[149] “El Caballero Puntual,” Primera Parte, Madrid, 1614; Segunda Parte, Madrid, 1619, 12mo. At the end of the second part is a play, “Los Prodigios de Amor.” A work not entirely unlike the “Caballero Puntual” was printed at Rouen in 1610, 12mo, called “Rodomuntadas Castellanas.” It is in Spanish, as were many other books printed at that time in France, from the connection of the French court with Spain, and it consists of the incredible boastings of a braggadocio, something like Baron Munchausen. But it has little value of any sort, and I mention it only because it preceded the fiction of Barbadillo by four years.

[150] “El Necio bien Afortunado,” Madrid, 1621, 12mo.

[151] “Don Diego de Noche,” Madrid, 1623, 12mo. All nine of his unhappy adventures occur in the night. For some reason, I know not what, this story appears among the translated works of Quevedo, (Edinburgh, 1798, 3 vols. 8vo,) and, I believe, may be found, also, in the previous translation made by Stevens. There is a play with the same title, “Don Diego de Noche,” by Roxas (in Tom. VII. of the Comedias Escogidas, 1654); but it has, I think, nothing to do with the tale of Barbadillo.

[152] “Coronas del Parnaso y Platos de las Musas,” Madrid, 1635, 12mo. There is some resemblance in the idea to that of the “Convito” of Dante; but it is not likely that Salas Barbadillo imitated the philosophical allegory of the great Italian master.

[153] The “Primera Parte de las Noches de Invierno, por Antonio de Eslava,” was printed at Pamplona in 1609, and at Brussels in 1610, 12mo; but, as was so common in these works of amusement, I believe no second part followed. It is ordered to be expurgated in the Index of 1667, p. 67.

[154] “Doce Novelas Morales y Exemplares, por Diego de Agreda y Vargas,” Madrid, 1620; reprinted by one of his descendants, at Madrid, in 1724, 12mo. Diego de Agreda, of whom there is a notice in Baena, (Tom. I. p. 331,) was a soldier as well as an author, and, in the tale he called “El Premio de la Virtud,” relates, apparently, an event in the history of his own family. Others of his tales are taken from the Italian. That of “Aurelio y Alexandra,” for instance, is a rifacimento of Bandello’s story of “Romeo and Juliet,” used at just about the same time by Shakspeare.

[155] “Guia y Avisos de Forasteros, etc., por el Licenciado Don Antonio Liñan y Verdugo,” Madrid, 1620, 4to. In a discourse preceding the tales, which are fourteen in number, their author is spoken of as having written other works, and as being an old man; but I find no notice of him except that in Antonio, (Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 141,) which gives only the titles of the tales, and mistakes the year in which they were printed. Some of the stories, it may be added, seem true, and some of the sketches of manners are lively.

[156] See, ante, Vol. II. pp. 156, 157, an account of these tales of Lope, and the way in which four others that are not his were added to them, and yet appear in his collected works, Tom. VIII.

[157] Literally, Pinks of Recreation,—“Clavellinas de Recreacion, por Ambrosio de Salazar,” Ruan, 1622, 12mo. He wrote several other Spanish works, printed, as this was, in France, where he was physician to the queen. Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 68.

[158] “Novelas de Francisco de Lugo y Avila,” Madrid, 1622, 12mo.

[159] “Novelas Amorosas por Joseph Camerino,” Madrid, 1623 and 1736, 4to. (Antonio, Bib. Nova, Tom. II. p. 361.) He was an Italian, as appears from the hint in Lope de Vega’s sonnet prefixed to his tales, as well as from his own Proemio. His Spanish, however, is pure enough, except in those affectations of style which he shared with many Castilian writers of his time. His “Dama Beata,” a longer tale, was printed at Madrid, in 1655, in 4to.

[160] Baena, Hijos de Madrid, Tom. II. p. 267. I find no edition of the “Cigarrales de Toledo” cited earlier than 1631; but my copy is dated Madrid, 1624, 4to, and is evidently of the first publication. Covarrubias (ad verb. Cigarral) gives the proper meaning of the word, which is perhaps plain enough from the work itself. The “Deleytar Aprovechando” was reprinted at Madrid in 1765, in 2 tom. 4to. In the “Cigarrales,” Tirso promises to publish twelve novelas, with an argument to connect them, adding, satirically, ”Not stolen from the Tuscans”;—but they never appeared.

[161] Baena, Tom. III. p. 157. I own the ninth edition of “Para Todos,” Alcalá, 1661, 4to. Quevedo seems to have borne some personal ill-will against Montalvan, whom he calls “a little remnant of Lope de Vega,” and says his “Para Todos” is “like the coach from Alcalá to Madrid, full of all sorts of passengers, including the worst.” (Obras, Tom. XI. p. 129.) Quevedo does not appear among those who in 1639 offered verses or other tributes to the memory of Montalvan, though their number is above a hundred and fifty, and includes, I think, nearly or quite every other Spanish author of any note then living. See “Lágrimas Panegyricas en la Muerte de Montalvan,” 1639.

