Juan Ruiz
Encyclopedia
Juan Ruiz known as the Archpriest
of Hita
(Arcipreste de Hita), was a medieval
Spanish
poet. He is best known for his ribald, earthy poem, Libro de buen amor (The Book of Good Love
).
, or perhaps Alcalá la Real
, a village of Jaén
, then part of al-Andalus
, or Muslim
Spain. Little is known about him today, save that he was a cleric and probably studied in Toledo
. Though his birth name is known to be Juan Ruiz, he is widely referred to by his title of "archpriest of Hita."
). However, the poem has long been considered as pseudo-autobiography
and the verses that mention his imprisonment appear at the end of the book and are generally thought to have been added after the fact. One of his poems states that he was imprisoned on the order of Gil Albornoz, archbishop of Toledo. It is not known whether he was sentenced for his irregularities of conduct, or on
account of his satirical reflections on his ecclesiastical superiors. Nor is it possible to fix the precise date of his imprisonment. Albornoz nominally occupied the see of Toledo from 1337 to
1368, but he fell into disgrace in 1351 and fled to Avignon. A consideration of these circumstances points to the probable conclusion that Ruiz was in prison from 1337 to 1350, but this is
conjecture. What seems established is that he finished the Libro de buen amor in 1343. Indeed, almost nothing is known about the author(s) of the poem or if he was even named Juan Ruiz. One scholarly study found hundreds of clerics in mid-fourteenth-century Castile named Juan Ruiz. The name appears to be the equivalent of John Smith and may have been chosen to represent everyman.
s long). The breadth of the writer's scope, and the exuberance of his style have caused some to term him "the Spanish
Chaucer
." Speculation regarding whether or not the book was actually an autobiography is incessant.
His language is characterized by its richness and its sermon-like tendency to repeat the same concept in several different ways. Noted for being very creative and alive, his work utilizes colloquial, popular vocabulary. His natural gifts were supplemented by his varied culture; he clearly had a considerable knowledge of the colloquial (and perhaps also of literary) Arabic widely spoken in the Spain of his time; his classical reading was apparently not extensive, but he knew by heart the Disticha of Dionysius Cato, and admits his indebtedness to Ovid
and to the De Amore ascribed to Pamphilus
; his references to Blanchefleur
, to Tristan
and to Yseult, indicate an acquaintance with French literature, and he utilizes the fabliau
x with remarkable deftness; lastly, he adapts fables and apologues from Aesop, from Pedro Alfonso
's Disciplina clericalis, and from medieval bestiaries
.
All these heterogeneous materials are fused in the substance of his versified autobiography, into which he intercalates devout songs, parodies of epic or forensic formulae, and lyrical digressions on every aspect of life. He shows a profound knowledge of human emotion and is able to strike a balance between gentleness and brazenness in his shrewd and frequently ironic writing. Ruiz, in
fact, offers a complete picture of picaresque society in the most complex and rich cultural geography of Europe during the first half of the 14th century, and his impartial irony lends a deeper tone to his rich coloring. He knows the weaknesses
of both clergy and laity, and he dwells with equal complacency on the amorous adventures of great ladies, on the perverse intrigues arranged by demure nuns behind their convent walls, and on the simpler instinctive animalism of country lasses and Moorish dancing-girls.
In addition to the faculty of genial observation Ruiz has the gift of creating characters and
presenting types of human nature: from his Don Furón is derived the hungry gentleman in Lazarillo de Tormes, in Don Melón and Doña Endrina he anticipates Calisto and Melibea in the
Celestina, and Celestina herself is developed from the Trotaconventos of Ruiz. Moreover, Ruiz was justly proud of his metrical innovations: the Libro de buen amor is mainly written in the cuaderna via modelled on the French alexandrine
, but he imparts to the measure a variety and rapidity previously unknown in Spanish, and he experiments by introducing internal rhymes or by shortening the fourth line into an octosyllabic verse; or he boldly recasts the form of the stanza, extending it to six or seven lines with alternate verses of eight and five syllables. But his technical skill never sinks to triviality. All his writing bears the stamp of a unique personality, and, if he never attempts a sublime flight, he conveys with contagious force his enthusiasm for life under any conditions — in town, country, vagabondage
or gaol.
