Enciclopedia Cattolica

ESPINOSA, PEDRO

Volume V · p. 381 · 1950

English translation · Testo originale italiano

Image from page 381
Image from page 381

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

PEDRO ESPINOSA. — Spanish poet, born in Antequera in 1578, died in Sanlúcar de Barrameda on 21 Oct. 1650. After a romantic disappointment, he led an eremitical life under the name of Pedro de Jesús, was ordained priest at Málaga, and directed his native Colegio de S. Ildefonso.

In the first period of his literary activity he composed the *Fábula del Genil*, ingenious in composition and rich in style, and the *Soledad de Pedro Festis*, sonnets, and versions of psalms. Later he inclined at times to cultismo and to the conceit. The transitional period from the style of Herrera to cultismo is documented by his *Primera parte de las flores de poetas ilustres de España* (1605). In prose he wrote *El perro y la calentura* and the ascetical treatise on the good death, *El espejo de cristal*, which was reprinted several times.

Bibl.: Works: P. E., *Obras*, ed. F. Rodríguez Marín, Madrid 1969. Studies: F. Rodríguez Marín, *P. E.*, estudio biográfico, bibliográfico y crítico, ibid. 1937; P. Hernández Urchá, *Notas sobre P. E.*, in *Rev. de filología española*, 4 (1917), pp. 389-392; J. P. Wickersham Crawford, *The Notes ascribed to Gotardo on the Sources of E.'s - Flores de poetas ilustres*, in *Modern Language Notes*, 44 (1929), p. 101 seq.; Jole Scudieri Ruggieri.