[162] Matias de los Reyes was the author of other tales besides those in his “Para Algunos.” His “Curial del Parnaso,” (Madrid, 1624, 8vo,) of which only the first part was published, contains several. He also wrote for the stage. His “Para Algunos” was printed at Madrid, 1640, in quarto, and is not ill written. Baena, Hijos, Tom. IV. p. 97.

[163] I have never seen the “Para Sí” of Peralta, and know it only from its title in catalogues. Two other similar works, of a later date, may be added to these. The first is “El Entretenido,” by Antonio Sanchez Tortoles, which was licensed to be printed in 1671, but of which I have seen no edition except that of Madrid, 1729, 4to. It contains the amusements of an academy during the Christmas holidays; namely, a play, entremes, and poems, with discussions on subjects of natural history, learning, and theology. But it contains no tales, and goes through only ten of the fourteen evenings whose entertainments it announces. The remaining four were filled up by Joseph Moraleja, (Madrid, 1741, 4to,) with materials generally more light and gay, and, in one instance, with a tale. The other work referred to is “Gustos y Disgustos del Lentiscar de Cartagena, por el Licenciado Gines Campillo de Bayle” (Valencia, 1689, 4to). It takes its name from the “Lentiscar,” a spot near Carthagena where the Lentisco or mastich-tree abounds; and it consists of twelve days’ entertainment, given at a country-house to a young lady who hesitated about taking the veil, but, finding her mistake from the unhappy ending of each of these days of pleasure, returns gladly to her convent and completes her profession. Neither of these works is worth the trouble of reading. The four “Academias” of Jacinto Polo, the amusements of four days of a wedding, (Obras, 1670, pp. 1-106,) are better, but consist chiefly of poems.

[164] They were translated into French by Rampale, and printed at Paris in 1644 (see Baena and Brunet); and are in the Index Expurgatorius of 1667, p. 735.

[165] Gonzalo de Céspedes y Meneses, “Historias Peregrinas,” Zaragoza, 1628, 1630, and 1647, the last in 12mo. Only the first part was ever published. It is a curious book. It opens with “An Abridgment of the Excellences of Spain,” and each of the six tales of which it consists, having its scene laid in some famous Spanish city, is preceded by a similar abridgment of the excellences of the particular city to which it relates. Céspedes is the author of the “Gerardo Español,” noticed, ante, p. 87, and, like many of the story-writers of his time, was a native of Madrid.

[166] Juan Martinez de Moya, “Fantasías de un Susto.” It reminds us of the theory of Coleridge about the rapidity with which a series of events can be hurried through the mind of a drowning man, or any person under a similar excitement of mind. It is, however, a very poor story, intended for a satire on manners, and is full of bad verses. There is a reprint of it, Madrid, 1738, 12mo.

[167] “Auroras de Diana, por Don Pedro de Castro y Anaya.” He was a native of Murcia, and there are editions of his “Auroras” of 1632, 1637, 1640, and 1654, the last printed at Coimbra, in 12mo.

[168] Mariana de Carbajal y Saavedra, “Novelas Entretenidas,” Madrid, 1633, 4to. At the end of these eight stories, she promises a second part; and in the edition of 1728 there are, in fact, two more stories, marked as the ninth and tenth, but I think they are not hers.

[169] Baena, Hijos, Tom. IV. p. 48. Both collections are printed together in the edition of Madrid, 1795, 4to;—the first being called Novelas and the second Saraos.

[170] Gerónimo Fernandez de Mata, “Soledades de Aurelia,” 1638, to which, in the edition of Madrid, 1737, 12mo, is added a poor dialogue between Crates and his wife, Hipparcha, against ambition and worldliness; originally printed in 1637.

[171] André del Castillo, “La Mogiganga del Gusto,” Zaragoza, 1641. Segunda Impresion, Madrid, 1734. They are written in the affected style of the cultos.

[172] Christóval Lozano, “Soledades de la Vida,” 6a impresion, Barcelona, 1722, 4to. After the four connected stories told by the hermit, there follow, in this edition, six others, which, though separate, are in the same tone and style. Lozano wrote the “Reyes Nuevos de Toledo,” noticed, ante, p. 91; the “David Perseguido,” and other similar works;—at least, I believe they are all by one person, though the Index Expurgatorius of 1790 makes the “Soledades” the work of Gaspar Lozano, as if he were not the same.

