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1. The functions of humanism in Spain (1470-1520)

Introduction
At the beginning of the twentieth century the idea of humanist influence on Spain was contested,
particularly by German historiography.1 Now, whilst its existence is commonly accepted, there
is still disagreement about when one can speak of humanism in Spain. Scholars have found a
unique humanist tradition in fourteenth and fifteenth century Catalonia, Catalonian-Aragonese
humanism,2 and Ottavio DiCamillo has traced the beginnings of humanist influence in Castile
back to Alonso de Cartagena, who he considers to be the first Castilian humanist.3 This opinion
is shared by recent studies which suggest humanism was present in the first half of the fifteenth
century in Castile as texts of Roman and humanist authors were being read there at that time,
texts which prompted a re-modelation of life along the lines of classical models.4 In contrast,
Francisco Rico, who has a similar understanding of humanism to Paul Oskar Kristeller, that is
as a movement led by philologists and grammarians, considers that humanist influence is first
felt in Spain at the time of Nebrija’s return from Italy in 1470.5
This article follows this close understanding of humanism as a pedagogical movement led by
Latin teachers who taught the studia humanitatis. This movement, according to Paul F.
Grendler, entered mainstream Renaissance society through elementary and secondary schools.6
In the case of Italy, there has been some research into Latin schooling.7 In the Spanish context,
however, besides Francisco Rico’s work on Elio Antonio de Nebrija and Alejandro Coroleu’s
study of the dissemination of scholarly Latin literature, there has not been much work and a lot
must still be done in order to reconstruct the spread of humanism in schools. 8 Teaching
practices, curricula, school statutes and the activity of lower-ranked humanists, who often
worked as Latin teachers, are still widely unknown.
This study aims to better our understanding of the pedagogical revolution that humanism was
when it came to Spain in its philological variant in the 1470s. However, it does not offer an
institutional history of Latin teaching in Spain. Moreover it only focuses on one, albeit a central,
aspect of humanist teaching: the function which the humanists’ study programme of the studia
humanitatis could have for Spaniards. In other words: what were the reasons for the success of
Italian humanism in Spain’s schools? What did it offer that the scholarship of the day had not
been able to give? What were the conditions, consequences and limits of its success?
The aim of these heuristic questions is to re-evaluate the impact of Italian humanism in Spain,
something that requires a wider documentary basis than is currently available. Research has so
far mainly dealt with prominent figures among those scholars who due to their work as
chroniclers, secretaries or university teachers were dedicated to the studia humanitatis. 9
However, one can broaden the narrow focus of professional humanist scholars to include men
and women instructed in the studia humanitatis who adopted a humanist habitus, that is those
who acted as humanists and wanted to be considered as such although their affiliation to the
humanities was not by profession or vocation (as in Kristeller’s definition of a humanist).10 In
order to go further and to evaluate the impact of humanism in the lives of Spanish noblemen,
lawyers, doctors of medicine or churchmen, it is necessary to include both a prosopographical
approach to men and women who were not professional scholars, but who were nevertheless
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influenced by a humanist education, as well as an institutional approach to schools, universities,

courts and libraries.11

The instrumental approach to humanism in the fifteenth century

Castile had a strong tradition of educational reform in the fifteenth century during which
attempts were made to provide clerics, civil servants and noblemen with the knowledge needed
to carry out their duties. The Castilian Church was instrumental in this as it tried to control the
suitability of Cathedral dignitaries and bishops by introducing requirements to limit the access
to these positions to those with a university degree.12 In addition, efforts were undertaken to
secure a minimum level of knowledge of Latin, even for ordinary priests. 13 Nevertheless
criticism about ignorance among clerics did not disappear until the reign of the Catholic
Monarchs, even if this did not reflect reality. The real problem was that after two centuries of
reform there still were clerics who were illiterati – an absolutely intolerable situation at the end
of fifteenth century.14
The crown was also interested in its functionaries being qualified for office. The letrados,
university trained lawyers of Roman or Canon law, were by definition “lettered” or “men of
knowledge”.15 During the reign of John II, Henry IV and the Catholic Monarchs, a university
degree in law became a pre-requisite to exercise certain offices in the royal administration.16
The number of posts which could only be occupied by letrados finally increased due to the
bureaucratization of the administration under the Catholic Monarchs, thus academic study was
more and more attractive for those who wanted to secure a place in the crown’s service.17 The
growing demand for university-trained lawyers and clerics during the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries consequently led to a growing demand for Latin schooling in Spain. In order to
address this situation the church, the monarchy and town governments (Cabildos) founded
Latin schools all around Spain.18 These provided the infrastructural framework for the diffusion
of the humanist educational program in Spain during the last third of the fifteenth century.
However, Latin schools were only relevant for non-aristocratic pupils or for the sons of the
lower nobility who wanted to enter the church or royal services and therefore had to study law
or theology. Latin was not required for the sons of wealthy noble families. These acceded to
royal offices by right of birth. Nevertheless, it was not acceptable for a nobleman of fifteenth
century Castile to be illiteratus. A minimum knowledge of religion, ethics, history and rhetoric
was also necessary although this knowledge was non-academic and vernacular.19 This changed
towards the end of the century when the nobility integrated Latin into its education. Three
reasons may have influenced this development: first, the mere interest of some noblemen in
classical culture; second, the example of the Catholic Monarchs, who encouraged their sons
and daughters to learn Latin (even Queen Isabella took lessons); third, the importance of Latin
in foreign affairs, in which the nobility often intervened, for example within the royal council
or through prestigious embassies.20
According to the Italian humanist Lucio Marineo Sículo, who served as a Latin teacher at the
Royal Chapel from 1497, Queen Isabella contracted well paid and highly regarded teachers to
provide Latin to the young pages, ladies and choir boys who served at court. 21 The most
important Latin school at court, however, was run from 1492 by Peter Martyr de Anghiera, an
Italian humanist who had for some time been a member of the Roman Academy of Pomponio
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Leto and later became famous as the first historiographer of the New World. Maybe he had his
Roman teachers in mind when he described his school as being like a Platonic Academy in
which sons of the highest nobility and even young noblemen like the Dukes of Braganza,
Villahermosa or Cardona learned the studia humanitatis.22
The reception of Latin teaching and classical or humanist literature in Castile during the
fifteenth century was instrumental. It corresponded to the conviction that the command of Latin
was necessary not only to study at university or to become a cleric, but also to govern, be it in
the royal administration or in the King’s council, to military leadership, and to rule the estate of
noblemen. Latin schooling served as moral instruction, provided knowledge about history,
rhetoric and education as well as encouraging students to read and write in Latin. The first
humanists who occupied posts in the educational system of Castile and Spain, in municipal
Latin schools, the royal court, noble households and universities, were probably not chosen
because they brought a new and better programme of Latin teaching - the studia humanitatis.
They occupied posts because they could teach Latin and because the content of their classes,
texts of Roman authors, was generally accepted as being valuable for the moral education of
their students.
The introduction of the studia humanitatis to Spain in the 1470s by Nebrija or for the education
of the nobility in the 1480s and 90s by Peter Martyr did not immediately cause a break from
the Latin instruction of the day. Language skills and ethics had been the principal reasons for
schooling even before humanism reached Spain, and they were certainly also a main goal of
the humanist education. But their classes could offer more, and the profound transformation of
the Spanish educational system within two generations cannot simply be explained by the
instrumental approach to humanism. This only explains why humanism could enter the
educational institutions so easily. The rapid spread of humanism and the resistance it faced from
the very beginning nevertheless are related to the difference between the instrumental approach
to Latin schooling and the humanist concept of the studia humanitatis.

