Benito Arias Montano

First edition, translation and commentary of an epigram, which Arias Montano addressed to professor Pedro Serrano around 1551, during his studies of Theology in the University of Alcalá de Henares. According to the poem, besides the poem itself, the theologian from Cordova also received some Andalusian olives, soles from the Ocean and buckthorns, which supposedly.were the best gifts for one who liked Pythagorean teachings. The commentary also deals with the supposed influence of ancient Philosophy, and particulary Pythagoranism, on the diet and way of life of both humanists.

This article seeks to understand how the category of auctor damnatus or primae classis was constituted at Rome in the middle of the sixteenth century, what its implications and consequences were for Roman censorial policy, and how the Spanish Inquisition handled this concept. The Inquisition did not adopt it, either as a category or as a structural principle, until 1612, with the promulgation of the Index of Bernardo de Sandoval. This adoption, first, had important consequences for the system of control of reading, leaving its material marks on the covers and title pages of thousands of printed volumes. Secondly, it offers us a privileged viewpoint from which to examine the (deliberate) inconsistencies of the Spanish Inquisition, and the conflicts and contradictions between the Roman system of prohibition and the expurgatory policy of the Spanish Monarchy.
Cet article se propose d’examiner la manière dont se constitue la catégorie d’auctor damnatus ou primae classis à Rome au milieu du XVIe siècle, les implications et les conséquences de l’utilisation de ce concept sur la politique censoriale romaine, ainsi que le traitement accordé à cette idée par l’Inquisition espagnole, qui ne l’a pas adoptée -ni comme catégorie ni comme principe structurel- jusqu’en 1612, c'est-à-dire jusqu’à la promulgation de l’index de Bernardo de Sandoval. Cette adoption eut des répercussions importantes sur le système de surveillance de la lecture, elle laissa des traces matérielles sur la couverture et les pages de garde de milliers d’imprimés et fournit un point d’observation privilégié pour percevoir les inconsistances (délibérées) de l’Inquisition espagnole ainsi que les conflits et les contradictions entre le système prohibitif romain et la politique expurgatoire de la monarchie hispanique.
Este artículo se propone examinar cómo se conforma la categoría de auctor damnatus o primae classis en Roma, a mediados del siglo XVI, cuáles son las implicaciones y consecuencias del uso de este concepto en la política censoria romana, y cuál el tratamiento que dispensó a esta idea la inquisición española, que no la adoptó, ni como categoría ni como principio estructural, hasta 1612, es decir, hasta la promulgación del índice de Bernardo de Sandoval. Tal adopción tuvo efectos importantes en el sistema de vigilancia de la lectura, dejó huellas materiales en la cubierta y hojas de guarda de millares de impresos y ofrece un punto de observación privilegiado para percibir las (deliberadas) inconsistencias de la Inquisición española y los conflictos y contradicciones entre el sistema prohibitorio romano y la política expurgatoria de la monarquía hispánica.

Benito Arias Montano wrote around 1572 that Juan de Quirós "was a refined poet and a chaste priest." He had been his teacher of poetry in Seville in 1546-1547, and taught him the poetic and supernatural value of the Biblical Psalms. Quirós had written in 1545 two laudatory epigrams imitating Martial for Pedro Mexia's Historia Imperial, dedicated to the future king Philipp II, and in the 1547 edition of this work appeared an epigram and a sonnet by Montano, who also imitated Martial since 1548 in several epigrams written during his studies in Alcalá de Henares. Two other Latin poems of Quirós are known to us from Montano's quotations of in his Rhetorica. Montano, who considered Quirós as the best poet in Andalusia (Rhet. 3,259-260), had written a laudatory sonnet for Quirós's Cristopatía (Toledo, 1552), which he named with the same Latin words as the title of one of his own works and which also deals with the salvation of mankind: Humanae monumenta salutis (Rhet. 3,268).
Around the middle of the century, both composed biblical paraphrases imitating the new poetry of Boscan and Garcilaso. Both wrote poems for the music book of Miguel de Fuenllana in 1554, and paid great attention to Music both in their poems and singing psalms and sacred hymns or playing the vihuela.  Montano was a laureate poet by the literary jury of Alcalá de Henares on June 22, 1552; and his teacher, who wore the laurel wreath in a portrait printed in January of that same year, was a judge in the literary joust held in Seville on June 29, 1558. Montano's spirituality responds to the same religious conception proper to Christian humanism that shows his teacher's Cristopatía, following the Bible as the main and almost unique source of inspiration and truth. This was the common basis for reconciling all Christians within the Church, which allowed them to maintain an ecumenical doctrine and a tolerant attitude towards Protestants, based on a common goal of regenerating the Christian doctrine, spirituality and moral according to the model of early Christians. These and other coincidences among teacher and disciple, as well as the differences regarding these same literary and religious attitudes, are developed in the present work.