[173] Of Alonso del Castillo Solorzano I have spoken, ante, p. 72, as the author of picaresque tales. A list of most of his works may be found in Antonio, (Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 15,) among which is a sort of suite with the following titles: “Jornadas Alegres,” 1626;—“Tardes Entretenidas,” 1625;—and “Noches de Placer,” 1631. None of these had much success; nor, indeed, did he succeed much in any of his tales, except “La Garduña de Sevilla,” already noticed. But his “Quinta de Laura” was printed three times, and his “Alivios de Cassandra,” which first appeared in 1640,—and is something like the “Para Todos” of Montalvan, being a collection of dramas, poetry, etc., besides six stories,—was translated into French, and printed at Paris, both in 1683 and 1685.

[174] Alonso de Alcalá y Herrera, “Varios Efetos de Amor,” Lisboa, 1641, 18mo. He was a Portuguese, but was of Spanish origin, and wrote Spanish with purity, as well as Portuguese. (Barbosa, Bib. Lus., fol., Tom. I. p. 26.) Clemencin cites these stories of Alcalá as proof of the richness of the Spanish language. (Ed. Don Quixote, Tom. IV. p. 286.) There is a tale, printed by Guevara, called “Los Tres Hermanos,” in the volume with his “Diablo Cojuelo,” (Madrid, 1733, 12mo,) in which the letter A is omitted; and in 1654 Fernando Jacinto de Zarate published a dull love-story, called “Méritos disponen Premios, Discurso Lírico,” omitting the same vowel;—but the five tales of Alcalá are better done than either.

[175] Jacinto de Villalpando, “Escarmientos de Jacinto,” Zaragoza, 1645. He was Marquis of Osera, and published other works in the course of the next ten years after the appearance of the “Jacinto,” one of which, at least, appeared under the name of “Fabio Clymente.” See, ante, Vol. II. p. 483.

[176] Literally, Luncheons of Wit, etc. “Meriendas del Ingenio y Entretenimientos del Gusto,” Zaragoza, 1663, 8vo. Six tales.

[177] Isidro de Robles collected the “Varios Efetos de Amor” (Madrid, 1666, 4to). They were published again, with the five tales of Alcalá, already noted, in 1709, 1719, and 1760;—the number of tales being thus eleven, with three “Sucesos” at the end, published under the title of “Varios Prodigios de Amor.”

[178] Antonio (Bib. Nov., Tom. II. p. 68) and Montalvan (in the catalogue at the end of his “Para Todos,” 1661, p. 545) make him one of the principal and most fashionable dramatic authors of his time. (See, ante, Vol. II. p. 293.) The “Diablo Cojuelo” has been very often reprinted in Spanish since 1641. Le Sage published his “Diable Boiteux” in 1707, chiefly from Guevara; and nineteen years afterwards enlarged it by the addition of more Spanish stories from Santos and others, and more Parisian scandal. In the mean time, it had been carried upon the stage, where, as well as in its original form, it had a prodigious success.

[179] “Universidad de Amor y Escuela del Interes, Verdades Soñadas ó Sueño Verdadero.” The first part appeared under the name of Antolinez de Piedra Buena, and the second under that of El Bachiller Gaston Daliso de Orozco; but both were printed subsequently in the works of Jacinto Polo, and both appear together in a separate edition, 1664, filling sixty-three leaves, 18mo, and including some of Polo’s poetry.

[180] Marcos Garcia, “La Flema de Pedro Hernandez, Discurso Moral y Político,” Madrid, 1657, 12mo. The author was a surgeon of Madrid, and wrote “Honor de la Medecina”; and another “Papelillo,” without his name, which he mentions in his Prólogo. (Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. II. p. 83.) He shows, at the beginning of his “Flema,” that he means to imitate Quevedo; but he has a good deal of cultismo in his style. For the meaning of “Flema,” see Covarrubias, ad verb.—One more trifle may here be mentioned; the “Desengaño del Hombre en el Tribunal de la Fortuna y Casa de Descontentos, ideado por Don Juan Martinez de Cuellar,” 1663. It is a vision, in which the author goes to the house of “Desengaño,”—that peculiarly Castilian word, which may here be translated Truth. He is led afterwards to the palace and tribunal of Fortune, where he is disabused of his errors concerning all earthly good. The fiction is of little worth, and the style is that of the school of Góngora.

[181] Baena, Hijos de Madrid, Tom. II. p. 216. There is a coarse edition of the works of Santos, in 4 tom. 4to, Madrid, 1723.

[182] “Dia y Noche en Madrid, Discursos de lo mas Notable que en él passa,” Madrid, 1663, 12mo; besides which there are editions of 1708, 1734, etc.