Johan Ruys (original spelling), arcipreste de la Hita, was imprisoned by the Inquisition for a few years due to his one-sided love affair with a lady of the nobility. In our modern society, he would have been charged with "harassment". He is said to have died 7 or 8 years after his release from the Inquisition's holding facility.
There are today three manuscripts of the Libro de Buen Amor. The Salamanca
version, denoted S, resides in Madrid's Biblioteca Real and is considered the best of the three codices. The other two are the Academia Española version, known as Gayoso (G), and the Toledo (T) manuscript.
jovial goliard, Alphonso Martinez de Toledo, arch-priest of
Talavera, who wrote more than half a century before the Libro
de buen amor was imitated by the author of the Celestina.
Ruiz is mentioned with respect by Santillana, and that his reputation
extended beyond Spain is proved by the surviving fragments
of a Portuguese version of the Libro de buen amor. By some
strange accident he was neglected, and apparently forgotten,
till 1790, when an expurgated edition of his poems was published
by Tomás Antonio Sanchez; from that date his fame has
steadily increased, and by the unanimous verdict of all competent
judges he is now ranked as the greatest Spanish poet of his
century.
Archpriest
An archpriest is a priest with supervisory duties over a number of parishes. The term is most often used in Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholic Churches, although it may be used in the Latin rite of the Roman Catholic Church instead of dean or vicar forane.In the 16th and 17th centuries, during...
of Hita
Hita, Spain
Hita is a municipality in the comarca of La Alcarria, in the province of Guadalajara , Spain.-External links:...
(Arcipreste de Hita), was a medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
poet. He is best known for his ribald, earthy poem, Libro de buen amor (The Book of Good Love
The Book of Good Love
The Book of Good Love , considered to be one of the masterpieces of Spanish poetry, is a semi-biographical account of romantic adventures by Juan Ruiz, the Archpriest of Hita, dating from 1330....
).
Origins
He was born either in Alcalá de HenaresAlcalá de Henares
Alcalá de Henares , meaning Citadel on the river Henares, is a Spanish city, whose historical centre is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites, and one of the first bishoprics founded in Spain...
, or perhaps Alcalá la Real
Alcalá la Real
Alcalá la Real is a city located in the province of Jaén, Spain. According to the 2006 census , the city has a population of 22,129 inhabitants.-Geography:...
, a village of Jaén
Jaén, Spain
Jaén is a city in south-central Spain, the name is derived from the Arabic word Jayyan, . It is the capital of the province of Jaén. It is located in the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, then part of al-Andalus
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...
, or Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
Spain. Little is known about him today, save that he was a cleric and probably studied in Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
. Though his birth name is known to be Juan Ruiz, he is widely referred to by his title of "archpriest of Hita."
Imprisonment
According to his own book, he was imprisoned for years, thought to be between 1337 to 1350, as punishment for some of his deeds (if the poem is any guide, they were quite inconsistent with his position as priestPriest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
). However, the poem has long been considered as pseudo-autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
and the verses that mention his imprisonment appear at the end of the book and are generally thought to have been added after the fact. One of his poems states that he was imprisoned on the order of Gil Albornoz, archbishop of Toledo. It is not known whether he was sentenced for his irregularities of conduct, or on
account of his satirical reflections on his ecclesiastical superiors. Nor is it possible to fix the precise date of his imprisonment. Albornoz nominally occupied the see of Toledo from 1337 to
1368, but he fell into disgrace in 1351 and fled to Avignon. A consideration of these circumstances points to the probable conclusion that Ruiz was in prison from 1337 to 1350, but this is
conjecture. What seems established is that he finished the Libro de buen amor in 1343. Indeed, almost nothing is known about the author(s) of the poem or if he was even named Juan Ruiz. One scholarly study found hundreds of clerics in mid-fourteenth-century Castile named Juan Ruiz. The name appears to be the equivalent of John Smith and may have been chosen to represent everyman.