The aesthetic experience

In 1492 Nebrija declared that it was he who had started to restore Latin in Salamanca; and
before this no one in Spain would have been in a position to do so. Thus everyone who knew
Latin should then be grateful to him because he alone could be credited with having banished
barbarian grammars.23 This assertion is somewhat surprising, not only because Nebrija wilfully
ignored the pre-humanist Latin tradition, but because there had already been two Italian
humanists teaching Latin in Salamanca before he arrived in 1473: in the 1460s Nicolao Antonio
held an extraordinary Chair of Poetry, where he taught Virgil and Cicero. In 1473 he was
followed by Pomponio Mantuano, who was probably the author of a Latin grammar which in
many ways resembles Nebrija’s and was also based on Lorenzo Valla and Quintilian.24
Thus, what was new about Nebrija was probably not that he was the first to teach Latin in Spain,
nor even that he was the first to teach humanist Latin there, but that he was indeed the first who
actively drew attention to and promoted the rupture that separated medieval Latin teaching from
humanist Latin based on the classics from antiquity. The stylistic difference may have been
viewed by non-humanist scholars of the fifteenth century as merely show; however for Nebrija,
and for humanists in general, the correct style was crucial.25 In order to distinguish the aesthetic
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experience of medieval from classical or humanist Latin, the humanists learned to understand
classical language and literature in the context of a time different from their own and the
barbarian past. In this historical understanding the very essence of the Renaissance can be seen:
to historicise the aesthetic experience which then led to the reconstruction of antiquity as a
cultural alternative.26
Naturally, with his undertaking to purify Latin along the lines of classical models, Nebrija was
confronted by powerful adversaries at the university. The older professors of Latin who taught
in a, for Nebrija, barbarian style could not accept the rejection of their Latin by the newcomer.
Nebrija thus described his attempts to introduce humanist Latin to Salamanca and via
Salamanca to the whole of Spain as a struggle. He said that when fighting his adversaries he
had to take the university as though it were a fortress.27 Nebrija finally triumphed – not because
he had convinced all of his adversaries, but because he found followers among the young
generation of Latin teachers and scholars who in the last quarter of the fifteenth century were
now familiar with humanism. They willingly followed Nebrija because his claims helped them
to distinguish themselves from Latin teachers who were not-humanist trained and as such they
were able to secure their position in society. The cultivation of classical Latin forged a collective
identity among the humanists, which excluded those whose Latin was not based on the classics.
Whoever was not able to write like Cicero or Virgil was labelled a barbarian, be they teacher,
cleric, lawyer or nobleman.28
From the 1480s on, when Nebrija published his Introductiones latinae, in which he described
his humanist programme, he became a symbol of the new humanist Latin teacher. Whilst
Italians mostly referenced Petrarch, Spanish humanists had now discovered the founder figure
of their movement in Nebrija. 29 The earliest examples of such humanists originate from
Nebrija’s Portuguese colleague in Salamanca, Aires Barbosa, as well as the Italian humanists
Peter Martyr d’Anghiera and Lucio Marineo Sículo, resident in Spain, who designated Nebrija
as the conqueror of barbarity. 30 References to Nebrija increased later as his former pupils
referred to their master. 31 By doing so they positioned themselves in the movement of
restoration, not only of Latin but of scholarship and culture as a whole – something which gave
legitimation and value to their own work as teachers. This was the beginning of a self-awareness
of the humanist movement in Spain – a process which had already begun in Italy in the 1440s
when humanists started to write global accounts of their movement.32
Nebrija was helped in his efforts to restore classical Latin by other Italian-trained humanists
who came to Salamanca during the 1480s: the Italians Lucio Flaminio Sículo and Lucio
Marineo Sículo mentioned above and Alonso de Proaza, a Spaniard who had studied humanities
in Naples. As a result of the classes in Salamanca, Latin teachers trained in the humanist
tradition increasingly occupied posts in Latin schools all over Spain. In addition, humanist Latin
schooling also spread because humanists went to the printing press in order to promote their
linguistic reform programme. Nebrija’s Introductiones latinae became the basic manual for
Latin instruction throughout Spain and the most successful Latin school book for a long time.
Soon after more humanist grammars and schoolbooks, which were influenced by Nebrija, were
published elsewhere in Spain.33
At the very latest by the beginning of the sixteenth century pupils everywhere learned according
to Nebrija’s Introductiones or similar humanist grammars, or even directly with Valla’s
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Elegantiae. Humanist Latin became the standard for learned Spaniards, academics such as
theologians, lawyers and medical doctors as well as non-academic merchants or pharmacists if
they had been to a Latin school. What is more, in response to a request from Queen Isabella,
Nebrija even translated the Introductiones so that religious women who lacked the help of a
preceptor could learn Latin on their own.34 In the case of schools at noble courts, women even
participated in class. The daughters of the Catholic Monarchs learned Latin with humanists as
did the daughters of the Count of Tendilla, María de Mendoza and María Pacheco, who were
celebrated by humanists for their extraordinary scholarship. 35 Probably also the hereditary
daughter of the Marqués del Cenete, Mencía de Mendoza, received a humanist education in
Spain before she moved to the Low Countries.36 At the court of the Catholic Monarchs Luisa
de Medrano was educated by an unknown humanist and then later became professor of Latin at
the University of Salamanca and therefore the first woman to occupy a cathedra in Spain.37
Nebrija’s daughter, Francisca, who took over her father’s chair in Alcalá is another remarkable
case of a humanist-educated woman.38
Men and women trained by humanists became aware of stylistic differences between classical
and medieval Latin and accepted the former as the aesthetic norm. The Count of Tendilla, for
example, wrote to his teacher Peter Martyr in 1502 when he was preparing the text for the tomb
stone of his brother, the archbishop of Seville, explaining that he lacked Latin because the
humanist was absent. 39 As Tendilla knew Latin well, it was not the language that he was
missing, but the correct style in which to write an epitaph. The Count therefore not only knew
about the aesthetic linguistic norm of humanism, he accepted it. The same occurred in the city
council in Granada. It required for aesthetic reasons that poetry by Virgil and prose by Cicero
should be read in the Latin school because the former was considered to be the best poet and
the latter the best prose author.40 The commitment of humanist Latin education to aesthetics
familiarized pupils with aesthetic questions that went beyond language and literature to include
architecture, arts and performances.41