[183] “Periquillo, él de las Gallineras,” Madrid, 1668, 12mo. He gets his name from the circumstance, that, as a child, he was employed to take care of chickens.

[184] “El Verdad en el Potro y el Cid Resuscitado,” Madrid, 1679, 12mo, and again, 1686. The ballads cited or repeated in this volume, as the popular ballads sung in the streets in honor of the Cid, are, it is curious to observe, not always to be found in any of the Romanceros. Thus, the one on the insult to the Cid’s father begins,—

It is quite different from the ballad on the same subject in any of the ballad-books. So is the one at p. 33, upon the death of Count Lozano, as well as the one at p. 105, upon the Cid’s insult to the Pope at Rome. On hearing the last sung in the streets, the Cid is made, in the story, to cry out, “Is it pretended I was ever guilty of such effrontery? I, whom God made a Castilian,—I treat the great Shepherd of the Church so?—I be guilty of such folly? By St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Lazarus, with whom I held converse on earth, you lie, base ballad-singer!” Several ballads might be taken from this volume and added even to the “Romancero del Cid,” Keller, Stuttgard, 1840, which is the most ample of all the collections on the Cid.

[185] “El Diablo anda Suelto,” (Madrid, 1677,) and “El Vivo y el Difunto,” (1692,) are both very curious fictions.

[186] “Las Tarascas de Madrid y Tribunal Espantoso,” Madrid, 1664, Valencia, 1694, etc. “La Tarasca de Parto en el Meson del Infierno y Dias de Fiestas por la Noche,” Madrid, 1671, Valencia, 1694, are again interesting, partly because they contain anecdotes and sketches that serve to explain the popular religious theatre.

[187] “Los Gigantones de Madrid por defuera,” Madrid, 1666, 12mo.

[188] The Spanish tales of the middle and latter part of the seventeenth century are much infected with the false taste of cultismo; no portion of Spanish literature more so. As we approach the end of the century, not one, I think, is free from it.

[189] Italy is the only country that can enter into competition with Spain in the department of tales, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Indeed, I am not certain, considering the short period (a little more than a century) during which Spanish tales were fashionable, that as many in proportion were not produced as were produced of Italian tales in Italy during the long period—four centuries and a half—in which they have now been prevalent there. And if, to the Spanish tales found in books professing and not professing to be collections of them, we add the thousands used up in Spanish dramas, to which the elder Italian theatre offers no counterpart, I suppose there can hardly be a doubt that there are really more Spanish fictions of this class in existence than there are Italian. If, however, we were to settle the point only by a comparison of the meagre and imperfect catalogues of Spanish stories in Antonio’s Bibliotheca with the admirably complete one of Italian stories in the “Bibliografia delle Novelle Italiane,” by Gamba, we should settle it differently. But, in any event, when speaking of the Italian novelle, we should remember, that, until very lately, the whole spirit and power of fiction in Italy, so to speak, have been taken from the theatre and romances, and cast into these short tales.

[190] Puibusque, Histoire Comparée, Tom. II. c. 3.

[191] The most remarkable, and perhaps the most beautiful, specimen is in the first book of “The Names of Christ”; the text being from Isaiah, ix. 6: “The everlasting Father.”

[192] See the accounts of Luis de Granada in Antonio, and in the Preface to the “Guia de Pecadores,” Madrid, 1781, 2 tom. 8vo. His treatise on pulpit eloquence, entitled “Rhetoricæ Ecclesiasticæ, sive de Ratione Concionandi, Libri Sex,” was valued in other countries. An edition of it, Cologne, 1611, 12mo, fills above 500 closely printed pages. It is somewhat remarkable, that, besides the sermon on the Resurrection, from which the extract I have translated was made, one of the best of his meditations, that entitled “De la Alegría de los Santos Padres,” is on the same subject. He was born in 1504, and died in 1588.

[193] For Paravicino and his school, see Sedano, (Parnaso Español, Tom. V. p. xlviii.,) Baena, (Hijos de Madrid, Tom. II. p. 389,) and Antonio, (Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 612,) who speaks as if he had often heard Paravicino’s eloquence, and witnessed its effects. E contra is Figueroa, who, in his “Pasagero,” (1617, Alivio IV.,) is severe upon the preachers and audiences of Madrid. The fact, however, that Capmany, in his five important volumes devoted to Spanish eloquence, has been able to find nothing in the seventeenth century, either in the way of forensic orations or popular pulpit eloquence, with which to fill his pages, but is obliged to resort to the eloquent prose of history and philosophy, of ethics and religious asceticism, tells at once, in a way not to be mistaken, the tale of the deficiencies in Castilian eloquence, as the word eloquence is understood in English.

