her admirable genius enabled her to obtain a good knowledge of the Latin language, so that she could understand without much difficulty whatever was written or spoken in it." [3]

Isabella inherited the taste of her father, John the Second, for the collecting of books. She endowed the convent of San Juan de los Reyes at Toledo, at the time of its foundation, 1477, with a library consisting principally of manuscripts. [4] The archives of Simancas contain catalogues of part of two separate collections, belonging to her, whose broken remains have contributed to swell the magnificent library of the Escurial. Most of them are in manuscript; the richly colored and highly decorated binding of these volumes (an art which the Spaniards derived from the Arabs) show how highly they were prized, and the worn and battered condition of some of them prove that they were not kept merely for show. [5]

The queen manifested the most earnest solicitude for the instruction of her own children. Her daughters were endowed by nature with amiable dispositions, that seconded her maternal efforts. The most competent masters, native and foreign, especially from Italy, then so active in the revival of ancient learning, were employed in their tuition. This was particularly intrusted to two brothers, Antonio and Alessandro Geraldino, natives of that country. Both were conspicuous for their abilities and classical erudition, and the latter, who survived his brother Antonio, was subsequently raised to high ecclesiastical preferments. [6] Under these masters, the infantas made attainments rarely permitted to the sex, and acquired such familiarity with the Latin tongue especially, as excited lively admiration among those over whom they were called to preside in riper years. [7]

A still deeper anxiety was shown in the education of her only son, Prince John, heir of the united Spanish monarchies. Every precaution was taken to train him up in a manner that might tend to the formation of the character suited to his exalted station. He was placed in a class consisting of ten youths, selected from the sons of the principal nobility. Five of them were of his own age, and five of riper years, and they were all brought to reside with him in the palace. By this means it was hoped to combine the advantages of public with those of private education; which last, from its solitary character, necessarily excludes the subject of it from the wholesome influence exerted by bringing the powers into daily collision with antagonists of a similar age. [8]

A mimic council was also formed on the model of a council of state, composed of suitable persons of more advanced standing, whose province it was to deliberate on, and to discuss, topics connected with government and public policy. Over this body the prince presided, and here he was initiated into a practical acquaintance with the important duties, which were to devolve on him at a future period of life. The pages, in attendance on his person, were also selected with great care from the cavaliers and young nobility of the court, many of whom afterwards filled with credit the most considerable posts in the state. The severer discipline of the prince was relieved by attention to more light and elegant accomplishments. He devoted many of his leisure hours to music, for which he had a fine natural taste, and in which he attained sufficient proficiency to perform with skill on a variety of instruments. In short, his education was happily designed to produce that combination of mental and moral excellence, which should fit him for reigning over his subjects with benevolence and wisdom. How well the scheme succeeded is abundantly attested by the commendations of contemporary writers, both at home and abroad, who enlarge on his fondness for letters, and for the society of learned men, on his various attainments, and more especially his Latin scholarship, and above all on his disposition, so amiable as to give promise of the highest excellence in maturer life,--a promise, alas! most unfortunately for his own nation, destined never to be realized. [9]

Next to her family, there was no object which the queen had so much at heart, as the improvement of the young nobility. During the troubled reign of her predecessor, they had abandoned themselves to frivolous pleasure, or to a sullen apathy, from which nothing was potent enough to arouse them, but the voice of war. [10] She was obliged to relinquish her plans of amelioration, during the all-engrossing struggle with Granada, when it would have been esteemed a reproach for a Spanish knight to have exchanged the post of danger in the field for the effeminate pursuit of letters. But no sooner was the war brought to a close, than Isabella resumed her purpose. She requested the learned Peter Martyr, who had come into Spain with the count of Tendilla, a few years previous, to repair to the court, and open a school there for the instruction of the young nobility. [11] In an epistle addressed by Martyr to Cardinal Mendoza, dated at Granada, April, 1492, he alludes to the promise of a liberal recompense from the queen, if he would assist in reclaiming the young cavaliers of the court from the idle and unprofitable pursuits, in which, to her great mortification, they consumed their hours. The prejudices to be encountered seem to have filled him with natural distrust of his success; for he remarks, "Like their ancestors, they hold the pursuit of letters in light estimation, considering them an obstacle to success in the profession of arms, which alone they esteem worthy of honor." He however expresses his confidence, that the generous nature of the Spaniards will make it easy to infuse into them a more liberal taste; and, in a subsequent letter, he enlarges on the "good effects likely to result from the literary ambition exhibited by the heir apparent, on whom the eyes of the nation were naturally turned." [12] Martyr, in obedience to the royal summons, instantly repaired to court, and in the month of September following, we have a letter dated from Saragossa, in which he thus speaks of his success. "My house, all day long, swarms with noble youths, who, reclaimed from ignoble pursuits to those of letters, are now convinced that these, so far from being a hindrance, are rather a help in the profession of arms. I earnestly inculcate on them, that consummate excellence in any department, whether of war or peace, is unattainable without science. It has pleased our royal mistress, the pattern of every exalted virtue, that her own near kinsman, the duke of Guimaraena, as well as the young duke of Villahermosa, the king's nephew, should remain under my roof during the whole day; an example which has been imitated by the principal cavaliers of the court, who, after attending my lectures in company with their private tutors, retire at evening to review them with these latter in their own quarters." [13] Another Italian scholar, often cited as authority in the preceding portion of this work, Lucio Marineo Siculo, co- operated with Martyr in the introduction of a more liberal scholarship among the Castilian nobles. He was born at Bedino in Sicily, and, after completing his studies at Rome under the celebrated Pomponio Leto, opened a school in his native island, where he continued to teach for five years. He was then induced to visit Spain, in 1486, with the admiral Henriquez, and soon took his place among the professors of Salamanca, where he filled the chairs of poetry and grammar with great applause for twelve years. He was subsequently transferred to the court, which he helped to illumine, by his exposition of the ancient classics, particularly the Latin. [14] Under the auspices of these and other eminent scholars, both native and foreign, the young nobility of Castile shook off the indolence in which they had so long rusted, and applied with generous ardor to the cultivation of science; so that, in the language of a contemporary, "while it was a most rare occurrence, to meet with a person of illustrious birth, before the present reign, who had even studied Latin in his youth, there were now to be seen numbers every day, who sought to shed the lustre of letters over the martial glory inherited from their ancestors." [15]