The 'Mystic flare'  and the link between Art and Faith in Rome at Cardinal Alessandro Farnese sphere

In the book Pittura e Controriforma: l’arte senza tempo di Scipione da Gaeta, published in 1957, Federico Zeri dealt, among the first ones in Italy, the issues of images of cult in the 16th century religious crisis caused by the Reformation. Above that formal simplification process of sacred images due to the Council of Trent decrees, there was also an uneasy and quivering mystic vein in some artists, expression of a more complex spirituality. Zeri pointed out that this tendency was born with Giovanni de 'Vecchi (1543-1615), El Greco (1541-1614) and the Dutch Anthonie Blocklandt van Montfoort (1533 ca-1583). Their probable meeting in 1572 in Rome at the court of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese would have ignited the "supreme flame of pictorial mysticism of the sixteenth century". The three painters’ works show stylistic assonances, despite the different backgrounds of the authors. The elder Blocklandt might have contributed to the visionary language developed by El Greco lately in Spain. This complex hypothesis has never been verified in depth even though, over the years, there have been numerous contributions to these three artists, however made separately from each other, where the question of the relationship among the three was only touched. The research has gone through the studies on the three different artists with the updates of the last sixty years, together with a deepening of the historical and religious context around 1572, and an analysis of the works around 1570-1575 of Blocklandt, El Greco and de 'Vecchi.

This paper examines the Spanish humanist Benito Arias Montano’s concept and programme of studia humanitatis. The paper looks specifically at the Virorum doctorum (1572), a work published by Arias Montano together with the Dutch artist Philips Galle in Antwerp, and focuses on its apology for European humanism. The paper details the plurality of subjects and the diversity and international aspects of the humanist writers depicted in the book.

This work deals with some features of the Latín metrics of Renaissance poets, who tried to emulate Ancient poetry, but managed this goal to varying degrees from one another. The quality of their verses is determined by the limited knowledge they had of classical metrics. In some cases, only the most general rules of versification are respected, sometimes without even checking the quantity of every vowel. But in other cases, attention is paid to all known precepts to compose verses as accuratly as possible, with the result that they somewhat surprisingly may even obey metric laws formulated much later, such as Marx’s law and Lachmann’s law.

Benito Arias Montano (1527-1598), uno de los humanistas por antonomasia del Renacimiento
hispánico, tuvo una vida paralela a la del rey Felipe II, pues ambos nacieron y murieron en los mismos años. Montano es un personaje fascinante y complejo, cercano y remoto al mismo tiempo, y amenazado en ocasiones con una discreta sombra de la heterodoxia. Uno de los eruditos más destacados en la Europa de los siglos modernos es el protagonista de este relato de ficción, que transita a horcajadas entre el Quinientos filipino y el universo de los ilustrados españoles del siglo XVIII. Queremos ofrecer una obra narrativa de hechos inventados, ficticios, pero fundamentada necesariamente en referencias bibliográficas y hechos históricos comprobados. Un relato que, siendo pura ficción, quiere huir de lo inverosímil o anacrónico.

Guardare alla figura di Tommaso de' Cavalieri dalla prospettiva spagnola comporta, parallelamente, l'obbligo di affrontare il tema della fortuna di Michelangelo in relazione al dibattito religioso e storico-artistico tra Italia e Spagna, che negli anni della Controriforma ebbe nel cantiere dell'Escorial un luogo privilegiato di assimilazione e irraggiamento. Un tema dalle proporzioni allarmanti , che investe molteplici ambiti disciplinari: da quello letterario con la ricezione della trattatistica d'arte italiana da parte dell'umanesimo spagnolo del XVI secolo, si vedano in particolare i casi di Vasari (1550, 1568), Lodovico Dolce (1557) e Giovanni Andrea Gilio (1564) e come i loro scritti vennero accolti.
Il contributo verte sui contatti, sin qui pressoché ignoti, di Tommaso con la corte asburgica, coinvolgendo in particolare la figura di Benito Arias Montano, filologo e poeta che per primo ricoprì la carica di bibliotecario dell’Escorial, e che si dichiarava «grandisimo amigo» e «compadre» di Tommaso. Emergono in questo contesto di scambi culturali figure di letterati, artisti ed editori di spicco della Roma di secondo Cinquecento, quali Fulvio Orsini, Giulio Clovio e Luca Bertelli.