[194] These writers have all been mentioned earlier, (see, ante, Vol. I. pp. 395, 540, 543,) except Queen Isabella, whose letters are best found in Clemencin’s excellent work on her character and times, filling the sixth volume of the “Memorias de la Academia de la Historia.” They are addressed to her confessor, Hernando de Talavera, and strongly illustrate both her prudence and her submission to ecclesiastical influences. (See pp. 351-383.) Several letters addressed to Columbus, and marked with her spirit rather than that of her husband, though signed by both of them, may be seen in the second volume of Navarrete, (Viages, etc.,) which is rich in such curious documents.

[195] The correspondence of Zurita and his friends is to be sought in the “Progresos de la Historia en el Reyno de Aragon,” by Diego Josef Dormer, (Zaragoza, 1680, folio,) and especially pp. 362-563, which are entirely given up to it.

[196] “La Ulyxea de Homero,” etc., por Gonzalo Perez, (Venecia, 1553, 18mo,) is in blank verse; but in this edition we have only the first thirteen books, with a dedication to Philip the Prince, whose chief secretary Gonzalo Perez then was, as his son Antonio was afterwards secretary of the same Philip on the throne. Subsequently, when he had translated the remaining eleven books, he dedicated the whole anew to Philip as king, (Anvers, 1556, 12mo,) correcting and amending the first part carefully. Lope de Vega (in his Dorotea, Acto IV. sc. 3) praises the version of Perez; but, like most of the Spanish translations from the ancients in the sixteenth century, it shows little of the spirit of the original.

[197] Obras, Genevra, 1654, 12mo, p. 1073.

[198] Ibid., p. 96.

[199] The first publication of Perez, I think, is the one made at Lyons, without date, but supposed to be of 1598, and entitled “Pedaços de Historia,” etc.; but, the same year, the contents of this volume were reprinted at Paris, with the more appropriate title of “Relaciones.” Perez seems to have amused himself with publishing different portions of his works at different times and in different places; but the most complete collection is that of Geneva, 1654, 12mo, pp. 1126. His life is admirably discussed by M. Mignet, in his “Antonio Perez et Philippe II.” (2de édit., Paris, 1846). The work of Salvador Bermudez de Castro, entitled “Antonio Perez, Estudios Históricos,” (Madrid, 1841, 8vo,) would be better worth reading if the author had not permitted himself to indulge in fictions, such as ballad poetry, which he calls the poetry of Perez, and which he gives as part of the means Perez used to stir up the people of Saragossa, but which is, no doubt, the work of Castro himself. The lives of Perez in Baena (Tom. I., 1789, p. 121) and Latassa (Bib. Nov., Tom. II., 1799, p. 108) show how afraid men of letters were, as late as the end of the eighteenth century, to approach any subject thus connected with royalty. The works of Perez are strictly forbidden by the Index Expurgatorius of the Inquisition to the last,—in 1790 and 1805. The letters of Perez to Essex are in pretty good Latin, and out of his Spanish works there were early made two or three collections of very acute and striking aphorisms, which have been several times printed. There are many MS. letters of Perez at the Hague and elsewhere, referred to by Mignet, and there is in the Royal Library at Paris an important political treatise which bears his name, but which, though strongly marked with his acuteness and brilliancy, Ochoa hesitates to attribute to him. It is, however, I doubt not, his. (See Ochoa, Manuscritos Españoles, pp. 158-166; and Seminario Erudito, Tom. VIII. pp. 245 and 250.) Further accounts of Perez are to be found in Llorente, Tom. III. pp. 316-375.

[200] “Cartas de Santa Teresa de Jesus,” Madrid, 1793, 4 tom. 4to,—chiefly written in the latter part of her life.

[201] The letters of Argensola are in the “Cartas de Varios Autores Españoles,” by Mayans y Siscar, (Valencia, 1773, 5 tom. 12mo,)—itself a monument of the poverty of Spanish literature in that department from which it attempts to make a collection, since by far the greater part of it consists of old printed dedications, formal epistles of approbation that had been prefixed to books when they were first published, lives of authors that had served as prefaces to their works, etc. The letters of Quevedo and Lope are chiefly on literary subjects, and are scattered through their respective writings. Those of Antonio and Solís are in a small volume published by Mayans at Lyons, in 1733; to which may be added those at the end of Antonio’s “Censura de Historias Fabulosas,” Madrid, 1742, fol. The “Cartas Philologicas” of Cascales, (of which there is a neat edition by Sanchez, Madrid, 1779, 8vo,) are to Spain and the age in which they were written what the terse and pleasant letters published by Melmoth, under the pseudonyme of Fitzosborne, are to England in the reign of George II.,—an attempt to unite as much learning as the public would bear with an infusion of lighter matter in discussions connected with morals and manners.