The extent of this generous emulation may be gathered from the large correspondence both of Martyr and Marineo with their disciples, including the most considerable persons of the Castilian court; it may be still further inferred from the numerous dedications to these persons, of contemporary publications, attesting their munificent patronage of literary enterprise; [16] and, still more unequivocally, from the zeal with which many of the highest rank entered on such severe literary labor as few, from the mere love of letters, are found willing to encounter. Don Gutierre de Toledo, son of the duke of Alva, and a cousin of the king, taught in the university of Salamanca. At the same place, Don Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, son of the count of Haro, who subsequently succeeded his father in the hereditary dignity of grand constable of Castile, read lectures on Pliny and Ovid. Don Alfonso de Manrique, son of the count of Paredes, was professor of Greek in the university of Alcalá. All ages seemed to catch the generous enthusiasm; and the marquis of Denia, although turned of sixty, made amends for the sins of his youth, by learning the elements of the Latin tongue, at this late period. In short, as Giovio remarks in his eulogium on Lebrija, "No Spaniard was accounted noble who held science in indifference." From a very early period, a courtly stamp was impressed on the poetic literature of Spain. A similar character was now imparted to its erudition; and men of the most illustrious birth seemed eager to lead the way in the difficult career of science, which was thrown open to the nation. [17]

In this brilliant exhibition, those of the other sex must not be omitted, who contributed by their intellectual endowments to the general illumination of the period. Among them, the writers of that day lavish their panegyrics on the marchioness of Monteagudo, and Doña Maria Pacheco, of the ancient house of Mendoza, sisters of the historian, Don Diego Hurtado, [18] and daughters of the accomplished count of Tendilla, [19] who, while ambassador at Rome, induced Martyr to visit Spain, and who was grandson of the famous marquis of Santillana, and nephew of the grand cardinal. [20] This illustrious family, rendered yet more illustrious by its merits than its birth, is worthy of specification, as affording altogether the most remarkable combination of literary talent in the enlightened court of Castile. The queen's instructor in the Latin language was a lady named Doña Beatriz de Galindo, called from her peculiar attainments _la Latina_. Another lady, Doña Lucia de Medrano, publicly lectured on the Latin classics in the university of Salamanca. And another, Doña Francisca de Lebrija, daughter of the historian of that name, filled the chair of rhetoric with applause at Alcalá. But our limits will not allow a further enumeration of names, which should never be permitted to sink into oblivion, were it only for the rare scholarship, peculiarly rare in the female sex, which they displayed, in an age comparatively unenlightened. [21] Female education in that day embraced a wider compass of erudition, in reference to the ancient languages, than is common at present; a circumstance attributable, probably, to the poverty of modern literature at that time, and the new and general appetite excited by the revival of classical learning in Italy. I am not aware, however, that it was usual for learned ladies, in any other country than Spain, to take part in the public exercises of the gymnasium, and deliver lectures from the chairs of the universities. This peculiarity, which may be referred in part to the queen's influence, who encouraged the love of study by her own example, as well as by personal attendance on the academic examinations, may have been also suggested by a similar usage, already noticed, among the Spanish Arabs. [22]

