Fonseca, Cristóbal de

FONSECA, CRISTÓBAL de. - Augustinian theologian and preacher, b. at S. Eulalia in the diocese of Toledo, professed among the Augustinians on 8 February 1566, d. on 9 November 1621. He distinguished himself in the governance of the religious of his province of Castile, in oratory, and in the purity of the language of his writings in vernacular Castilian. He was greatly praised in his own times. Lope de Vega extols him in book XIX of the Gerusalemme conquistata.

His principal work is the Tratado del amor de Dios (Salamanca 1592; Barcelona 1593; Valladolid 1594 and, again, 1595; Lisbon 1595; Barcelona 1596; Cordova 1596; Saragossa 1596 and, again, 1597; Lisbon 1598 and, in the same year, at Toledo and Valladolid; Barcelona 1599, 1606, 1608, 1613), Italian trans. by an anonymous translator, Brescia 1602, another Italian trans. Venice 1608; Latin trans. by C. Curtius, Ingolstadt 1625; F. subsequently published a Segunda parte in 2 volumes, Valencia 1608. He also published: Vita de Cristo Señor Nuestro (part 1, Toledo 1596; part 2, in 1601; part 3, Madrid 1605; part 4, in 1611; Venice [in Italian] 1608 and again 1622); Discursos para todos los Evangelios de la Quaresma (Madrid 1614).

Davide Falconi