Humanist claims and its limitations

Resistance to the restoration of Latin modelled on classical texts encouraged by the humanists
arose from older Latin teachers, not trained by humanists, or from clerics who were worried
about conceding too much to literary aesthetics. Outside these circles the return to classical
aesthetics was welcomed because it brought the chance to distinguish humanist-educated men
and women from others. However, humanist restoration of Latin was much more than just a
philological or stylistic approach to purify Latin. Following the beliefs of Valla, Nebrija
conceived Latin as the foundation stone of state and religion. No one could correctly understand
the Bible, laws, or treatise in medicine if their Latin were insufficient. What is more, Latin was
the key to “arts which are called the humanities because they belong to humans if they are
human”.42
The idea of Latin studies as the studia humanitatis was not only a pedagogical ideal to conceive
of the humanities as the very essence of mankind; it was a claim for the pre-eminence of
humanist teachings over other faculties. Spanish Latin teachers therefore gratefully accepted
and also transmitted the ideal of the studia humanitatis in classrooms, speeches and writings.
The praise of letters became commonplace in Salamanca as well as in Alcalá within the orations
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held at the beginning of the academic year. These orations were influenced by Valla, Nebrija
and also by the key text for the praise of letters, Pico della Mirandola’s Oratio de hominibus
dignitate. 43 In Granada, the only example of a Latin school from the time of the Catholic
Monarchs where a detailed curriculum has survived, the statutes prescribed lessons in the studia
humanitatis. They did so by referring to the extraordinary value of science as God’s gift and
human nobility.44 Peter Martyr also aimed to convince his pupils from the nobility at court of
the value of humanities. Real nobility emerged from the exercise of letters – not from wealth or
linage.45 Hernán Núñez de Toledo, who around 1500 served as the teacher for the sons and
daughters of the Count of Tendilla at the Alhambra, tried the same. He considered “the study of
letters and virtue” as the most important occupations of mankind, which should be held in
higher esteem than others.46
As lessons by humanist teachers gave pupils an understanding of the value of letters as
humanitas, these pupils later were often committed to the patronage of humanism. As a result,
when those men who since the last third of the fifteenth century had learned Latin with Nebrija,
Marineo Sículo or Hernán Núñez entered institutions which oversaw schooling, such as city
councils or cathedral chapters, these institutions were inclined to employ teachers and curricula
of the studia humanitatis. Noblemen such as the Marquis of Mondéjar or the Duke of Infantado,
who had been educated by humanists, also normally chose humanists for the education of their
children. This process led to a spread of humanist education and ultimately perpetuated it
throughout Spain. That is what Peter Burke describes as crystallisation - when a formerly new
culture becomes the norm and well established against changes.47