[202] The best notice of Gerónimo de Zurita is the one at the end of Part II. Chap. I. of Prescott’s “Ferdinand and Isabella”;—the most ample is the folio volume of Diego Josef Dormer, entitled “Progresos de la Historia en Aragon” (Zaragoza, 1680, folio); really a life of Zurita, published in his honor by the Cortes of his native kingdom. There are several editions of his Annals; and Latassa (Bib. Nueva, Tom. I. pp. 358-373) gives a list of above forty of his works, nearly all unpublished, and none of them, probably, of much value, except his History, to which, in fact, they are generally subsidiary. He held several offices under Philip II., and there is a letter to him from the king in Dormer, (p. 109,) which shows that he enjoyed much of the royal consideration; though, as I have intimated, and as may be fully seen in Dormer, (Lib. II. c. 2, 3, 4,) he was much teased, at one time, by the censors of his History. The first edition of the “Anales de la Corona de Aragon” was published in different years, at Saragossa, between 1562 and 1580, to which a volume of Indices was added in 1604, making seven volumes, folio, in all. The third edition (Zaragoza, 1610-21, 7 tom. folio) is the one that is preferred.

Another volume was added to the Annals of Zurita (Zaragoza, 1630, fol.) by Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola, the poet, who brought them down to 1520, and whose style is better than that in Zurita’s portion; but not much of it is the work of Argensola, so heavy is it with documents.

I have said that Zurita was employed as secretary of Philip II., from time to time; and such was the fact. But this title often implied little except the right of the person who bore it to receive a moderate salary from the public treasury;—a circumstance which I mention because I have occasion frequently to notice authors who were royal secretaries, from the time of Baena, the Jew, in the days of John II., down to the disappearance of the Austrian family. Thus Gonzalo Perez and his son Antonio were royal secretaries; so were the two Quevedos, and many more. In 1605, Philip III. had twenty-nine such secretaries. Clemencin, note to Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 47.

[203] The History of Ambrosio de Morales was first published in three folios, Alcalá, 1574-77; but the best edition is that of Madrid, 1791, in six small quartos, to which are commonly added two volumes, dated 1792, on Spanish Antiquities, and three more, dated 1793, of his miscellaneous works;—the whole being preceded by the work of Ocampo, in two volumes, already noticed, and followed by the continuation of Sandoval, in one volume, a work of about equal merit with that of Morales, and first printed at Pamplona, in 1615, folio. The three authors, Ocampo, Morales, and Sandoval, taken together, are thus made to fill twelve volumes, as if they belonged to one work, to which is given the unsuitable title of “Corónica General de España.”

Morales, in his youth, cruelly mutilated his person, in order to insure his priestly purity of life, and wellnigh died of the consequences.

I might have mentioned here the “Comentario de la Guerra de Alemaña de Luis de Avila y Zuñiga,” a small volume, (Anvers, 1550, 12mo,) first printed in 1548, and frequently afterwards, both in Latin and French, as well as in Spanish. It is an account of the campaigns of Charles V. in Germany, in 1546 and 1547, prepared, probably, from information furnished by the Emperor himself, (Navarra, Diálogos, 1567, f. 13,) and written in a natural, but by no means polished, Castilian style. Parts of it bear internal evidence of having been composed at the very time of the events they record, and the whole is evidently the work of one of the few personal friends Charles V. ever had; one, however, who does not appear to much advantage in the private letters of Guillaume van Male, printed by the Belgian Bibliophiles, in 1843. See, ante, Vol. I. p. 499, n.

[204] Pedro de Ribadeneyra, who died, aged 84, in 1611, and for whom a beautiful epitaph was composed by Mariana, wrote several works in honor of his company, and several ascetic works, besides his “Cisma de Inglaterra,” (Valencia, 1588,) and his “Flos Sanctorum,” Madrid, 1599-1601, 2 tom. folio.

José de Siguenza, who was born in 1545, and died in 1606, as Prior of the Escurial,—whose construction he witnessed and described,—published his “Vida de San Gerónimo,” in Madrid, 1595, 4to, and his “Historia de la Orden de San Gerónimo,” in Madrid, 1600, 4to. He was persecuted by the Inquisition. Llorente, Hist. de l’Inquisition, Tom. II., 1817, p. 474.

It would be easy to add to these two writers on ecclesiastical history the names of many more. Hardly a convent or a saint of any note in Spain, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, failed of especial commemoration; and each of the religious orders and great cathedrals had at least one historian, and most of them several. The number of books on Spanish ecclesiastical history to be found in the list at the end of the second volume of Antonio’s Bibliotheca Nova is, therefore, one that may well be called enormous. Some of them, too, like the history of the order of St. Benedict, by Yepes, and several of the histories of those orders that were both knightly and religious, are of no little importance for the facts and documents with which they are crowded. But nearly all of them are heavy, monkish annals, and not one, I believe, has literary merit enough to attract our attention.

