Luis de León

Luis de León (also: Ponce de Leon; * 1527 Belmonte, Cuenca province today, † August 23 1591 in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Ávila Province today ) was one of the greatest lyric poets of Spain.

Life

1544 Leon joined the Augustinian Order and then studied theology at the University of Salamanca, where he later taught. When his marra African origin was known, it was 1571 before the Court of Inquisition. He was accused of secret Judaisierens. In addition, he was accused to have the Song of Songs translated into Spanish. After five years of captivity was released in 1576. Allegedly, he then took his lectures in Salamanca with the words: Hesterno the dicebamus ( " As we said yesterday ..."). Later he was appointed vicar-general of his order in the province of Castile. Leon wrote several moral and religious prose works; " De los nombres de Cristo " treated the name of Christ in the Bible, and "La perfecta casada " ( 1583 ) dealt with the moral norms of marriage. In his poetry, but León betrayed his penchant for the non- Christian writers of antiquity. Leon translated Horace, Virgil and Homer, as well as the Italians Pietro Bembo and Petrarch. Leon established his fame with about twenty poems in which he celebrated the mysteries of the universe - they appeared posthumously in 1631.

He was next to Francisco de Aldana (* 1537 or 1540, † 1578), Alonso de Ercilla, Fernando de Herrera and John of the Cross one of the greatest literary artists of the Spanish Renaissance.