LEÓN, Luís de. - Augustinian, poet, writer, theologian and exegete, b. at Belmonte (Cuenca) in 1527 and d. at Madrigal on 23 Aug. 1591. Professor at Salamanca of theology (1561-72), moral philosophy (1578-1579) and Sacred Scripture (1579-91). Accused among other things of preferring the original texts of the Bible to the Vulgate and thus of violating the Tridentine decree Sacrosancta, on 27 March 1572 he was taken to the inquisitorial prison of Valladolid, from which he emerged on 11 Dec. 1576. The long imprisonment purified his virtues and greatly increased his prestige as a scholar.

In prison he conceived and began his best works: In Canticum canticorum triplex explanatio (Salamanca 1580; Italian trans., 2 vols., Naples 1796), fundamental for his mystical doctrine; In psalmum 26 (Salamanca 1580); In Abdiam, in ep. ad Galatas, etc. (ibid. 1589); Opera latina (7 vols., ibid. 1691-95; in vols. I-III the exegetical works, in vols. IV-VII the commentaries on St. Thomas and Durandus); De los nombres de Cristo (ibid. 1583); La perfecta casada (ibid. 1583; Italian trans., Venice 1595, Florence 1932); Poesías propias and sacred and profane versions (Madrid 1631; Italian trans. of the Proprie, Florence 1950); Exposición del libro de Job (Salamanca 1779); Traducción y declaración de los Cantares de Solomon (ibid. 1798). Of the works in the vernacular, the first two and the poems count numerous editions; the latest, Obras completas, with prologue and notes by F. García (2 vols., Madrid 1950). L. de L. edited the editio princeps of the works of St. Teresa (Salamanca 1588) and wrote a vigorous apology for them. Indispensable for knowing the man is his Processo, in Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España, X-XI, full of very sharp replies.

Prince of Castilian lyric poetry, unsurpassed craftsman of the national idiom, fine connoisseur of the Greek, Latin and Italian classics and of the Holy Fathers, L. de L. was above all a passionate scholar and ingenious interpreter of the Bible, to which all his works refer. The figure of Christ, in his person and in his Church, dominates and vivifies his thought.

In the Nombres de Cristo, masterpiece of Christian Humanism and wonderful model of biblical theology, he discourses on the titles of the Redeemer: shoot, face of God, way, shepherd, mountain, father of the world to come, arm of God king, prince of peace, spouse, son, beloved, Jesus, lamb, tracing a true treatise of dogmatics and of Christocentric spirituality. Rich in content in this sense is the commentary on Job. La perfecta casada, on Prov. 31, still preserves all its grace and value.

Bibliography11 works

BIBL.: A. Coster, Bibliographie de L. de L., in Revue hispanique, 59 (1923), pp. 1-104; E. A. Peers, Studies of the spanish mystics, I, London 1927, pp. 289-344; J. Zarco, in Rev. español de estudios bíblicos, 3 (1928), pp. 281-413; anon., s. v. in Enc. Eur. Am., XXIX, pp. 1673-79; M. Gutiérrez, L. de L. y la filosofía español del siglo XVI, El Escorial 1929; H. Höpfl, L. de L. y la Vulgata, in Rev. español de estudios bíblicos, 3 (1928), pp. 221-30; M. Revilla, L. de L. y los estudios bíblicos, in Religión y cultura, 2 (1928), pp. 482-530; Crisogono de Jesús, El misticismo de L. de L., in Rev. de Espiritualidad, 1 (1942), pp. 30-52; D. Gutiérrez, El Cuerpo místico de Cristo en L. de L., in Rev. español de teología, 2 (1942), pp. 727-53; A. Guy, La pensée de L. de L., Paris 1943; S. Muñoz Iglesias, L. de L. teólogo, Madrid 1950. As humanist and poet, K. Vossler, L. de L., 2nd ed., Munich 1946, and O. Maeri, L. de L.: Poesie (with introd., bibl. and commentary), Florence 1950.

David Gutiérrez

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León, Luís de

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