[205] Llorente, Tom. I. p. 479, Tom. II. p. 457, Tom. III. pp. 75-82. Carvajal, the author of the “Elógio Historico” of Montano, in the seventh volume of the Memoirs of the Academy of History, (1832, 4to, p. 84,) does not think the course of Mariana, in this investigation, was so frank as it should have been. Perhaps it was not; but he came to the right conclusion at last, and it was a bold and honest thing to do so.

[206] The account of this book, and of the discussions it occasioned, is given amply by Bayle, in the notes to his article Mariana; but, as is usual with him, in a manner that shows his dislike of the Jesuits. I know the treatise “De Rege et Regis Institutione” only in the edition “Typis Wechelianis,” 1611, 12mo; but I believe that edition is not at all expurgated. Certainly, the passage Lib. I. c. 6 is quite strong enough, in extenuation of the atrocious crime of Jaques Clemens, to be open to severe animadversion. (Sismondi, Hist. des Français, Paris, 8vo, Tom. XXII., 1839, p. 191.) From the very remarkable letters of Loaysa, the confessor of Charles V., it appears that the great Emperor himself was as little scrupulous as his son in such matters. This renders the passage in Mariana more easy of explanation. See Briefe an Kaiser Karl V., etc., von D. G. Heine, Berlin, 1848, 8vo, p. 130, and note.

[207] “Joh. Mariana, e Soc. Jesu, Tractatus VII., nunc primum in Lucem editi,” Colon. Agrip., 1609, fol.; my copy of which is mutilated according to the minute directions given in the Index Expurgatorius, 1667, p. 719. It should be noted that the treatise “De Ponderibus et Mensuris,” which contains the obnoxious discussions about the coin, had been previously published at Toledo, in a neat quarto volume, in 1599, a copy of which I have, with all needful authority and privileges. (Santander, Catalogue, 1792, 8vo, Tom. IV. pp. 152, 153, article Proceso del Padre Mariana, MS. Lope de Vega, Obras Sueltas, Tom. I. p. 295.) The “Discursus de Erroribus qui in Formâ Gubernationis Societatis Jesu occurrunt,” written in Mariana’s beautiful flowing style, was first printed at Bordeaux, 1625, 8vo, and then again on the suppression of the order by Charles III.; but in the Index Expurgatorius, (1667, p. 735,) where it is strictly prohibited, it is craftily treated as if it were still in manuscript, and as if its author were not certainly known. In the Index of 1790, he is still censured with great severity. A considerable number of his unpublished manuscripts is said to have been long preserved in the Jesuits’ Library at Toledo.

[208] The most carefully printed and beautiful edition of Mariana’s History is the fourteenth, published at Madrid, by Ibarra, (two vols. fol. 1780,) under the direction of the Superintendents of the Royal Library;—a book whose mechanical execution would do honor to any press in Europe. It is remarkable how much Mariana amended his History in the successive editions during his lifetime; the additions between 1608 and 1623 being equal, as stated by the editors of that of 1780, to a moderate volume.

[209] Mariana, Hist., Lib. I. c. 13. Saavedra, República Literaria, Madrid, 1759, 4to, p. 44. Mariana admits the want of critical exactness in some parts of his history, when, replying to a letter of Lupercio de Argensola, who had noticed his mistake in calling Prudentius a Spaniard, he says: “I never undertook to make a history of Spain, in which I should verify every particular fact; for if I had, I should never have finished it; but I undertook to arrange in a becoming style, and in the Latin language, what others had collected as materials for the fabric I desired to raise. To look up authorities for every thing would have left Spain, for another series of centuries, without a Latin History that could show itself in the world.” J. A. Pellicer, Ensayo de una Biblioteca de Traductores, p. 59.

[210] The first attack on Mariana was made by a Spaniard in Italy, who called himself Pedro Mantuano, and who printed his “Advertencias” at Milan in 1611. Thomas Tamayo de Vargas wrote a vituperative reply to it (Toledo, 1616, 4to). But Mariana wisely refused to read either. The Marquis of Mondejar, a most respectable authority, renewed the discussion, and his “Advertencias” were published, (Valencia, 1746, folio,) with a preface by Mayans y Siscar, somewhat mitigating their force. Still, neither these, which are the principal criticisms that have appeared on Mariana, nor any others, have, in the estimation of Spaniards, seriously interfered with his claims to be regarded as the great historian of his country.