Noble blood
Humanism was particularly interesting for the nobility. During the fifteenth century letrados
had questioned its supremacy in political matters. The letrados confined noblemen to war but
denied them the right to govern because, according to their academic opponents, nobles did not
have sufficient knowledge of the law, language and moral philosophy – all the academic
knowledge that was a letrados’ privilege – to carry out the duties in an office in the royal council
or high administration.48 The studia humanitatis gave legitimacy to the nobles in the face of
this questioning of their suitability for government. In addition, the studia humanitatis were
especially attractive because they encompassed a cultural code which was relatively easy to
acquire, at least it was not necessary to enroll at a university, something that the nobility did not
do. But if they had studied the studia humanitatis, this provided noblemen with the opportunity
to present themselves as lettered, knowing a form of Latin that was superior to that of academic
lawyers. But humanism went further than providing increased opportunities; it created a habit,
a way of life which, on the one hand, eliminated social boundaries and created a res publica of
letters which included all those educated in humanities. On the other hand, it excluded those
without such training. Humanitas put the educated noble on a par with the scholar, but separated
them from a noble untrained in letters or a lawyer trained only in the law.49
Thus, the studia humanitas gave legitimacy to the nobles and at the same time bolstered the
claims of humanists to be of equal status to a man of noble birth through their common
humanitas. That noble status could arose from the academic activity was not all down to the
humanists. From the time of Alphonse X, law professors of the University of Salamanca had
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the right to be treated like nobles.50 But the concept of the humanitas, as it related the value of
a person to its ability in letters, questioned the estate-based society of the day. It certainly did
not reflect the social reality of the time, and in Spain, in particular, it clashed with a divergent
concept which was a central tenet of aristocratic culture and which gained even more strength
in the Early Modern period: the purity of noble blood. In contrast to the ideas of the humanists,
Spanish nobles justified social pre-eminence not only through personal virtue or culture, but
also through lineage. The importance of blood was displayed publicly by genealogies or by
restrictions on entering specific offices or religious and military orders. Whoever wanted to take
up such a position had to demonstrate hidalguía (noble ascendancy) and limpieza de sangre
(purity of blood).51
For humanists friendship was another way to establish themselves in a high position within the
social hierarchy of society. If a humanist was accepted as a friend by a famous scholar or a
wealthy nobleman, he could publicly augment his prestige. The more learned or noble friends,
the more prestige – on the condition that it was possible to demonstrate publicly that this
friendship existed.52 The best medium to do so was the letter. Peter Martyr and Marineo Sículo
published their correspondence to show their close relationship with many nobles and important
clerics. By doing so they ultimately not only demonstrated their own social standing but also
that of their social group, the humanists. For Peter Martyr it was easier to gain friendship with
noblemen, possibly because at the court school he came into close contact with his noble pupils,
but more likely because he was of noble origin himself. Marineo Sículo, however, who was not
of noble birth, wrote a lot of letters to noblemen and even dedicated poems to some of them
despite not getting an answer in most cases. His correspondence is therefore more of a testimony
of his rejection by Spanish noblemen than of what it was meant to be: proof of his acceptance
by them.53
Of course, historians have to be careful with the self-fashioning of humanists who publicly
demonstrated their friendship with nobleman and therefore their prestige by letters, poems or
dedication of work.54 It is more interesting is to look at the noblemen themselves to see whether
they stylized their relationship to humanists, which in reality may have been one of a client as
well as friendship.55 Did they accept or reject being treated as a friend by men whose only
wealth was their scholarship?
However, as the sources to answer this question are again limited to the literary testimonies of
the humanists, it is difficult to look behind their self-fashioning. What we can see, though, with
these testimonies is that some noblemen of Peter Martyr’s school were open to humanist
friendship which went beyond mere patronage and also included a personal relationship which
crossed social boundaries. The Marquis de Mondéjar was surrounded by many scholars at his
palace in the Alhambra, among them the Majorcan humanist Gabriel Verí and the Belgium
Graecist Nicolás Clénard, who in their writings publicly praised the friendship and patronage
of the Marquis. They particularly drew attention to the hours they spent together with him
dedicated to literature.56 The Marquis de Priego had a literary friendship with the humanist Juan
de Vilches when the latter was still a young student of Latin. Whenever the Marquis came to
Antequera in his function as an Alcalde (judge), he spent hours with Vilches, talking about
poetry.57 The humanist Antonio de Morales was under the patronage of Priego in a special way.
He bought him a house in Cordoba, which was known to have belonged to Seneca. The Marquis
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gave it to Morales because, as he claimed, a wise man of Cordoba had once lived in it and again
a wise man should do so.58 Marineo Sículo also gained the friendship of Priego. He declared
the Marquis his pupil and wrote on his petition the Liber de Parcis, in which he explained the
meaning of the Parcis to him.59

