ERCILLA y ZÚÑIGA, ALONSO de. - Spanish poet, b. in Madrid in 1533, d. there in 1594; between 1558 and '63 he took part in the campaign for the conquest of Chile, which he celebrated in the thirty-seven cantos of the poem La Araucana, in which a first part of substantial epic truth is followed, beginning with canto XII, by a vast series of fantastic episodes.
The poem, which reveals the author's admiration for the heroic resistance of the defeated enemy and echoes Lucan, Seneca, Virgil, Garcilaso and Ariosto, abounds in intense descriptions (v. the torture of Caupolicán), but is weak in the portrayal of characters: nor can any attempt to graft a pagan marvelous onto the prevailing Christian element be called successful.
Despite its formal harshness, the Araucana is an original poem, indeed the only truly epic composition of the Spanish Renaissance, praised by Cervantes, Voltaire (in whose eyes it seemed superior to the Iliad), Chateaubriand and M. Menéndez y Pelayo.
Bibliography4 worksWorks: a complete edition of the Araucana was edited by J. T. Medina, Santiago 1913, and a partial one by J. Ducamin, L'Araucana, morosque c
BIBL.: Works: a complete edition of the Araucana was edited by J. T. Medina, Santiago 1913, and a partial one by J. Ducamin, L'Araucana, morosque chietis, Paris 1923, who had it preceded by an excellent introduction. - Literature: A. Royer, Etudes littérates sur « La Araucana », Dijon 1880; S. A. Lillo, E. y la Araucana, in Anales de la Univ. de Chile, 2 (1928), pp. 59-98; M. Petty, Some epic imitations of E.'s « La Araucana », Urbana III. (U.S.A.) 1932; A. Aragonès, E. Cuarto centenario del nacimiento de Don Alonso de E. y Z., Toledo 1934.
Scudieri, Ruggieri Jole. “Ercilla Y Zúñiga, alonso de.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, col. 478. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950. https://azioneromana.com/article/ercilla-y-zuniga-alonso-de.
MLA
Scudieri, Ruggieri Jole. “Ercilla Y Zúñiga, alonso de.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950, col. 478. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/ercilla-y-zuniga-alonso-de.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec5_ercilla_y_zuniga_alonso_de,
author = {Scudieri, Ruggieri Jole},
title = {Ercilla Y Zúñiga, alonso de},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {V},
pages = {478},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1950},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ercilla-y-zuniga-alonso-de}
}
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