[211] Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. II. p. 255. La Mothe le Vayer, in a discourse addressed to Cardinal Mazarin, (Œuvres, Paris, 1662, folio, Tom. I. pp. 225, etc.,) assails Sandoval furiously, and sometimes successfully, for his credulity, superstition, flattery, etc., not forgetting his style. It was a part of the warfare of France against Spain.

[212] During this period, embracing a large part of the seventeenth century, two remarkable controversies took place in Spain, which, by introducing a more critical caution into historical composition, were not without their effect on Mariana, and may have tended to diminish the number of his successors, by subjecting history, in all its forms, to more rigorous rules. The discussions referred to arose in consequence of two extraordinary forgeries, which, for a time, created a great sensation throughout the country, and deluded not a few intelligent men and honest scholars.

The first related to certain metallic plates, sometimes called “The Leaden Books,” which, having been prepared and buried for the purpose several years before, were disinterred near Granada between 1588 and 1595, and, when deciphered, seemed to offer materials for defending the favorite doctrine of the Spanish Church on the Immaculate Conception, and for establishing the great corner-stone of Spanish ecclesiastical history, the coming to Spain of the Apostle James, the patron saint of the country. This gross forgery was received for authentic history by Philip II., Philip III., and Philip IV., each of whom, in a council of state, consisting of the principal personages of the kingdom, solemnly adjudged it to be true; so that, at one period of the discussion, some persons believed the “Leaden Books” would be admitted into the Canon of the Scriptures. The question, however, was in time settled at Rome, and they were decided, by the highest tribunal of the Church, to be false and forged; a decision in which Spain soon acquiesced.

The other fraud was connected with this one of the “Leaden Books,” whose authority it was alleged to confirm; but it was much broader and bolder in its claims and character. It consisted of a series of fragments of chronicles, circulated earlier in manuscript, but first printed in 1610, and then represented to have come, in 1594, from the monastery of Fulda, near Worms, to Father Higuera, of Toledo, a Jesuit, and a personal acquaintance of Mariana. They purported, on their face, to have been written by Flavius Lucius Dexter, Marcus Maximus, Heleca, and other primitive Christians, and contained important and wholly new statements touching the early civil and ecclesiastical history of Spain. They were, no doubt, an imitation of the forgeries of John of Viterbo, given to the world about a century before as the works of Berosus and Manetho; but the Spanish forgeries were prepared with more learning and a nicer ingenuity. Flattering fictions were fitted to recognized facts, as if both rested on the same authority; new saints were given to churches that were not well provided in this department of their hagiology; a dignified origin was traced for noble families, that had before been unable to boast of their founders; and a multitude of Christian conquests and achievements were hinted at or recorded, that gratified the pride of the whole nation, the more because they had never till then been heard of. Few doubted what it was so agreeable to all to believe. Sandoval, Tamayo de Vargas, Lorenzo Ramirez de Prado, and, for a time, Nicolas Antonio,—all learned men,—were persuaded that these summaries of chronicles, or chronicones, as they were called, were authentic; and if Arias Montano, the editor of the Polyglot, Mariana, the historian, and Antonio Agustin, the cautious and critical friend of Zurita, held an opposite faith, they did not think it worth while openly to avow it. The current of opinion, in fact, ran strongly in favor of the forgeries; and they were generally regarded as true history till about 1650 or a little later, and therefore till long after the death of their real author, Father Higuera, which happened in 1624. The discussion about them, however, which, it is evident, was going quietly on during much of this time, was useful. Doubts were multiplied; the disbelief in their genuineness, which had been expressed to Higuera himself, as early as 1595, by the modest and learned Juan Bautista Perez, Bishop of Segorbe, gradually gained ground; writers of history grew cautious; and at last, in 1652, Nicolas Antonio began his “Historias Fabulosas”; a huge folio, which he left unfinished at his death, and which was not printed till long afterwards, but which, with its cumbrous, though clear-sighted learning, left no doubt as to the nature and extent of the fraud of Father Higuera, and made his case a teaching to all future Spanish historians, that does not seem to have been lost on them. See the Chronicle of Dexter at the end of Antonio’s Bibliotheca Vetus; the Historias Fabulosas of Antonio, with the Life of its author prefixed by Mayans y Siscar, (Madrid, 1742, folio,) to show the grossness of the whole imposture; and the “Chrónica Universal” of Alonso Maldonado, (Madrid, 1624, folio,) to show how implicitly it was then believed and followed by learned men. The man of learning who was the most clear-sighted about “The Leaden Books” and the chronicones, and who behaved with the most courage in relation to them from the first, was, I suppose, the Bishop of Segorbe, who is noticed in Villanueva, “Viage Literario á las Iglesias de España,” (Madrid, 1804, 8vo, Tom. III. p. 166,) together with the document (pp. 259-278) in which he exposes the whole fraud, but which was never before published.