Legal Culture
Nebrija wanted to achieve a different appreciation of his profession as grammaticus from the
letrados.60 To bolster the humanists’ claims of primacy over the faculty of law and also in order
to demonstrate the importance of a grammarian’s work in the field of the lawyers, he published
a Lexicon iuris ciuilis. Of course, the letrados refused to better the standing of Latin teachers
within the hierarchy of the universities or in the royal administration, which would have resulted
in worsening their own position. The law opened the door to royal services, not the humanitas.
Nevertheless, they gratefully welcomed Nebrija’s efforts to reform the Latin style of students.
As a result, important officials at the court of the Catholic Monarchs accepted the studia
humanitatis as the basic education for their children; however the ultimate destination for their
sons was to study law.61 For example, the royal treasurer Gabriel Sánchez sent his sons to the
court school of Peter Martyr whilst he stipulated in his will in 1505 that his son Gabriel should
study law. For this purpose he granted him the money necessary to cover the related expenses
such as board or books.62 The same happened to Juan de la Caballería, grandson of the vice-
chancellor of Aragón, Alonso de la Caballería. His teacher until he went to university to study
law was the humanist Alfonso de Segura, a pupil of Marineo Sículo.63
The lack of real importance of the humanities for a career in royal service prompted a
disillusioned criticism of their value by the humanist Gaspar de Barrachina. He wrote to
Marineo Sículo, claiming that the humanities had only brought him the office of secretary, not
that of councillor, which he had aspired to, and so he advised his sons to study law, which was
much more useful for advancement.64 In so doing he contradicted the humanist teacher Juan
Sobrarias, who in a poem dedicated to Barrachina, had praised language as the most valuable
treasure of mankind as it led to supreme glory.65 He was also critical of the self-fashioning of
Nebrija, who was proud that he had gone to Italy not in pursuit of church benefices or the study
of law as his Spanish compatriots had but in pursuit of humanities.66 Barrachina’s criticism of
the lack of opportunities for professional humanists was based on reality. During the reign of
the Catholic Monarchs more and more lawyers obtained offices in administration and councils.
Poets, orators and historiographers, however, were limited to posts as Latin teachers, secretaries
or positions in the service of the crown’s representation.67
The generation of lawyers of the last quarter of the fifteenth century which were still not
educated by humanists adopted an instrumental approach to humanism. They accepted the
studia humanitatis as propaedeutic for study, maybe as the best way to learn Latin and ethics,
but they did not accept it in the way the humanists had conceived: as being the most valuable
expression of true humanity.68 However, as they chose humanists for the education of their sons,
and as these later, while they studied in Salamanca or maybe in Bologna, were exposed to
humanist teaching in more depth during the propaedeutic arts courses, humanism became an
important part of their school and university education. It therefore may also have influenced
their jobs as lawyers and councillors.
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Religious Orthodoxy
Nebrija’s claims for the importance of humanism also extended to theology. In order to
demonstrate the importance of philological work in this field, he started to amend errors in the
Vulgata. This was considered an impertinence by theologians and as a result General Inquisitor
Diego de Deza confiscated Nebrija’s manuscript. 69 However, theologians did not reject the
humanist programme out of hand. They conferred them the right to amend sacred texts, but
only under their guidance. Philology had to serve theological aims, not act as an autonomous
tool used by grammarians to interpret and change the established meaning of the Bible. This
attitude towards philology is best expressed in Cardinal Cisneros project, the Polyglot Bible.
From 1502 on scholars of Latin, Greek and Hebrew worked on a revision of the text of the
Bible. But they did not work together to improve the text since a revision of the Vulgata using
the older testimonies of the Greek or Hebrew texts was not foreseen. Nebrija, as a Latin scholar,
did not agree with this method of working on the Vulgata without drawing on testimonies of
the other languages and clashed over this question with Cardinal Cisneros. For the latter, the
Vulgata was the one and only source, which like Christ among the thieves had to be put in the
centre between the Greek and Hebrew texts.70 Nebrija therefore left the project disappointed.71
Nevertheless there were theologians trained by humanists in Spain who shared Nebrija’s
understanding of philological work on the Bible. One was Francisco de Mendoza, son of the
Count of Tendilla, pupil of Hernán Núñez at the Alhambra and later Bishop of Jaén. He tried to
introduce the Graecist Francisco de Encinas to Charles V in Brussels. Encinas who had known
Luther and Melanchthon in Wittenberg, had produced a new Spanish translation of the New
Testament for which he sought the protection of the Emperor. However, it was the wrong time
for vernacular translations of the Bible. The inquisition eventually put Encinas into prison.72
Peter Martyr d’Anghiera held similar views to Nebrija when it came to the theologians.
However, instead of using the humanists’ understanding of grammar as Nebrija did, he used his
abilities as a poet to demand a say in religious matters. He followed the ideas of the theologia
platonica and the theologia poetica, according to which classical philosophy, mythology and
poetry bore the same truth that was later consecrated in Christianity. The theologians’
interpretation of Christian revelation was the same as the humanists’ interpretation of classical
philosophy, mythology and poetry.73 As poeta vades the humanist had privileged access through
divine inspiration to truths hidden to others. Like the priest in the Catholic Church so the poet
among scholars became the mediator with the divine.
This view was strongly contested at the court of the Catholic Monarchs by the theologian Diego
Ramírez de Villaescusa who criticised Peter Martyr. The humanist taught classical philosophy
and mythology at the court school, which were viewed critically from the point of view of
orthodox Christianity because of their pagan content. Peter Martyr defended his position by
questioning the privileged position of theologians and priests. He rejected Villaescusa’s critics
in a letter in which he adverted him that every man could accede to and understand God, even
children or the ancients, who called him Jupiter and depicted him with a sceptre in his left hand
and an eagle in his right.74 Considering Christianity and the thoughts of the ancients as being
equal also meant legitimizing the humanist dedication to pagan knowledge and defending the
standing of a humanist as being equal to that of a theologian or a priest.75
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Peter Martyr’s position was close to Pelagianism as it ultimately meant that man could save his
soul on his own through reason alone and without ecclesiastical mediation. This could hardly
stand its ground against orthodox attacks, and it does not seem likely that the syncretistic views
of Ficino, Pico della Mirandola and Peter Martyr flourished in Spain. The Duke of Alba
probably removed his oldest son García from Martyr’s school because of the pagan
mythological content of the classes.76 The Duke obviously preferred a more orthodox humanist
education and chose with fray Bernardo Gentile and Juan Boscán later humanists, who seemed
to fulfil his expectations for the education of his grandson, the future Grand Duke of Alba.
Nebrija and the Graecist Barbosa, although they were convinced by the importance of
philological working on sacred texts, also had reservations about teaching the pagan content of
classical literature in the classroom. In order to combine Christian thought with acceptable Latin
style, they started to use works of Roman Christian authors of late antiquity such as Prudentius,
Sedulius and Arator in addition to the classics. What seemed to be desirable from the point of
view of orthodoxy was nevertheless questioned in 1512 by the faculty of theology in
Salamanca. Their reaction to humanists’ attempts to interpret religious authors was anger. The
theologians of Salamanca were happy for the humanists to interpret Ovid and Virgil, but not
Christian religious texts. That was reserved for them. The visitador of the university who had
to settle the dispute was Villaescusa, who had criticized Martyr for the use of pagan mythology
in class. Consequently he not only allowed the humanists to use Christian authors in class, he
even obliged them to do so.77
Alvar Gómez de Ciudad Real also worked with the same combination of classical form and
Christian content. As a true humanist the pupil of Peter Martyr was convinced of the importance
of poetry and Latin style; nevertheless like Nebrija he did not want to express Christian truth in
pagan vestment. His Thalichristia, a version of the Evangelists which imitated the style of
Virgil, followed, according to Nebrija’s prologue, Pico della Mirandola’s theologia poetica in
combining poetry and religion. Alvar Gómez, however, rendered it into a Christian content
whereas Pico’s way into poetry and religion had been syncretistic.78
Hernando de Talavera, a friar of the Order of Jerome, confessor of Queen Isabella and later
Archbishop of Granada, also had reservations about the employment of mythological subject
matter in Christian contexts. Even though he was not a humanist himself, he knew about the
new ideas coming from Italy. Peter Martyr possibly served as a transmitter of these ideas as he
not only formally became a member of the Cathedral Chapter in Granada, but also exchanged
letters with Talavera. In his library Talavera had works by classical poets such as Virgil, Horace
and Ovid next to Ficinos Opera platonis. 79 To date Talavera has to be considered the first
scholar in Spain to own Plato’s works in the Florentine edition. Nevertheless he had an orthodox
and, in line with his religious order, humble view of study. In contrast to the beliefs of the studia
humanitatis, he considered the desire for too much knowledge as curiositas and therefore as a
sin. He accepted that everyone had to know what they needed for their profession, but no more.
Study served a purpose for Christian social and political life, but was not an end in itself.80 In
line with this, the friar favoured schooling at the royal court and also introduced humanist
teachings for clerics in Granada. Nevertheless, he rejected the idea that the priests of his
dioceses – probably as result of their humanist education – be allowed to employ pagan
 Author’s Manuscript from: Reformation & Renaissance Review, 21 (2019), pp. 27-46.