While the study of the ancient tongues came thus into fashion with persons of both sexes, and of the highest rank, it was widely and most thoroughly cultivated by professed scholars. Men of letters, some of whom have been already noticed, were invited into Spain from Italy, the theatre, at that time, on which, from obvious local advantages, classical discovery was pursued with greatest ardor and success. To this country it was usual also for Spanish students to repair, in order to complete their discipline in classical literature, especially the Greek, as first taught on sound principles of criticism, by the learned exiles from Constantinople. The most remarkable of the Spanish scholars, who made this literary pilgrimage to Italy, was Antonio de Lebrija, or Nebrissensis, as he is more frequently called from his Latin name. [23] After ten years passed at Bologna and other seminaries of repute, with particular attention to their interior discipline, he returned, in 1473, to his native land, richly laden with the stores of various erudition. He was invited to fill the Latin chair at Seville, whence he was successively transferred to Salamanca and Alcalá, both of which places he long continued to enlighten by his oral instruction and publications. The earliest of these was his _Introducciones Latinas_, the third edition of which was printed in 1485, being four years only from the date of the first; a remarkable evidence of the growing taste for classical learning. A translation in the vernacular accompanied the last edition, arranged, at the queen's suggestion, in columns parallel with those of the original text; a form which, since become common, was then a novelty. [24] The publication of his Castilian grammar, "_Grammatica Castillana_," followed in 1492; a treatise designed particularly for the instruction of the ladies of the court. The other productions of this indefatigable scholar embrace a large circle of topics, independently of his various treatises on philology and criticism. Some were translated into French and Italian, and their republication has been continued to the last century. No man of his own, or of later times, contributed more essentially than Lebrija to the introduction of a pure and healthful erudition into Spain. It is not too much to say, that there was scarcely an eminent Spanish scholar in the beginning of the sixteenth century, who had not formed himself on the instructions of this master. [25]

Another name worthy of commemoration, is that of Arias Barbosa, a learned Portuguese, who, after passing some years, like Lebrija, in the schools of Italy, where he studied the ancient tongues under the guidance of Politiano, was induced to establish his residence in Spain. In 1489, we find him at Salamanca, where he continued for twenty, or, according to some accounts, forty years, teaching in the departments of Greek and rhetoric. At the close of that period he returned to Portugal, where he superintended the education of some of the members of the royal family, and survived to a good old age. Barbosa was esteemed inferior to Lebrija in extent of various erudition, but to have surpassed him in an accurate knowledge of the Greek and poetical criticism. In the former, indeed, he seems to have obtained a greater repute than any Spanish scholar of the time. He composed some valuable works, especially on ancient prosody. The unwearied assiduity and complete success of his academic labors have secured to him a high reputation among the restorers of ancient learning, and especially that of reviving a livelier relish for the study of the Greek, by conducting it on principles of pure criticism, in the same manner as Lebrija did with the Latin. [26]

The scope of the present work precludes the possibility of a copious enumeration of the pioneers of ancient learning, to whom Spain owes so large a debt of gratitude. [27]

The Castilian scholars of the close of the fifteenth, and the beginning of the sixteenth century, may take rank with their illustrious contemporaries of Italy. They could not indeed achieve such brilliant results in the discovery of the remains of antiquity, for such remains had been long scattered and lost amid the centuries of exile and disastrous warfare consequent on the Saracen invasion. But they were unwearied in their illustrations, both oral and written, of the ancient authors; and their numerous commentaries, translations, dictionaries, grammars, and various works of criticism, many of which, though now obsolete, passed into repeated editions in their own day, bear ample testimony to the generous zeal with which they conspired to raise their contemporaries to a proper level for contemplating the works of the great masters of antiquity; and well entitled them to the high eulogium of Erasmus, that "liberal studies were brought, in the course of a few years, in Spain to so flourishing a condition, as might not only excite the admiration, but serve as a model to the most cultivated nations of Europe." [28]

The Spanish universities were the theatre on which this classical erudition was more especially displayed. Previous to Isabella's reign, there were but few schools in the kingdom; not one indeed of any note, except in Salamanca; and this did not escape the blight which fell on every generous study. But under the cheering patronage of the present government, they were soon filled, and widely multiplied. Academies of repute were to be found in Seville, Toledo, Salamanca, Granada, and Alcalá; and learned teachers were drawn from abroad by the most liberal emoluments. At the head of these establishments stood "the illustrious city of Salamanca," as Marineo fondly terms it, "mother of all liberal arts and virtues, alike renowned for noble cavaliers and learned men." [29] Such was its reputation, that foreigners as well as natives were attracted to its schools, and at one time, according to the authority of the same professor, seven thousand students were assembled within its walls. A letter of Peter Martyr, to his patron the count of Tendilla, gives a whimsical picture of the literary enthusiasm of this place. The throng was so great to hear his introductory lecture on one of the Satires of Juvenal, that every avenue to the hall was blockaded, and the professor was borne in on the shoulders of the students. Professorships in every department of science then studied, as well as of polite letters, were established at the university, the "new Athens," as Martyr somewhere styles it. Before the close of Isabella's reign, however, its glories were rivalled, if not eclipsed, by those of Alcalá; [30] which combined higher advantages for ecclesiastical with civil education, and which, under the splendid patronage of Cardinal Ximenes, executed the famous polyglot version of the Scriptures, the most stupendous literary enterprise of that age. [31]

