Petrarch and Key Works of Spanish Renaissance Literature

Petrarch

Petrarch, a fourteenth-century Italian poet, who embodies like no other the characteristics and ideals of humanism. He wrote several works of humanistic inspiration. His most famous work is entitled Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, known by the name of Canzoniere. His Triumphs is an allegorical poem composed in terza rima and consists of 6 parts of very uneven length.

Petrarch's Canzoniere

This consists of over 350 poems on the theme of love. The first part deals with the anguish experienced by the poet in love. He was imitated in Spain by the Marqués de Santillana, Ausiàs March, Juan Boscán, and Garcilaso de la Vega.

Petrarchism

• Traditions: (medieval courtly love)
• Classical Resources: (incorporating many motifs, similes, comparisons, and expressions from Latin poets)
• Expression of Feeling: (the poet manages to give life to a wide range of feelings)
• Language: (the intelligence, inspiration, and ingenuity of the poet are evident in verses built with refined language)
• Poetic Figures: (antithesis, correlations, metaphors, similes, alliterations, paradoxes)
• New Metric Forms: (sonnet, silva, hendecasyllable, stanza, madrigal, song, ballad, ode, eclogue)

Poetry in the 16th Century

There were two main types in the sixteenth century: traditional and Italianate.

Spanish Traditional Poetry

The renovation of Renaissance lyric poetry did not forget medieval Castilian poetry. Already in the fifteenth century, both cultured and popular poetry existed. Both types of poetry continued into the sixteenth century. Cultured poetry included great songs, widely diffused.

Italianate Poetry

This other cultured and more innovative poetry eventually dominated in the sixteenth century. Characteristics:

• Metric restoration, also affecting themes and poetic attitude
• Idealization of the beloved
• Bucolic and pastoral themes
• Lyrical style

Garcilaso de la Vega

One of the greatest Spanish poets of formal perfection, his poetry remained unpublished in his lifetime. He cultivated both types of poetry of the time.

Garcilaso's Characteristics

• Latin influence and Renaissance poetic language
• Themes like locus amoenus, idealization of feminine beauty, idealization of pastoral reality, carpe diem

Garcilaso's Eclogues

Bucolic poems. Eclogue 2 (the first he wrote), Eclogue 1, and Eclogue 3 (four nymphs embroider canvases on the banks of the Tagus that evoke tragedies of love).

Garcilaso's Sonnets

Garcilaso was the first master of the sonnet in Spain. The sonnet is a specific structure, often on the theme of love, using hendecasyllable lines.

Garcilaso's Songs

Song 3 (written during his exile on an island in the Danube), Composition 5 (titled 'Ode to the Flower of Gnido', which departs from the others in its meter and content).

Theater in the 16th Century

In the first half of the sixteenth century, theater was popular, Italian-inspired, and often represented in palaces. In the second half, Juan de la Cueva of Seville was a precursor to the great theater of Lope de Vega, thanks to innovations introduced into his works (including heroes and themes from medieval epics, mixing comic and tragic elements, and combining classical and national themes).

The Novel in the 16th Century

The novel reached great development in the sixteenth century, culminating with the appearance of Cervantes' works. There were two main types of fiction: realistic and idealistic.

Lazarillo de Tormes

Authorship and Publication

The work is known through its publications in Burgos, Alcalá de Henares, Medina del Campo, and Antwerp. None of these four editions shows the author's name.

Plot Summary

As a child, Lázaro begins to serve his first master, a blind man. He goes on to serve several others throughout the novel: a priest of Maqueda, a squire of Toledo, a friar of Mercy, a pardoner, a seller of indulgences, a chaplain, and a constable.

Structure of Lazarillo

It consists of a prologue and 7 'treatises' of very uneven length. The book is presented in autobiographical form, and although it is a sequence of episodes, the work presents a structural unity.

Themes and Social Criticism

Lázaro's life results in varied episodes focused on deception. A constant motif is religious hypocrisy. The narrator makes a subtle criticism of the clergy and false religiosity, showing an Erasmian attitude. The theme of honor is also reflected throughout the novel.

Character of Lázaro

He is very different from the heroes of novels up to this point. He is an antihero, a common man.

Style and Language

The novel introduces realism and is a very plausible narrative.