mythology in their sermons to express Christian truth. He believed preaching should be simple
and provide virtuous and saintly messages based on the Holy Scripture.81
Talavera's instrumental use of humanist education and his rejection of both pagan mythology
and the idea of study as humanitas is particularly important because of his influence as a patron
and educator of clerics who later, after their stay with Talavera at court or in Granada, would
occupy positions in the Church all over Spain during the first half of the sixteenth century. One
of Talavera’s protégés was Villaescusa, another Alonso Fernández de Madrid, who praised
Nebrija for his work banishing barbarism from Spain. He later translated Erasmus’s Enquiridion
into Spanish, in which he gave an insightful view of his, and probably his patron Talavera’s,
understanding of pagan philosophy. In the Enquiridion the Dutch humanist praised the
Platonists because they, despite being pagans, came close to Christian revelation through reason
alone. Fernández de Madrid, however, added in his translation a short comment on this passage,
stating that because of the Platonists’ closeness to Christianity “it is more dangerous to know
them”.82
Despite the strong reservations of religious orthodoxy against pagan philosophy and mythology,
they may have influenced sixteenth century Spain more deeply than so far known. This is
probably the case for the (neo-)Platonic writings of Ficino, Plato and Hermes Trismegistos,
which largely circulated in their fifteenth and sixteenth century editions in Spain.83 They found,
for example, a prominent place in the libraries of Peter Martyr’s pupils Mondéjar and Priego,
but also in the library of the University of Salamanca, or in book shops in Barcelona.84 Another
pupil of Peter Martyr, the Marquis of Vélez, symbolically demonstrated his inclination towards
pagan mythology and syncretism. In a room called de las herejías – of the heresies – he is
depicted in the uniform of a Roman officer who took part in Emperor Titus’ triumph in Rome.85
Pedro Fajardo probably saw himself in the Roman tradition and wanted to be seen as such –
that is as a Roman aristocrat. To the orthodox, the mythological references to the triumph looked
like heresy, thus the room deserved its name. The Marquis of Priego was open-minded towards
pagan mythology. He had a friendship with a troubadour and poet called Cereza, who wore a
green tunica and prayed to pagan Gods in order to bless the grapevines and thus better the wine
of Montilla. 86 The Marquis of Mondéjar’s interest went even beyond classical mythology.
According to the Belgium humanist Nicolas Clénard, he sent out his ships in order to look for
books of Arab mysteries, which by that time were already forbidden in Spain.87
The impact of Renaissance Platonic philosophy in Spain is still a field in which much research
has to be done. It is possible that there was influence on the alumbrado movement.88 Platonic
thoughts are also widely present in the Spanish Golden Age of literature: influences can be
found in the poetry of Garcilaso de la Vega, Juan Boscán, Francisco de Aldana or Fernando de
Herrera, in Cristóbal de Villalón's theory of love or Jorge de Montemayor, or in historians such
as Antonio de Guevara or Pedro Mexía.89 Hermetic elements can also be found in Spanish
mystics of the Golden Age such as Francisco de Aldana, Fray Luis de León and San Juan de la
Cruz.90
Philosophical lectures given by the humanists in Salamanca may have prompted philosophical
and moral relativism among the students. Out of Salamanca’s academic milieu of the late
fifteenth century arose the text which perhaps best reflects these spiritually troublesome times:
La Celestina, written by the humanist-educated law student Fernando de Rojas.91 A learned
 Author’s Manuscript from: Reformation & Renaissance Review, 21 (2019), pp. 27-46.

friend of Peter Martyr at court, the Castilian noble Hernando de Vega, was also interested in
philosophical relativism. Like many Platonists he doubted that man had the ability to discover
an uncontested absolute truth. Moreover, every philosophy, even Christian revelation, seemed
to be only an imperfect approach to it. Thus his friend Peter Martyr advised him in a letter that
it would be dangerous for him to go further than the revealed truth of Christian faith. He might
find a dragon instead of the diamond (i.e. the Christian faith) which he already holds in his
hands. In addition, he advised only to look for the truth in the prescribed way because, as he
warned, the fires shining from the Inquisition were a clear indication of what happened to those
who looked for truth elsewhere.92

The humanists' dream?

In the last quarter of the fifteenth century humanism came to Spain as a pedagogical movement
spread by Latin teachers who aimed to transform society through the teaching of Latin language
and letters. Within one or two generations it had penetrated all educational institutions in Spain,
from municipal or cathedral Latin schools to noble private schools and universities. This
profound transformation of the educational system can be described as a real cultural revolution,
led by a new type of Latin teacher, the humanists, whose first and most influential representative
in Spain was Nebrija. Nebrija’s concept of Latin teaching as the studia humanitatis offered
Latin teachers both a way to distinguish themselves from their predecessors and also a reason
to claim for a different status of their study programme, the studia humanitatis, and their role
as its transmitters within society. They aimed to be equal in standing to nobles and in
competencies to lawyers and theologians.
The humanists’ project is described by Francisco Rico as a dream because it was neither realistic
nor did it achieve what the humanists had set out to do.93 The other estates were simply not
willing to concede the status they claimed for themselves and their learning. But still they
accepted humanist Latin teaching as propaedeutic for study or as part of the education of
noblemen. This is why we can say humanism ultimately was successful in Spain as well as in
the rest of Europe, not in the way the humanists had dreamed, but in a more subtle and maybe
effective way. Spanish noblemen, theologians and lawyers still relied on lineage, wealth or
academic studies of theology and law to define their status and justify their competencies, but
the studia humanitatis became part of their school and university education and as such it
created a habit, a way of life. There are many signs which show the deep impact of humanism
on men who were not professional scholars of languages, an impact which went beyond an
instrumental approach, fashion or distinction, and demonstrates a genuine interest in and
identification with classical culture and humanist scholarship. Examples of such humanist
practices were the search for manuscripts of Arabic mysteries by the Marquis of Mondéjar,
Bishop Francisco de Mendoza’s promotion of Bible philology, and the Marquis of Priego’s
dedication to humanist literature and scholarship. Finally, the Spanish Golden Age of literature,
as well as being a triumph of Spanish vernacular, cannot be understood without humanist
influences and models. The Lazarillo de Tormes, the poetry of San Juan de la Cruz and Fray
Luis de León as well as La Celestina show that their authors were deeply familiar with
humanism.94
 Author’s Manuscript from: Reformation & Renaissance Review, 21 (2019), pp. 27-46.