This active cultivation was not confined to the dead languages, but spread more or less over every department of knowledge. Theological science, in particular, received a large share of attention. It had always formed a principal object of academic instruction, though suffered to languish under the universal corruption of the preceding reign. It was so common for the clergy to be ignorant of the most elementary knowledge, that the council of Aranda found it necessary to pass an ordinance, the year before Isabella's accession, that no person should be admitted to orders who was ignorant of Latin. The queen took the most effectual means for correcting this abuse, by raising only competent persons to ecclesiastical dignities. The highest stations in the church were reserved for those who combined the highest intellectual endowments with unblemished piety. Cardinal Mendoza, whose acute and comprehensive mind entered with interest into every scheme for the promotion of science, was archbishop of Toledo; Talavera, whose hospitable mansion was itself an academy for men of letters, and whose princely revenues were liberally dispensed for their support, was raised to the see of Granada; and Ximenes, whose splendid literary projects will require more particular notice hereafter, succeeded Mendoza in the primacy of Spain. Under the protection of these enlightened patrons, theological studies were pursued with ardor, the Scriptures copiously illustrated, and sacred eloquence cultivated with success.

A similar impulse was felt in the other walks of science. Jurisprudence assumed a new aspect, under the learned labors of Montalvo. [32] The mathematics formed a principal branch of education, and were successfully applied to astronomy and geography. Valuable treatises were produced on medicine, and on the more familiar practical arts, as husbandry, for example. [33] History, which since the time of Alfonso the Tenth had been held in higher honor and more widely Cultivated in Castile than in any other European state, began to lay aside the garb of chronicle, and to be studied on more scientific principles. Charters and diplomas were consulted, manuscripts collated, coins and lapidary inscriptions deciphered, and collections made of these materials, the true basis of authentic history; and an office of public archives, like that now existing at Simancas, was established at Burgos, and placed under the care of Alonso de Mota, as keeper, with a liberal salary. [34]

Nothing could have been more opportune for the enlightened purposes of Isabella, than the introduction of the art of printing into Spain, at the commencement, indeed in the very first year, of her reign. She saw, from the first moment, all the advantages which it promised for diffusing and perpetuating the discoveries of science. She encouraged its establishment by large privileges to those who exercised it, whether natives or foreigners, and by causing many of the works, composed by her subjects, to be printed at her own charge. [35]

Among the earlier printers we frequently find the names of Germans; a people, who to the original merits of the discovery may justly add that of its propagation among every nation of Europe. We meet with a _pragmática_, or royal ordinance, dated in 1477, exempting a German, named Theodoric, from taxation, on the ground of being "one of the principal persons in the discovery and practice of the art of printing books, which he had brought with him into Spain at great risk and expense, with the design of ennobling the libraries of the kingdom." [36] Monopolies for printing and selling books for a limited period, answering to the modern copyright, were granted to certain persons, in consideration of their doing so at a reasonable rate. [37] It seems to have been usual for the printers to be also the publishers and venders of books. These exclusive privileges, however, do not appear to have been carried to a mischievous extent. Foreign books, of every description, by a law of 1480, were allowed to be imported into the kingdom, free of all duty whatever; an enlightened provision, which might furnish a useful hint to legislators of the nineteenth century. [38]

The first press appears to have been erected at Valencia, in 1474; although the glory of precedence is stoutly contested by several places, and especially by Barcelona. [39] The first work printed was a collection of songs, composed for a poetical contest in honor of the Virgin, for the most part in the Limousin or Valencian dialect. [40] In the following year the first ancient classic, being the works of Sallust, was printed; and, in 1478, there appeared from the same press a translation of the Scriptures, in the Limousin, by Father Boniface Ferrer, brother of the famous Dominican, St. Vincent Ferrer. [41] Through the liberal patronage of the government, the art was widely diffused; and before the end of the fifteenth century, presses were established and in active operation in the principal cities of the united kingdom; in Toledo, Seville, Ciudad Real, Granada, Valladolid, Burgos, Salamanca, Zamora, Saragossa, Valencia, Barcelona, Monte Rey, Lerida, Murcia, Tolosa, Tarragona, Alcalá de Henares, and Madrid.