Benito Arias Montano (1527–1598) was one of the most important Spanish humanists of the Renaissance. His most significant undertaking was the edition of the Biblia Polyglotta Regia, published in Antwerp in 1569–1573. In his preface to this edition, Arias Montano defended the need to know biblical Hebrew for the correct interpretation of Scripture. A translation of Abraham ibn Ezra's Commentary on the Ten Commandments has been attributed to him. This article analyses this translation and compares it with the original in order to demonstrate the interest of a Spanish humanist like Montano in the work of a medieval exegete such as Ibn Ezra. The contents of Ibn Ezra's interpretations are compared to the explanations of the Ten Commandments contained in manuals of Christian doctrine written in the Renaissance period. This translation can be understood as an example of the appropriation of the Jewish exegetical legacy by Renaissance Christian humanists.

Francisco Pacheco copied the Latin epitaph which Benito Arias Montano wrote for Pedro Mexía's headstone, though he mistook several words and sentences and omitted some others, in the prose as well as in the verses. Francisco Mexía substituted the distichs of Montano with another poem formed by uniting the verses of four laudatory poems written by Montano, Pedro Fernández and Francisco Sánchez. The texts of both versions are analyzed, restored and translated in this article, which also deals with the whole process of composition of the epitaph and with the vicissitudes of the headstone.

The aim of this paper is to examine Montano’s and Vico’s interpretation of discovery of the New World. It begins with a study on the journey of the discovery as a metaphor of the modern mans’s self-assertion. After that, Montano’s and Vico’s views on the discovery of the New World are analyzed. The conclusion is that the “philosophia biblica” and the “new science” embrace two different conceptions of humanism

During his whole life, Benito Arias Montano used to sing Latin songs while he played his vihuela. He firmly believed in the supernatural power of music to ease the afflictions of the soul, and to gladden men's hearts. Most of the Latin poems he wrote could also be adapted to the music that he or other musicians had created.

Histoire, prudence et expertise politique chez les humanistes espagnols, de Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540) à Benito Arias Montano (1527-1598) La vertu de prudence connaît un regain d'intérêt au bas Moyen-Âge et à la Renaissance depuis la redécouverte d'Aristote à laquelle l'Espagne a largement pris part. L'originalité de la définition qu'en donne le philosophe, selon Pierre Aubenque, « ne consiste pas, comme on le croit parfois, dans l'affirmation du caractère pratique ; […] l'accent est mis d'abord sur l'impossibilité d'attribuer à la science une valeur morale par elle-même, car on peut faire de la science un mauvais usage. Au contraire, on ne saurait faire sans contradiction un mauvais usage de la prudence ». Chez Machiavel cependant, l'usage du terme prudenzia évacue la contrainte morale et à cet égard la restitution de cette dimension, absente des analyses pourtant fondamentales du disciple hispanique d'Érasme, l'humaniste valencien Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540), est décisive chez le grand humaniste chrétien, lui aussi, Benito Arias Montano (1527-1598). La réflexion sur la signification de la prudencia et les moyens de l'acquérir, afin qu'elle serve l'expertise du conseil et la décision politique, est magistralement engagée en latin, parmi les auteurs hispaniques, par Vives dans le De disciplinis. Les analyses du Valencien annoncent celles de Sebastián Fox Morcillo et de Melchor Cano, qui confirment le lien problématique toujours plus vif que les humanistes du premier XVIe siècle tissent entre histoire et prudence. Ces réflexions classiques trouvent enfin une formulation originale, moins étudiée, dans les écrits eux aussi en latin d'Arias Montano dont les exemples, quoiqu'exclusivement bibliques, ont néanmoins une forte signification politique. Or les analyses de ce savant encyclopédique, bientôt nommé par Philippe II bibliothécaire de l'Escorial, contemporain des promoteurs d'une histoire officielle et rigoureuse, retrouvent l'esprit des distinctions aristotéliciennes entre science et prudence.

