Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/216

192 192 CASTILIAN LITERATURE. PART Peter Martjr, who had come into Spain with the — '- count of Tendilla, a few years previous, to repair to the court, and open a school there for the instruc- tion of the young nobility." In an epistle ad- dressed by Martyr to Cardinal Mendoza, dated at Granada, April, 1492, he alludes to the promise of a liberal recompense from the queen, if he would assist in reclaiming the young cavaliers of the court from the idle and unprofitable pursuits, in which, to her great mortification, they consumed their hours. The prejudices to be encountered seem to have filled him with natural distrust of his success ; for he remarks, " Like their ancestors, they hold the pursuit of letters in light estimation, considering them an obstacle to success in the profession of arms, which alone they esteem worthy of honor." He however expresses his confidence, that the gen- erous nature of the Spaniards will make it easy to infuse into them a more liberal taste ; and, in a subsequent letter, he enlarges on the " good effects likely to result from the literary ambition exhibited by the heir apparent, on whom the eyes of the nation were naturally turned."'^ Martyr, in obedience to the royal summons, in- 11 For some account of this emi- cultrix. Quae quidem multis et nent Italian scholar, see the post- magnis occupata negotiis, ut aliis script to Part I. Chap. 14, of this exemplum preeberet, a primis gram- History, maticffi rudimentis studere ccepit, 12 Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., et omnes suae domOs adolescentes epist. 102, 103. utriusque sexus nobilium liberos, Lucio Marineo, in a discourse prKceptoribus liberaliter et honori- addressed to Charles V., thus no- fice conductis erudiendos commen- tices the queen's solicitude for the dabat." Mem. de la Acad, de instruction of her young nobility. Hist., torn. vi. Apend. 16. — See " Isabella prsesertim Regina mag- also Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., nanima, virtutum omnium maxima bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.