It is painful to notice amidst the judicious provisions for the encouragement of science, one so entirely repugnant to their spirit as the establishment of the censorship. By an ordinance, dated at Toledo, July 8th, 1502, it was decreed, that, "as many of the books sold in the kingdom were defective, or false, or apocryphal, or pregnant with vain and superstitious novelties, it was therefore ordered that no book should hereafter be printed without special license from the king, or some person regularly commissioned by him for the purpose." The names of the commissioners then follow, consisting mostly of ecclesiastics, archbishops and bishops, with authority respectively over their several dioceses. [42] This authority was devolved in later times, under Charles the Fifth and his successors, on the Council of the Supreme, over which the inquisitor- general presided _ex-officio_. The immediate agents employed in the examination were also drawn from the Inquisition, who exercised this important trust, as is well known, in a manner most fatal to the interests of letters and humanity. Thus a provision, destined in its origin for the advancement of science, by purifying it from the crudities and corruptions which naturally infect it in a primitive age, contributed more effectually to its discouragement, than any other which could have been devised, by interdicting the freedom of expression, so indispensable to freedom of inquiry. [43]

While endeavoring to do justice to the progress of civilization in this reign, I should regret to present to the reader an over-colored picture of its results. Indeed, less emphasis should be laid on any actual results, than on the spirit of improvement, which they imply in the nation, and the liberal dispositions of the government. The fifteenth century was distinguished by a zeal for research and laborious acquisition, especially in ancient literature, throughout Europe, which showed itself in Italy in the beginning of the age, and in Spain, and some other countries, towards the close. It was natural that men should explore the long-buried treasures descended from their ancestors, before venturing on anything of their own creation. Their efforts were eminently successful; and, by opening an acquaintance with the immortal productions of ancient literature, they laid the best foundation for the cultivation of the modern.

In the sciences, their success was more equivocal. A blind reverence for authority, a habit of speculation, instead of experiment, so pernicious in physics, in short, an ignorance of the true principles of philosophy, often led the scholars of that day in a wrong direction. Even when they took a right one, their attainments, under all these impediments, were necessarily so small, as to be scarcely perceptible, when viewed from the brilliant heights to which science has arrived in our own age. Unfortunately for Spain, its subsequent advancement has been so retarded, that a comparison of the fifteenth century with those which succeeded it, is by no means so humiliating to the former as in some other countries of Europe; and, it is certain, that in general intellectual fermentation, no period has surpassed, if it can be said to have rivalled, the age of Isabella.

FOOTNOTES

[1] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 153.

[2] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 154, 182.

[3] Carro de las Doñas, lib. 2, cap. 62 et seq., apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 21.--Pulgar, Letras, (Amstelodami, 1670,) let. 11. --L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.--It is sufficient evidence of her familiarity with the Latin, that the letters addressed to her by her confessor seem to have been written in that language and the Castilian indifferently, exhibiting occasionally a curious patchwork in the alternate use of each in the same epistle. See Correspondencia Epistolar, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 13.

[4] Previous to the introduction of printing, collections of books were necessarily very small and thinly scattered, owing to the extreme cost of manuscripts. The learned Saez has collected some curious particulars relative to this matter. The most copious library which he could find any account of, in the middle of the fifteenth century, was owned by the counts of Benavente, and contained not more than one hundred and twenty volumes. Many of these were duplicates; of Livy alone there were eight copies. The cathedral churches in Spain rented their books every year by auction to the highest bidders, whence they derived a considerable revenue.

It would appear from a copy of Gratian's Canons, preserved in the Celestine monastery in Paris, that the copyist was engaged twenty-one months in transcribing that manuscript. At this rate, the production of four thousand copies by one hand would require nearly eight thousand years, a work now easily performed in less than four months. Such was the tardiness in multiplying copies before the invention of printing. Two thousand volumes may be procured now at a price, which in those days would hardly have sufficed to purchase fifty. See Tratado de Monedas de Enrique III., apud Moratin, Obras, ed. de la Acad., (Madrid, 1830,) tom. i. pp. 91, 92. Moratin argues from extreme cases.

[5] Navagiero, Viaggio fatto in Spagna et in Francia, (Vinegia, 1563,) fol. 23.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust, 17. The largest collection comprised about two hundred and one articles, or distinct works. Of these, about a third is taken up with theology, comprehending Bibles, psalters, missals, lives of saints, and works of the fathers; one- fifth, civil law and the municipal code of Spain; one-fourth, ancient classics, modern literature, and romances of chivalry; one-tenth, history; the residue is devoted to ethics, medicine, grammar, astrology, etc. The only Italian author, besides Leonardo Bruno d'Arezzo, is Boccaccio. The works of the latter writer consisted of the "Fiammetta," the treatises "De Casibus Illustrium Virorum," and "De Claris Mulieribus," and probably the "Decameron;" the first in the Italian, and the three last translated into the Spanish. It is singular, that neither of Boccaccio's great contemporaries, Dante and Petrarch, the former of whom had been translated by Villena, and imitated by Juan de Mena, half a century before, should have found a place in the collection.