Death
It has been estimated that he died around 1350 (presumably in prison); by 1351, he no longer held the title of archpriest of Hita.The Book of Good Love
Libro de Buen Amor (Book of Good Love) is a massive and episodic work that combines poems to Jesus and Mary; Ruiz's unrequited love , and fables. The poem itself is 1,728 stanzaStanza
In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...
s long). The breadth of the writer's scope, and the exuberance of his style have caused some to term him "the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
." Speculation regarding whether or not the book was actually an autobiography is incessant.
His language is characterized by its richness and its sermon-like tendency to repeat the same concept in several different ways. Noted for being very creative and alive, his work utilizes colloquial, popular vocabulary. His natural gifts were supplemented by his varied culture; he clearly had a considerable knowledge of the colloquial (and perhaps also of literary) Arabic widely spoken in the Spain of his time; his classical reading was apparently not extensive, but he knew by heart the Disticha of Dionysius Cato, and admits his indebtedness to Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
and to the De Amore ascribed to Pamphilus
Pamphilus
Pamphilus may refer to:* Pamphilus , son of Aegimius* Pamphilus of Amphipolis, painter of 4th century BC head of Sicyonian school* Pamphilus of Alexandria, grammarian in the 1st century...
; his references to Blanchefleur
Blanchefleur
Blanchefleur may refer to:*Blanchefleur, the female heroine of the medieval tale of Floris and Blanchefleur*Blanchefleur, the beloved one of Perceval in Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, le Conte du Graal...
, to Tristan
Tristan
Tristan is one of the main characters of the Tristan and Iseult story, a Cornish hero and one of the Knights of the Round Table featuring in the Matter of Britain...
and to Yseult, indicate an acquaintance with French literature, and he utilizes the fabliau
Fabliau
A fabliau is a comic, often anonymous tale written by jongleurs in northeast France between ca. 1150 and 1400. They are generally characterized by an excessiveness of sexual and scatological obscenity. Several of them were reworked by Giovanni Boccaccio for the Decamerone and by Geoffrey Chaucer...
x with remarkable deftness; lastly, he adapts fables and apologues from Aesop, from Pedro Alfonso
Pedro Alfonso
Pedro Alfonso or Alfónsez was an Asturian magnate, dominating the region from 1139 until his death. He had vast landholdings in the Asturias, the province of León, and Toledo, including in the cities of León and Toledo, the most important cities of the realm. His commercial dealings, too, were...
's Disciplina clericalis, and from medieval bestiaries
Bestiary
A bestiary, or Bestiarum vocabulum is a compendium of beasts. Bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals, birds and even rocks. The natural history and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson...
.
All these heterogeneous materials are fused in the substance of his versified autobiography, into which he intercalates devout songs, parodies of epic or forensic formulae, and lyrical digressions on every aspect of life. He shows a profound knowledge of human emotion and is able to strike a balance between gentleness and brazenness in his shrewd and frequently ironic writing. Ruiz, in
fact, offers a complete picture of picaresque society in the most complex and rich cultural geography of Europe during the first half of the 14th century, and his impartial irony lends a deeper tone to his rich coloring. He knows the weaknesses
of both clergy and laity, and he dwells with equal complacency on the amorous adventures of great ladies, on the perverse intrigues arranged by demure nuns behind their convent walls, and on the simpler instinctive animalism of country lasses and Moorish dancing-girls.
In addition to the faculty of genial observation Ruiz has the gift of creating characters and
presenting types of human nature: from his Don Furón is derived the hungry gentleman in Lazarillo de Tormes, in Don Melón and Doña Endrina he anticipates Calisto and Melibea in the
Celestina, and Celestina herself is developed from the Trotaconventos of Ruiz. Moreover, Ruiz was justly proud of his metrical innovations: the Libro de buen amor is mainly written in the cuaderna via modelled on the French alexandrine
Alexandrine
An alexandrine is a line of poetic meter comprising 12 syllables. Alexandrines are common in the German literature of the Baroque period and in French poetry of the early modern and modern periods. Drama in English often used alexandrines before Marlowe and Shakespeare, by whom it was supplanted...