Most examples discussed in this article refer to noblemen or professional humanist scholars.
This is, however, not an adequate representation of what may have been the true impact of
Renaissance culture between clerics and letrados. This partial view is in part a result of the
documentary material available. It is much easier to reconstruct the life of a noble than that of
an ordinary priest, cathedral dignitary, royal judge or treasurer (and of course, as Charles G.
Nauert stated, the Renaissance was mainly an elite phenomenon, which makes it difficult even
if it is desirable to study its impact on ordinary people).95 Nevertheless, there are certain reasons
why noblemen more actively opened themselves up to humanist culture than clerics or letrados.
The latter studied at universities. Their culture was not only humanist, but also academic,
influenced by the study of law or theology – and neither lawyers nor theologians accepted the
claim of the preeminence of humanism. For noblemen, on the contrary, humanism was an
opportunity to present themselves with a culture superior to that of their academic and noble
rivals who questioned their social standing.96
The importance of the study of law for politics and having noble blood for status limited the
humanists position in society but did not influence humanism itself. In contrast theology limited
humanism in terms of its content. It attacked the use of classical mythology in class, the neo-
Platonist equating of ancient philosophy and mythology with Christianity, or the application of
philologers’ methods to the Bible. Nevertheless, humanists often broke through these
limitations, sometimes in a ludic manner, for example, the poet Cerezo, who blessed the
vineyards of Montilla by calling to the ancient Gods. Fortunately the Inquisition did not become
aware of these practices as Alfonso de Algabe remembered years later with worry in the
biography of his master, the Marquis of Priego.

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Walther, Gerrit: “Funktionen des Humanismus: Fragen und Thesen.” In Funktionen des
Humanismus. Studien zum Nutzen des Neuen in der humanistischen Kultur. Ed. Thomas
Maissen; Gerrit Walther, 9-17. Göttingen, 2006.
Wantoch, Hans. Spanien. Das Land ohne Renaissance. München, 1927.
Witt, Ronald G. “‘In the Footsteps of the Ancients’: The Origins of Humanism from Lovato to
Bruni.” Leiden, 2000.