[6] Antonio, the eldest, died in 1488. Part of his Latin poetical works, entitled "Sacred Bucolics," was printed in 1505, at Salamanca. The younger brother, Alessandro, after bearing arms in the Portuguese war, was subsequently employed in the instruction of the infantas, finally embraced the ecclesiastical state, and died bishop of St. Domingo, in 1525. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.--Tiraboschi, Letteratura Italiana, tom. vi. part. 2, p. 285.

[7] The learned Valencian, Luis Vives, in his treatise "De Christianâ Feminâ," remarks, "Aetas noster quatuor illas Isabellae reginae filias, quas paullo ante memoravi, eruditas vidit. Non sine laudibus et admiratione refertur mihi passim in hae terrâ Joannam, Philippi conjugem, Caroli hujus matrem, extempore latinis orationibus, quae de more apud novos principes oppidatim habentur, latine respondisse. Idem de reginâ suâ, Joannae sorore, Britanni praedicant; idem omnes de duabus aliis, quae in Lusitaniâ fato concessere." (De Christianâ Feminâ, cap. 4, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.)--It appears, however, that Isabella was not inattentive to the more humble accomplishments, in the education of her daughters. "Regina," says the same author, "nere, suere, acu pingere quatuor filias auas doctas esse voluit." Another contemporary, the author of the Carro de las Doñas, (lib. 2, cap. 62, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., Ilust. 21,) says, "she educated her son and daughters, giving them masters of life and letters, and surrounding them with such persons as tended to make them vessels of election, and kings in Heaven."

Erasmus notices the literary attainments of the youngest daughter of the sovereigns, the unfortunate Catharine of Aragon, with unqualified admiration. In one of his letters, he styles her "egregie doctam;" and in another he remarks, "Regina non tantum in sexus miraculum literata est; nec minus pietate suspicienda, quam eruditione." Epistolae, (Londini, 1642,) lib. 19, epist. 31; lib. 2, epist. 24.

[8] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Deza.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 14.

[9] Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 14.

Juan de la Eucina, in the dedication to the prince, of his translation of Virgil's Bucolics, pays the following compliment to the enlightened and liberal taste of Prince John. "Favoresceis tanto la sciencia andando acompañado de tantos e tan doctísimos varones, que no menos dejareis perdurable memoria de haber alargado e estendido los límites e términos de la sciencia que los del imperio." The extraordinary promise of this young prince made his name known in distant parts of Europe, and his untimely death, which occurred in the twentieth year of his age, was commemorated by an epitaph of the learned Greek exile, Constantine Lascaris.

[10] "Aficionados á la guerra," says Oviedo, speaking of some young nobles of his time, "_por su Española y natural inclinacion_." Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.

[11] For some account of this eminent Italian scholar, see the postscript to Part I. Chap. 14, of this History.

[12] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 102, 103.

Lucio Marineo, in a discourse addressed to Charles V., thus notices the queen's solicitude for the instruction of her young nobility. "Isabella praesertim Regina magnanima, virtutum omnium maxima cultrix. Quae quidem multis et magnis occupata negotiis, ut aliis exemplum praeberet, a primis grammaticae rudimentis studere coepit, et omnes suae domûs adolescentes utriusque sexûs nobilium liberos, praeceptoribus liberaliter et honorifice conductis erudiendos commendabat." Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Apend. 16.--See also Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.

[13] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 115.

[14] A particular account of Marineo's writings may be found in Nic. Antonio. (Bibliotheca Nova, tom. ii. Apend. p. 369.) The most important of these is his work "De Rebus Hispaniae Memorabilibus," often cited, in the Castilian, in this History. It is a rich repository of details respecting the geography, statistics, and manners of the Peninsula, with a copious historical notice of events in Ferdinand and Isabella's reign. The author's insatiable curiosity, during a long residence in the country, enabled him to collect many facts, of a kind that do not fall within the ordinary compass of history; while his extensive learning, and his familiarity with foreign models, peculiarly qualified him for estimating the institutions he describes. It must be confessed he is sufficiently partial to the land of his adoption. The edition, referred to in this work, is in black letter, printed before, or soon after, the author's death (the date of which is uncertain), in 1539, at Alcalá de Henares, by Juan Brocar, one of a family long celebrated in the annals of Castilian printing. Marineo's prologue concludes with the following noble tribute to letters. "Porque todos los otros bienes son subjectos a la fortuna y mudables y en poco tiempo mudan muchos dueños passando de unos señores en otros, mas los dones de letras y hystorias que se ofrescen para perpetuidad de memoria y fama son immortales y prorogan y guardan para siempre la memoria assi de los que los reciben, como de los que los ofrescen."

[15] Sepulveda, Democrites, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.--Signorelli, Coltura nelle Sicilie, tom. iv. p. 318.-- Tiraboschi, Letteratura Italiana, tom. vii. part. 3, lib. 3, cap. 4.-- Comp. Lampillas, Saggio Storico-Apologetico de la Letteratura Spagnuola, (Genova, 1778,) tom. ii. dis. 2, sect. 5.--The patriotic Abate is greatly scandalized by the degree of influence which Tiraboschi and other Italian critics ascribe to their own language over the Castilian, especially at this period. The seven volumes, in which he has discharged his bile on the heads of the offenders, afford valuable materials for the historian of Spanish literature. Tiraboschi must be admitted to have the better of his antagonist in temper, if not in argument.

