Antonio de Guevara

Antonio de Guevara (c. 1481 – April 3 1545), was a Spanish chronicler and moralist.

Biography

Born in the province of Álava, he passed some of his youth at the court of Isabella of Castile. In 1528 he entered the Franciscan order, and afterwards accompanied Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, during his journeys to Italy and other parts of Europe. He held successively the offices of court preacher, court historiographer, Bishop of Guadix and Bishop of Mondoñedo. His earliest work, entitled "Reloj de principes", published at Valladolid in 1529, and, according to its author, the fruit of eleven years' labour, is a didactic novel, designed, after the manner of Xenophon's "Cyropaedia", to delineate in a somewhat ideal way, for the benefit of modern sovereigns, the life and character of an ancient prince, Marcus Aurelius, distinguished for wisdom and virtue. It was often reprinted in Spanish; and before the close of the century had also been translated into Latin, Italian, French and English, an English translation by J Bourchier (London, 1546) and another by Thomas North. There is another version of this text, either earlier or later, Libro Aureo that Guevara did not want published, according to José Luis Alberg, it came out around the same time. That version in its definitive form was published by the great French Hispanist in 1929.

It is difficult now to account for the extraordinary popularity of the work. It gave rise to a great literary controversy, the author having tried to claim it as historically accurate, appealing to an imaginary "manuscript in Florence." Other works of Guevara are the "Decada de los Césares" (Valladolid, 1539), or "Lives of the Ten Roman Emperors," in imitation of the manner of Plutarch and Suetonius; and the "Epistolas familiares" (Valladolid, 1539-1545), sometimes called "The Golden Letters," often printed in Spain, and translated into all the principal languages of Europe. They are in reality a collection of stiff and formal essays which have long ago fallen into merited oblivion. Guevara, whose influence upon the Spanish prose of the 16th century was considerable, also wrote "Libro de los inventores del arte de marear" (Valladolid, 1539, and Madrid, 1895).

Besides the above mentioned controversy, there was another regarding the two chapters on the Danubian Farmer, which appeared in different versions both in the 'Libro Aureo' and the 'Relox de principes' in which, it has been argued that the Farmer is a metaphour for the New World indigenous peoples and the Roman empire is nothing less than the Spanish empire.

Works

*"Libro áureo de Marco Aurelio" (Sevilla, 1528).
*"Reloj de Príncipes" (Valladolid, 1529).
*"Menosprecio de corte y alabanza de aldea" (Valladolid, 1539).
*"Epístolas familiares" (Valladolid, 1539 y 1541).
*"Una década de Césares, es a saber: Las vidas de diez emperadores romanos que imperaron en los tiempos del buen Marco Aurelio" (Valladolid, 1539).
*"Arte del Marear y de los inventores de ella: con muchos avisos para los que navegan en ellas". (Valladolid 1539).
*"Aviso de privados y doctrina de cortesanos" (Valladolid 1539).
*"Oratorio de religiosos y ejercicio de virtuosos" (Valladolid, 1542).
*"Monte Calvario", primera y segunda parte.

References

*1911
*Alborg, José Luis. "Historia de la literatura española: Edad Media y Renacimiento". Segunda edición ampliada. Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 1981: 726-734.
*Castro, Américo. "Hacia Cervantes". Tercera (considerable renovada) edición. Madrid: Taurus, 1967: 86-142.
*Guevara, Antonio de. "Libro aureo". In "Revue Hispanique". Ed. R. Foulche-Delbosc, n. 169, t. 76 (1929): 6-319.
*Guevara, Antonio de. "Obras Completas". 2 tomes. Ed. Emilio Blanco. Madrid: Turner (Biblioteca Castro), 1994.
*Lupher, David A. "Romans in a New World: Classical Models in Sixteenth-Century Spanish America". Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2003, pp. 50-56.