PEDRO LÓPEZ DE AYALA. – Spanish writer and statesman, born in Vitoria in 1332, died in Calabria in early April 1407. Chancellor of Castile and soldier, he was also the first, chronologically, of Spain’s Italianists. He conferred literary dignity upon the chronicle, until then monotonous and neglected, and in all his work, informed by moralizing intent, he reflected the probity of his soul and his love for culture.
A large section of the *Rimado de Palacio*, in cuaderna vía, partly conceived in the prison of Oviedo after the disaster of Aljubarrota (1386) and inspired by a pessimistic view of society, of which L. bitterly satirizes its deviations, contains sacred lyrics: notable are the canticles to the Virgin of Guadalupe and Montserrat and the vast ethical-religious epilogue largely derived from the Old Testament. Even in the *Libro de la caza de las aves* there are frequent moral digressions. More valuable, from a literary standpoint, are the *Crónicas*, a dark and anguished account of Spanish events from 1350 to 1406, substantially framed in the medieval spirit but enlivened at times by the reflections of Italian pre-humanism: Mérimée drew upon it for his reconstruction of the history of Peter I of Castile. He also translated works by Livy, Boethius, St. Gregory the Great, St. Isidore, Guido delle Colonne (*Historia troiana*), and Boccaccio (*De casibus virorum illustrium*).