[16] Among these we find copious translations from the ancient classics, as Caesar, Appian, Plutarch, Plautus, Sallust, Aesop, Justin, Boëthius, Apulius, Herodian, affording strong evidence of the activity of the Castilian scholars in this department. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. pp. 406, 407.--Mendez, Typographia Española, pp. 133, 139.

[17] Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, cap. 21.

Lucio Marineo Siculo, in his discourse above alluded to, in which he exhibits the condition of letters under the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, enumerates the names of the nobility most conspicuous for their scholarship. This valuable document was to be found only in the edition of Marineo's work, "De Rebus Hispaniae Memorabilibus," printed at Alcalá, in 1630, whence it has been transferred by Clemencin to the sixth volume of the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of History.

[18] His work "Guerra de Granada," was first published at Madrid, in 1610, and "may be compared," says Nic. Antonio, in a judgment which has been ratified by the general consent of his countrymen, "with the compositions of Sallust, or any other ancient historian." His poetry and his celebrated _picaresco_ novel "Lazarillo de Tormes," have made an epoch in the ornamental literature of Spain.

[19] Oviedo has devoted one of his dialogues to this nobleman, equally distinguished by his successes in arms, letters, and love; the last of which, according to that writer, he had not entirely resigned at the age of seventy.--Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 28.

[20] For an account of Santillana, see the First Chapter of this History. The cardinal, in early life, is said to have translated for his father the Aeneid, the Odyssey, Ovid, Valerius Maximus, and Sallust. (Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.) This Herculean feat would put modern school-boys to shame, and we may suppose that partial versions only of these authors are intended.

[21] Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Grizio.

Señor Clemencin has examined with much care the intellectual culture of the nation under Isabella, in the sixteenth _Ilustracion_ of his work. He has touched lightly on its poetical character, considering, no doubt, that this had been sufficiently developed by other critics. His essay, however, is rich in information in regard to the scholarship and severer studies of the period. The reader, who would pursue the inquiry still further, may find abundant materials in Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Vetus, tom. ii. lib. 10, cap. 13 et seq.--Idem, Bibliotheca Hispana Nova, (Matriti, 1783-8,) tom. i. ii. passim.

[22] See Part I. Chap. 8, of this History.

[23] For a notice of this scholar, see the postscript to Part I. Chap. 11, of this History.

[24] Mendez, Typographia Española, pp. 271, 272. In the second edition, published 1482, the author states, that no work of the time had a greater circulation, more than a thousand copies of it, at a high price, having been disposed of in the preceding year. Ibid., p. 237.

[25] Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. pp. 132-139.--Lampillas, Letteratura Spagnuola, tom. ii. dis. 2, sec. 3.--Dialogo de las Lenguas, apud Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, (Madrid, 1737,) tom. ii. pp. 46, 47.

Lucio Marineo pays the following elegant compliment to this learned Spaniard, in his discourse before quoted. "Amisit nuper Hispania maximum sui cultorem in re litterariâ, Antonium Nebrissensem, qui primus ex Italiâ in Hispaniam Musas adduxit, quibuscum barbariem ex suâ patriâ fugavit, et Hispaniam totam linguae Latinae lectionibus illustravit." "Meruerat id," says Gomez de Castro of Lebrija, "et multo majora hominis eruditio, cui Hispania debet, quicquid habet bonarum literarum."

The acute author of the "Dialogo de las Lenguas," while he renders ample homage to Lebrija's Latin erudition, disputes his critical acquaintance with his own language, from his being a native of Andalusia, where the Castilian was not spoken with purity. "Hablaba y escrivia como en el Andalucia y no como en la Castilla." P. 92. See also pp. 9, 10, 46, 53.

[26] Barbosa, Bibliotheca Lusitana, (Lisboa Occidental, 1741,) tom. i. pp. 76-78.--Signorelli, Coltura nelle Sicilie, tom. iv. pp. 315-321.--Mayans y Siscar, Origenes, tom. i. p. 173.--Lampillas, Letteratura Spagnuola, tom. ii. dis. 2, sect. 5.--Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. pp. 170, 171.

