Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/224

200 200 CASTILIAN LITERATURE. PART I. Arias Bar- bosa. century. No man of his own, or of later times, contributed more essentially than Lebrija to the introduction of a pure and healthful erudition into Spain. It is not too much to say, that there was scarcely an eminent Spanish scholar in the begin- ning of the sixteenth century, who had not formed himself on the instructions of this master. ^^ Another name worthy of commemoration, is that of Arias Barbosa, a learned Portuguese, who, after passing some years, like Lebrija, in the schools of Italy, where he studied the ancient tongues under the guidance of Politiano, was induced to establish his residence in Spain. In 1489 we find him at Salamanca, where he continued for twenty, or, ac- cording to some accounts, forty years, teaching in the departments of Greek and rhetoric. At the close of that period he returned to Portugal, where he superintended the education of some of the members of the royal family, and survived to a good old age. Barbosa was esteemed inferior to Lebrija in extent of various erudition, but to 25 Nic. Antonio, BiWiotheca No- va, torn. i. pp. 132-139. — Latn- pillas, Letteratiira Spagnuola, lom. ii. dis. 2, sec. 3. — Dialogo de las Lenguas, a pud Mayans y Siscar, Origenes, (Madrid, 1737,) torn. ii. pp. 46, 47. Lucio Marineopays the following elegant compliment to this learned Spaniard, in his discourse before quoted. " Amisit nuper Hispania maximum sui cultorem in re litte- raria, Antonium Nebrissensem, qui primus ex Italia in Hispaniam Mu- sas adduxit, quibuscum barbariem ex sua patria fugavit, ct Hispaniam totam linguae Latins leclioiiibus illustravit." " Meruerat id," says Gonlfez de Castro of Lebrija, " et multo majora liominis cruditio, cui Hispania debet, quicquid habet bo- narum literarum." The acute author of the " Dia- logo de las Lenguas," while he renders ample homage to Lebrija's Latin erudition, disputes his critical acquaintance with his own lan- guage, from his being a native of Andalusia, where the Castilian was not spoken with purity. " Hablaba y escrivia como en el Andalucia y no como en la Castiiia." p. 92. See also pp. 9, 10, 46, 53.