LUIS

PONCE DE

See also:

• LEON
• LUIS PONCE DE LEON (1527-1591)
• LEON, MOSES BEN SI
• LEON, or LEON DE LAS ALDAMAS

LEON (1527-1591)  , Spanish poet and mystic, was born at Belmonte de Cuenca, entered the university of Salamanca at the age of fourteen, and in 1544 joined the Augustinian order . In 1561 he obtained a theological chair at Salamanca, to which in 1571 was added that of sacred literature . He was denounced to the Inquisition for translating the book of Canticles, and for criticizing the text of the Vulgate . He was consequently imprisoned at Valladolid from March 1572 till December 1576 ; the charges against him were then abandoned, and he was released with an admonition . He returned to Salamanca as professor of Biblical exegesis, and was again reported to the Inquisition in 1582, but without result . In 1583—1585 he published the three books of a celebrated mystic treatise, Los Nombres de Cristo, which he had written in prison . In 1583 also appeared the most popular of his prose works, a treatise entitled La Perfecta Casada, for the use of a lady newly married . Ten days before his death, which occurred at Madrigal on the 23rd of August 1591, he was elected vicar general of the Augustinian order . Luis de Leon is not only the greatest of Spanish mystics; he is among the greatest of Spanish lyrical poets . His translations of Euripides, Pindar, Virgil and Horace are singularly happy; his original pieces, whether devout like the ode De la vida del cielo, or secular like the ode A Salinas, are instinct with a serene sublimity unsurpassed in any literature, and their form is impeccable . Absorbed by less worldly interests, Fray Luis de Leon refrained from printing his poems, which were not issued till 1631, when Quevedo published them as a counterblast to cislteranismo . The best edition of Luis de Leon's works is that of Merino (6 vols., Madrid, 1816) ; the reprint (Madrid, 1885) by C .

Munoz Saenz is incorrect . The text of La Perfecta Casada has been well edited by

Miss Elizabeth Wallace (Chicago, 1903) . See Coleccion de documentos ineditos Para la historia de Espana, vols. x.-xi.; F . H . Reusch, Luis de Leon and die spanische Inquisition (Bonn, 1873) ; M . Gutierrez, Fray Luis de Leon y la filosofia espannola (Madrid, 1885) ; M . Menendez y Pelayo, Estudios de critica literaria (Madrid, 1893), Primera serie, pp . 1-72 .