[27] Among these are particularly deserving of attention the brothers John and Francis Vergara, professors at Alcalá, the latter of whom was esteemed one of the most accomplished scholars of the age; Nuñez de Guzman, of the ancient house of that name, professor for many years at Salamanca and Alcalá, and the author of the Latin version in the famous Polyglot of Cardinal Ximenes; he left behind him numerous works, especially commentaries on the classics; Olivario, whose curious erudition was abundantly exhibited in his illustrations of Cicero and other Latin authors; and lastly Vives, whose fame rather belongs to Europe than his own country, who, when only twenty-six years old, drew from Erasmus the encomium, that "there was scarcely any one of the age whom he could venture to compare with him in philosophy, eloquence, and liberal learning." But the most unequivocal testimony to the deep and various scholarship of the period is afforded by that stupendous literary work of Cardinal Ximenes, the Polyglot Bible, whose versions in the Greek, Latin, and Oriental tongues were collated, with a single exception, by Spanish scholars. Erasmus, Epistolae, lib. 19, epist. 101.--Lampillas, Letteratura Spagnuola, tom. ii. pp. 382-384, 495, 792-794; tom. ii. p. 208 et seq.-- Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 37.

[28] Erasmus, Epistolae, p. 977.

[29] "La muy esclarecida ciudad de Salamanca, madre de las artes liberales, y todas virtudes, y ansi de cavalleros como de letrados varones, muy ilustre." Cosas Memorables, fol. 11.--Chacon, Hist. de la Universidad de Salamanca, apud Semanario Erudito, tom. xviii. pp. 1-61.

[30] "Academia Complutensis," says Erasmus of this university, "non aliunde celebritatem nominis auspicata est quàm a complectendo linguae ac bonas literas. Cujus praecipuum oramentum est egregius ille senex, planéque dignus qui multos vincat Nestoras, Antonius Nebrissensis." Epist. ad Ludovicum Vivem, 1521. Epistolae, p. 755.

[31] Cosas Memorables, ubi supra.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 57.-- Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, lib. 4.--Chacon, Universidad de Salamanca, ubi supra.

It appears that the practice of scraping with the feet as an expression of disapprobation, familiar in our universities, is of venerable antiquity; for Martyr mentions, that he was saluted with it before finishing his discourse by one or two idle youths, dissatisfied with its length. The lecturer, however, seems to have given general satisfaction, for he was escorted back in triumph to his lodgings, to use his own language, "like a victor in the Olympic games," after the conclusion of the exercise.

[32] For some remarks on the labors of this distinguished jurisconsult, see Part I. Chap. 6, and Part II. Chap. 26, of the present work.

[33] The most remarkable of these latter is Herrera's treatise on Agriculture, which since its publication in Toledo, in 1520, has passed through a variety of editions at home and translations abroad. Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. p. 503.

[34] This collection, with the ill luck which has too often befallen such repositories in Spain, was burnt in the war of the Communities, in the time of Charles V. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.-- Morales, Obras, tom. vii. p. 18.--Informe de Ríol, who particularly notices the solicitude of Ferdinand and Isabella for preserving the public documents.

[35] Mendez, Typographia Española, p. 51.

[36] Archivo de Murcia, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 244.

[37] Mendez, Typographia Española, pp. 52, 332.

[38] Ordenanças Reales, lib. 4, tit. 4, ley 22.--The preamble of this statute is expressed in the following enlightened terms; "Considerando los Reyes de gloriosa memoria quanto era provechoso y honroso, que a estos sus reynos se truxessen libros de otras partes para que con ellos se hiziessen los hombres letrados, quisieron y ordenaron, que de los libros no se pagasse el alcavala.... Lo qual parece que redunda en provecho universal de todos, y en ennoblecimiento de nuestros Reynos."

[39] Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. part. 2, lib. 2, cap. 6.--Mendez, Typographia Española, pp. 55, 93.

Bouterwek intimates, that the art of printing was first practised in Spain by German printers at Seville, _in the beginning of the sixteenth century_. (Bouterwek, Geschichte der Poesie und Beredsamkeit, (Göttingen, 1801-17,) band iii. p. 98.)--He appears to have been misled by a solitary example quoted from Mayans y Siscar. The want of materials has more than once led this eminent critic to build sweeping conclusions on slender premises.

[40] The title of the book is "Certamen poetich en lohor de la Concecio," Valencia, 1474, 4to. The name of the printer is wanting. Mendez, Typographia Española, p. 56.

[41] Ibid., pp. 61-63.

[42] Mendez, Typographia Española, pp. 52, 53.--Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 138, 139.

[43] Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 13, art. 1.

"Adempto per _inquisitiones_," says Tacitus of the gloomy times of Domitian, "et loquendi audiendique commercio." (Vita Agricolae, sec. 2.) Beaumarchais, in a merrier vein, indeed, makes the same bitter reflections. "Il s'est établi dans Madrid un système de liberté sur la vente des productions, qui s'étend même a celles de la presse; et que, pourvu que je ne parle en mes écrits ni de l'autorité, ni de culte, ni de la politique, ni de la morale, ni des gens en place, ni des corps en crédit, ni de l'Opéra, ni des autres spectacles, ni de personne qui tienne à quelque chose, je puis tout imprimer librement, sous l'inspection de deux ou trois censeurs," Mariage de Figaro, acte 5, sc. 3.