, but he imparts to the measure a variety and rapidity previously unknown in Spanish, and he experiments by introducing internal rhymes or by shortening the fourth line into an octosyllabic verse; or he boldly recasts the form of the stanza, extending it to six or seven lines with alternate verses of eight and five syllables. But his technical skill never sinks to triviality. All his writing bears the stamp of a unique personality, and, if he never attempts a sublime flight, he conveys with contagious force his enthusiasm for life under any conditions — in town, country, vagabondage
or gaol.
Johan Ruys (original spelling), arcipreste de la Hita, was imprisoned by the Inquisition for a few years due to his one-sided love affair with a lady of the nobility. In our modern society, he would have been charged with "harassment". He is said to have died 7 or 8 years after his release from the Inquisition's holding facility.
There are today three manuscripts of the Libro de Buen Amor. The Salamanca
Salamanca
Salamanca is a city in western Spain, in the community of Castile and León. Because it is known for its beautiful buildings and urban environment, the Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. It is the most important university city in Spain and is known for its contributions to...
version, denoted S, resides in Madrid's Biblioteca Real and is considered the best of the three codices. The other two are the Academia Española version, known as Gayoso (G), and the Toledo (T) manuscript.
Legacy
Ruiz's influence is visible in El Corbacho, the work of anotherjovial goliard, Alphonso Martinez de Toledo, arch-priest of
Talavera, who wrote more than half a century before the Libro
de buen amor was imitated by the author of the Celestina.
Ruiz is mentioned with respect by Santillana, and that his reputation
extended beyond Spain is proved by the surviving fragments
of a Portuguese version of the Libro de buen amor. By some
strange accident he was neglected, and apparently forgotten,
till 1790, when an expurgated edition of his poems was published
by Tomás Antonio Sanchez; from that date his fame has
steadily increased, and by the unanimous verdict of all competent
judges he is now ranked as the greatest Spanish poet of his
century.
Further reading
- Abellán, José Luis (1977) Del itinerario literario al histórico de Juan Ruiz. Madrid: Diario Informaciones, 21-VII-1977.
- Brownlee, Marina Scordilis (1985) The Status of the Reading Subject in the Libro de buen amor. Chapel Hill: U.N.C. Dept. of Romance Languages (Distributed by University of North Carolina Press).
- Burkard, Richard W. (1999) The Archpriest of Hita and the Imitators of Ovid: a Study in the Ovidian Background of the "Libro de buen amor". Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta
- Caba, Rubén (1976-IX) Juan Ruiz y sus parodias. Madrid: Diario Informaciones, 23-IX-1976.
- Caba, Rubén (1976) Por la ruta serrana del Arcipreste. Madrid: Libertarias-Prodhufi, 1995, 3ª edición. ISBN 84-7954-239-X. (1ª edición: 1976. 2ª edición: 1977). (El autor fija el itinerario serrano del Arcipreste de Hita que él mismo recorrió en la primavera de 1973).
- Dagenais, John (1994) The Ethics of Reading in Manuscript Culture: Glossing the "Libro de buen amor". Princeton: Princeton University Press
- Deyermond, Alan (2004) The "Libro de Buen Amor" in England: a tribute to Gerald Gybbon-Monypenny. Manchester: Dept of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, University of Manchester
- Gybbon-Monypenny, G. B., ed. (1970) Libro de Buen Amor Studies. London: Támesis.
- Haywood, Louise M., and Vasvàri, Louise O., eds. (2004) A Companion to the "Libro de buen amor". Woodbridge: Támesis
- Lecoy, Félix (1938) Recherches sur le "Libro de buen amor", de Juan Ruiz, Archiprêtre de Hita. Paris: E. Droz.
- Marmo, Vittorio (1983) Dalle fonti alle forme: studi sul "Libro de buen amor". Naples: Liguori
- Ruiz, Juan (1992) El libro de buen amor; edited by Alberto Blecua. Madrid: Cátedra. (Continually updated.) |title=Reading Jaume Roig's Spill and the Libro de buen amor in the Iberian