RESUMEN: El presente estudio pretende determinar cuales fueron las razones que movieron a Felipe II a nombrar a don Luis de Requesens como gobernador general de los Paises Bajos despues del fracaso del duque de Alba, en 1573. Alejado del partidismo cortesano, don Luis carecia de carisma y no era fundamentalmente opuesto a los preceptos politicos del Gran Duque, pero si pertenecia a un circulo de letrados y de diplomaticos, antiguos colaboradores del cardenal Espinosa y desligados fisicamente del mundo cortesano, entre los cuales conviene destacar a Juan de Zuniga, Granvela y Benito Arias Montano. ABSTRACT: This paper is pretending to show what were the reasons that drove Philip II, in 1573, to appoint don Luis de Requesens governor general of the Netherlands foliowing the Duke of Alba failure. Far away from a courtly «partidism», don Luis was in a lack of charisma and was not basically opposed to the political precepts of the Duke, but belonged to a circle of literates and diplomais...

Resumen: El artículo estudia el tacitismo español de la segunda mitad del siglo XVI a través de dos grupos de humanistas. El primero en el que figuran, entre otros, Abstract: This paper studies the Spanish tacitism in the second half of the sixteenth century through the analysis of the works of two distinct groups of Spanish humanists. The former including, among others,

This paper examines the Spanish humanist Benito Arias Montano’s political thought, divided into two parts. Firstly, a study of the Arias Montano’s activity as advisor to King Philip II in Flanders. Secondly, the comment on his work David (1575), published in collaboration with the Dutch artist Philip Galle in Antwerp, and in which its possible appreciate his sacred political allegory.

First edition and translation into Spanish of an epitaph written by Benedictus Ariae Montanus to a young physician and astronomer around 1551. The deceased might have been Franciscus Arcaeus's son. The study deals with its contens, topics and literary sources. It also includes an account on the bonds between Ariae and Arcaeus, and of Arcaeus's books and contributions to Surgery in Renaissance Europe.

Fue teólogo y erudito del estudio de las sagradas escrituras y de lenguas antiguas. Fue un sacerdote austero del siglo XVI pero interesado por la múltiple visión del mundo gracias a sus viajes. Pasó la mayor parte de su vida sumido en estudios bíblicos. Benito Arias Montano, nacido en Fregenal de la Sierra (Badajoz) en 1527 en el seno de una familia hidalga empobrecida originaria de la sierra de Aracena. Su padre era notario del Santo Oficio. A los 19 años se va a Sevilla a estudiar lingüística, gramática, retórica, teología, ciencias físicas y médicas y filosofía, que amplió más tarde en la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, aprendiendo latín, griego, sirio, árabe y hebreo. Se ordena sacerdote en 1560 en la orden de Santiago y se retiró a Alájar (Huelva) donde estudia en profundidad las sagradas escrituras (este lugar será estancia de Benito en innumerables veces hasta poco antes de su muerte). Su fama de docto teólogo hizo que en 1562 el obispo de Segovia don Martín de Ayala lo llevase consigo a participar en el Concilio de Trento donde se distinguió por su erudición. En Italia destacó en sus competencias doctrinales y en su austeridad de vida.

Anthonie Blocklandt and Italy

Among the several studies dedicated to the northern Europe artists travelling in XVI century Italy, stands out the lack of detailed work about Anthonie Blocklandt van Montfoort, a noble origin painter from Utrecht, who was in Rome in 1572. If his late paintings and prints have been reassessed, specifically for their importance for the develop of late Dutch mannerism, the very first works made after the Italian journey of 1572 are still uncertain. Starting from his preference for the elegance of Parmigianino as compared the massive forms of Michelangelo, that, as Van Mander reported, Blocklandt didn’t like, the article tries to find which models Blocklandt can have turned his attention during the stay in Rome and who others artists he can have met.

This paper deals with an epigram, which Ariae Montanus addressed to the Cordovan theologian Petrus Serranus, one of his teachers and friends at the Complutensian University, around 1551. The language, style, structure and topics of the poem are mainly based upon Martial, while the final joke about a ‘Pythagorean meal’ with the meaning of a ‘frugal meal’, may be based upon a text from Erasmus’ Colloquia familiaria. The article also refers to the genre of the epigram as a witty descriptive label, suitable for a gift, in Martial as well as in the Renaissance literature, and with the value and meaning of these three gifts: the olives from his fatherland (the ancient Baetica); the soles from the Atlantic Ocean, and the edible shoots of a box-thorn collected by himself in Alcalá de Henares.

This article includes the critical edition and the translation of an unpublished Latin epitaph written by Arias Montano in memory of Pedro Mexía. These five distichs are quite different from those copied by Francisco Pacheco, and from the verses preserved in the tombstone. After having analyzed the content and literary form of this epitaph, I come to the conclusion that it was an early version, which was soon rejected by the author himself.

