Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/218

194 194 CASTILIAN LITERATURE. I. PART his place among the professors of Salamanca, where he filled the chairs of poetry and grammar with great applause for twelve jears. He was subse- quently transferred to the court, which he helped to illumine, by his exposition of the ancient classics, particularly the Latin." Under the auspices of these and other eminent scholars, both native and foreign, the young nobility of Castile shook off the indolence in which they had so long rusted, and applied with generous ardor to the cultivation of science ; so that, in the language of a contempo- rary, " while it was a most rare occurrence, to meet with a person of illustrious birth, before the present reign, who had even studied Latin in his youth, there were now to be seen numbers every day, who sought to shed the lustre of letters over the martial glory inherited from their ancestors." ^^ 1^ A particular account of Mari- edition, referred to in this work, is neo'svvritinofs maybe found in Nic. in black letter, printed before, or Antonio. (Bibliotheca Nova, torn, soon after, the author's death (the ii. Apend. p. 369.) The most im- dateof which is uncertain), in 1539, portant of these, is his work "De at Alcala de Henares, by Juan Rebus Hispanise Memorabilibus," Brocar, one of a family long- ccle- often cited, in the Castilian, in this brated in the annals of Castilian History. It is a rich repository of printing. Marineo's prologue con- details respecting the geography, eludes with the following noble statistics, and manners of the Pen- tribute to letters. " Porque todos insula, with a copious historical los otros bienes son subjectos a la notice of events in Ferdinand and fortuna y mudables y en poco tiem- Isabella's reign. The author's in- po mudan muchosduerios passando satiable curiosity, during a long de unos senores en otros, mas los residence in the country, enabled dones dc Ictras y hystorias que se him to collect many facts, of a kind ofrcscen para perpetuidad de me- that do not fall witiiin the ordinary moria y iama son immortales y compass of history ; while his ex- prorogan y guardan paia sienipre tensive learning, and his familiarity la menioria assi de los que los reci- with foreign models, peculiarly ben, como de los que los ofrcscen." qualified him for estimating tiio in- ^^ Sepulvoda, Dcmocrites, apud stitutions he describes. It must be ]Iem. dc la Acad, de Hist., torn, confessed he is sufiicienlly partial vi. llust. IG. — Signorelli, Coltura to the land of his adoption. The nelle Sicilie, torn. iv. p. 318. — I