CARO, RODRIGO. - Spanish priest, scholar, and poet, b. at Utrera in 1573 and d. at Siviglia on 10 Aug. 1647.
Particularly devoted to studies of history, archaeology, and numismatics, he left among his principal works the Dias geniales o ládricos, a precious source for the study of Spanish folklore; the Varones insignes en letras... de Sevilla; the Antigüedades de Sevilla... y chorographia de su convento jurídico; and various works on Utrera (El santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Consolación, etc.), all writings in which erudition does not preclude moving evocations of the past. As a poet he is remembered, besides for his sonnets, for the well-known Canción a las ruinas de Itálica, long attributed to the Sevillian poet Francisco de Roja, a theme already treated but renewed by him in its elegant and lucid form, resonant rhetoric, and dignified tone.
BBL.: Texts: Le Obras en prona, published in the Memorial histórico español, 1 (1851), pp. 345-476; together with the poetic works they were reprinted by the Sociedad de bibliofilos andaluces, XIV-XV, Siviglia 1883-84; the Varones y Epistolario con un estudio biográfico-crítico were published by S. Montoto (ibid. 1914); an edition of the Canc. a las ruinas de J., accompanied by an introduction, Latin version, and notes, was published under the editorship of M. A. Caro (Publicaciones del Institut. Caro y Cuervo, II, Bogotá 1947). Literature: A. Fernández Guerra, La canción «A las ruinas de Itálica» ya original ya refundida, no es de Fr. de Roja, in Memorias de la Academia Española, 1 (Madrid 1870), pp. 174-217; A. Sánchez y Castañer, R. C., estudio biográfico y crítico, Madrid 1914; A. Baig Baños, R. C. autor de la Epistola moral a Fabio, ibid. 1932. Iole Ruggieri Scudieri