En el pensamiento del humanista español Benito arias montano se encuentran conexiones con otros humanistas europeos. Con el deseo de encontrar puntos convergentes entre la cultura alemana y la figura del extremeño, en este artículo nos detendremos en humanistas relacionados con los territorios actualmente germano-parlantes (Alemania, Austria, suiza y Liechtenstein) y que entonces pertenecían al sacro imperio romano germánico. Estos humanistas se repiten en varios momentos de su conocimiento intelectual: están presentes en su biblioteca privada (1548 y 1553), en el índice de libros expurgados de Amberes que él elaboró en 1571 y en su obra virorum doctorum de disciplinis benemerentium effigies xliiii., que publicó con Philips Galle en 1572. El artículo analiza los humanistas germano-parlantes comunes resultantes de estos tres documentos claves en la vida de arias montano (estudiante, censor y poeta) y su relación con él. Este trabajo resulta original e innovador, ya que esta línea ha sido poco estudiada nacional e internacionalmente, y contribuye a la investigación, porque sigue profundizando en el estudio de esta figura desde una nueva perspectiva.

Crispijn van den Broeck y Frans Pourbus I fueron dos pintores flamencos discípulos de Frans Floris. Su actividad artística se desarrolló en la segunda mitad del siglo XVI. Lograron gran fama y sus obras fueron exportadas a muchos países Europeos. En Burgos se conservan dos interesantes pinturas sobre tabla: Un Juicio Final de Crispijn van den Broeck y un San Jerónimo de Frans Pourbus I que llegaron a esta ciudad gracias a las relaciones comerciales entre Castilla y Flandes.
Crispijn van den Broeck and Frans I Pourbus were two Flemish painters disciples of Frans Floris. Their artistic activity was developed in the second half of the 16th century. They achieved great fame and their works were exported to many European countries. In Burgos there are two interesting paintings: a Final Judgement by Crispijn van den Broeck and a Saint Jerome by Frans I Pourbus both brought to this city thanks to the trade relations between Castile and Flanders.

En 1570 por encargo de Felipe II se publicó en Amberes un Índice de libros prohibidos. Al año siguiente fue reeditado por Benito Arias Montano con notables diferencias. Deseando encontrar puntos convergentes entre la cultura alemana y la figura del humanista español, en este artículo rescataremos de los dos Índices los nombres comunes de autores relacionados con los territorios actualmente germano-parlantes. Conocer esos autores nos permitirá conocer también a qué humanistas alemanes tuvo acceso Benito Arias Montano.

Benito Arias Montano realizó dos inventarios de libros de su biblioteca privada (1548 y 1553). Con el deseo de encontrar puntos convergentes entre la cultura alemana y la figura del humanista, en este artículo rescataremos de esos inventarios los nombres de autores y obras relacionados con los territorios actualmente germano-parlantes (Alemania, Austria, Suiza y Lichtenstein) y que entonces pertenecían al Sacro Imperio Romano-Germánico. Basándonos en estudios ya existentes sobre la biblioteca de Arias Montano, analizaremos la presencia alemana atendiendo a: autores procedentes de estos territorios, autores originarios de otros lugares que desarrollaron su labor en Alemania, obras clásicas greco-latinas cuyas ediciones fueron realizadas por humanistas germano-parlantes, obras impresas en ciudades o por impresores germano-parlantes y obras de contenido relacionado con la cultura de estos territorios. Conocer estos datos relacionados con los territorios germano-parlantes nos ofrecerá un esbozo de la presencia de esta cultura en la formación académica del extremeño.

RESUMEN En este trabajo se examinan las circunstancias relativas a las pensiones eclesiásticas que perci-bió el humanista español Benito Arias Montano. Se ofrece también una edición y estudio del memorial que Arias Montano, a la sazón en Madrid, envía en septiembre del año 1567 a Roma para tratar de vencer los reparos que la Santa Sede ponía a la concesión de la pensión que en su favor había resignado el ya fallecido Martín Pérez de Ayala, arzobispo de Valencia.

El autor propone identificar en Hypomnemata, un comentario de la poesía de Marcial atribuido a Lorenzo Ramírez de Prado, características propias de la aproximación barroca a la Antigüedad. Se estudia con detalle la interpretación que Hypomnemata realiza de Mart. sp. 21 (18), epigr. 1.46, 1.91, 1.94, 2.31 y 3.81.