1
Wantoch, Spanien, 100–109; Klemperer, ‘Gibt es eine spanische Renaissance?’; Morf, Die romanischen
Literaturen, 220.
2
Batllori, Humanismo y Renacimiento, 3–22.
3
DiCamillo, El Humanismo castellano, 16.
4
González Rolán; Saquero; López Fonseca, La tradición clásica, 60–63.
5
Rico, Nebrija, 99–100.
6
Grendler, Renaissance Humanism, 69-91.
7
Grafton; Jardine, From Humanism to the Humanities; Grendler, Schooling in Renaissance Italy; Black, Humanism
and Education.
8
Rico, Nebrija; Coroleu, Printing and Reading.
9
Examples of this focus are the monographs of Gómez Moreno, España y la Italia de los humanistas; Suárez,
Herederos de Proteo; Schlelein, Chronisten, Räte, Professoren; Gibert, La Humanitas Hispania.
10
Müller, Habit und Habitus, 67–69.
11
This combination of a prosopographical with an institutional approach is demanded by: Schlelein, Chronisten,
Räte, Professoren, 357.
12
Azcona, La elección y reforma, 96.
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13
Arranz Guzmán, La cultura en el bajo clero, 594–97.
14
Rucquoi, La formation culturelle du clergé, 253–62.
15
Maravall, Los “hombres de saber”, 345–80.
16
Phillips, University Graduates, 482.
17
Kagan, Students and Society, 132–133.
18
As a result the percentage of Latin students among the whole population in sixteenth century Spain is said to
have been the largest, compared to other European nations. Kagan, Students and Society, 200; Guijarro González,
Centros de la cultura urbana, 243–56.
19
Rodríguez Velasco, De prudentia, 69.
20
Beceiro Pita, La valoración del saber, 124–25.
21
Nieto Soria, La Capilla real, 21; Marineo Sículo. De Rebus Hispaniae, 64.
22
Biersack, La Escuela de Palacio, 1333–53.
23
Nebrija, Diccionario latino-español, fol. a1.
24
Olmedo, Nebrija en Salamanca, 42–45.
25
Witt, ‘In the Footsteps of the Ancients’, 22; Moss, Renaissance Truth, 2.
26
Witt borrows the term “cultural alternative” from Thomas M. Greene, The light in Troy, 90.
27
Nebrija, Diccionario latino-español, fols. a2v–a3r.
28
Bernstein, Group Identity Formation, 379.
29
Mazzocco, Petrarch: founder of Renaissance Humanism?, 215–242.
30
Marineo Sículo praised Nebrija in 1494 in his De Hispaniae laudibus, see Olmedo, Nebrija en Salamanca, 124–
125. On Peter Martyr see his poem De barbaria fugata, written in 1489 and published first in Burgos in 1498. A
modern edition is available: Jiménez Calvente, Nebrija en los viorum doctorum elogia, 41–43. More praises of
humanists on Nebrija in: Nicolás Antonio, Bibliotheca hispana nova, 132–139.
31
Hernán Núñez de Toledo, for example, considered himself a pupil of Nebrija and described his teacher as the
one who drove barbarism from Spain. Following him in this struggle he hoped to use the education he had
acquired in Italy for the benefit of Spain. Núñez de Toledo, Las Trezientas, 1499, fol. 3v and 1505, fol. 83r
32
Baker. Italian Renaissance Humanism, 17.
33
Rico, Nebrija frente a los bárbaros, 99–133.
34
Nebrija, Las Introductiones Latinas, fol. 2r.
35
Marineo Sículo, Epistolarum familiarum, 694; praise of Diego de Sigi, secretary of María Pacheco, quoted by:
Rodríguez Villa, La viuda de Padilla, 67
36
García Pérez, Mencía de Mendoza, 639–658.
37
Oettel, Una catedrática, 289–368.
38
For more cases of humanist women of the time of the Catholic Kings see: Segura Graíño, Las mujeres escritoras,
286-287.
39
Szmolka Clares, La preocupación por la cultura, 408.
40
Biersack, El estudio, 195.
41
Roeck, Kulturtransfer, 15.
42
Nebrija, Las Introductiones Latinas, fol. 1v.
43
Rico, Laudes litterarum, 895–914.
44
Biersack, El estudio, 193–196.
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45
Epistolario de Pedro Mártir, letters 46, 115 and 136.
46
Núñez de Toledo, Las Trezientas, fol. 2r.
47
Burke, Kultureller Austausch, 38.
48
Rodríguez Velasco, De prudentia, 122–123
49
Walther, Funktionen des Humanismus, 14–15.
50
Fleisch, Sacerdotium – Regnum – Studium, 258.
51
Enrique Soria Mesa speaks of a real geneological fever in Golden Age Spain. Soria Mesa, La nobleza, 300.
52
Treml, Humanistische Gemeinschaftsbildung, 86–90.
53
Marineo also wrote without ever getting an answer to the Duke of Alba, to the Viscount of Altamira, to the son
of the Count of Benavente, to the Marquis of Vélez, to Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba known as Gran Capitán,
and to the sons of the Marquis of Denia. Nevertheless Marineo Sículo could show in his Epistolarum familiarum
letters of important noblemen who wrote to him in friendly way, for example Alfonso de Aragón, illegitimate son
of King Ferdinand and Archbishop of Saragossa, and Fadrique Enríquez, Almirante of Castile. Prince John and
King Ferdinand also answered his letters. However, the difference in social standing between Marineo Sículo and
his correspondents made a treatment like amici impossible in these cases.
54
Kipf, Humanistische Freundschaft im Brief, 496.
55
On the relation between humanist friendship and patronage: Beer, The Poetics of Patronage, 112–114. On the
discourse of friendship in Spain see: Núñez Bespalova, El mecenazgo nobiliario, 173–175.
56
Verí, Illustrissimo Marchioni Mondeio; Correspondance de Nicolas Clénard, 3, letters 48 and 55.
57
Talavera Esteso, El humanista Juan de Vilches, 337–339.
58
Ambrosio de Morales. La Coronica general de España. Alcalá: Juan Iñíguez de Lequerica, 1574, fol. 245v.
59
Marineo Sículo, Los Carminum libri, 115–116 and Ramos Santana, El ‘In Ciceronis librum de fato
commentarium’, 394–395.
60
Mario Peset, Humanismo en las facultades, 313.
61
More examples of court officials who chose Marineo Sículo as the teacher for their sons were Juan Velázquez,
Contador mayor (Chief treasurer), and the powerful secretary of King Ferdinand, Miguel Pérez de Almazán. See:
Rummel, A protagonist, 705; and Marineo Sículo, Epistolarum familiarum, XVI, 7.
62
Archivo Histórico Nacional (Madrid), Consejo, leg. 37.779, fol. 6r.
63
Marineo Sículo, Epistolarum familiarum, XI, 17.
64
Marineo Sículo, Epistolarum familiarum, III, 7.
65
Maestre Maestre. Humanismo alcañizano, 450.
66
Nebrija, Diccionario latino-español, fol. 2r–v.
67
Gil Fernández, Panorama social, 231–254.
68
Gil Fernández, Panorama social, 229–230 and 299–356.
69
Bataillon, Èrasme et l’Espagne, 31–32. Nebrija was not the first to apply philological methods on the Bible.
Pedro de Osma, professor of theology in Salamanca, was condemned in 1478 because of his Enmiendas a la
Vulgata. Nieto, El Renacimiento, 67–72.
70
From the prologue of the Polyglott Bible, quoted by: Carbajosa, El texto hebreo, 97
71
For the working method of Nebrija and his clash with Cisneros see: Bonmatí Sánchez, La Filología Bíblica, 47–
63.
72
Bergua Cavero, Francisco de Enzinas, 70–71.
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73
Trinkaus, In our Image, 683–760.
74
Epistolario de Pedro Mártir, letter 151.
75
Kristeller, Humanismus und Renaissance, 2, 102.
76
Epistolario de Pedro Mártir, letter 153.
77
García de la Concha, La impostación religiosa, 123–143.
78
Alcina Rovira, Erasmismo y poesía, 200–203
79
Aldea Vaquero, Hernando de Talavera, 513–547
80
Talavera, Breve e muy provechosa doctrina, 58.
81
Talavera, Vida de Jesucrist, fol. 214r.
82
Fernández de Madrid, Enquiridion, 134. The quotation is an addition by Fernández de Madrid to the original of
Erasmus.
83
Byrne, Ficino in Spain, 16–49.
84
Bécares Botas, Compras de Libros, 83–135; Madurell; Rubió Balaguer, Documentos, docs. 242 and 394.
85
Espín Real, El Alcázar de los Velez, 101–106.
86
Algabe, Vida del Marqués, 36–38.
87
Correspondance de Nicolas Clénard, letter 61 from 17. 1. 1542 to Charles V.
88
Márquez Villanueva, Los alumbrados. Salamanca, 192.
89
Rallo Gruss, Humanismo y Renacimiento, 50–108.
90
Byrne, El Corpus Hermeticum.
91
DiCamillo, Etica humanística y libertinaje, 69–73.
92
Epistolario de Pedro Mártir, letter 398.
93
Rico. El sueño del humanismo.
94
For the adaptation of Italian Latin humanism by Spanish vernacular authors see: Coroleu, Printing and Reading,
111–22.
95
Nauert, Humanism and Renaissance, XIII.
96
The observation that Renaissance culture was more related to nobility than to the Letrados was also observed by
Helen Nader in her study of the Mendoza family in which she opposed the Letrados to a so-called ‘Caballero
Renaissance’, in Nader, The Mendoza Family, 128–49.