León, Luís de - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VII, p. 673

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

LEÓN, Luís de. — Augustinian, poet, writer, theologian, and exegete, born at Belmonte (Cuenca) in 1527 and died at Madrigal on 23 August 1591. Professor at Salamanca of theology (1561–72), moral philosophy (1578–79), and Sacred Scripture (1579–91). Accused, among other things, of preferring the original texts of the Bible to the Vulgate and thus violating the Tridentine decree Sacrosancta, on 27 March 1572 he was taken to the inquisitorial prison of Valladolid, from which he was released on 11 December 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 translation, 2 vols., Naples 1796), fundamental for its mystical doctrine; In psolimum 26 (Salamanca 1580); In Abdiam, in ep. ad Galatas, etc. (there 1589); Opera latina (7 vols., there 1691–95; vols. I–III contain the exegetical works, vols. IV–VII the commentaries on s. Tommaso and Durando); De los nombres de Cristo (there 1583); La perfecta casada (there 1583; Italian translation, Venice 1595, Florence 1932); Poesías propias and sacred and profane translations (Madrid 1631; Italian translation of the Proprie, Florence 1950); Exposición del libro de Job (Salamanca 1779); Traducción y declaración de los Cantares de Solomon (there 1798). Of the works in the vernacular, the first two and the poems have numerous editions; the latest is Obras completas, with a prologue and notes by F. García (2 vols., Madrid 1950). L. de L. edited the editio princeps of the works of s. Teresa (Salamanca 1588) and wrote a vigorous apologia for her. Essential for understanding the man is his Processo, in Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España, X–XI, full of extraordinarily acute responses.

Prince of Castilian lyric poetry, unsurpassed craftsman of his native language, refined connoisseur of the Greek, Latin, and Italian classics and of the SS. Fathers, L. de L. was

Article illustration — (from Enciclopedia universal ilustrada, XXIX, p. 1619) LEÓN, DIOCESI di — Plan of the cathedral of L. (ca. 1200–80).

above all a passionate scholar and a brilliant interpreter of the Bible, to which all his works refer. The figure of Christ, in his person and in his Church, dominates and enlivens his thought.

In the Nombres de Cristo, a masterpiece of Christian Humanism and a splendid model of biblical theology, he discusses the titles of the Redeemer: shoot, face of God, way, shepherd, mountain, father of the future age, arm of God the king, prince of peace, bridegroom, son, beloved, Jesus, lamb, thereby outlining a genuine treatise on Christocentric dogmatics and spirituality. Rich in content in this respect is the commentary on Job. La perfecta casada, on Prov. 31, still preserves all its grace and value today.

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. ENOCH. 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 a humanist and poet, K. Vossler, L. de L., 2nd ed., Munich 1946, and O. Maeri, L. de L.: Poesie (with introduction, bibliography, and commentary), Florence 1950. David Gutiérrez