LUCENA, Juan de. - Spanish writer, who lived in the 15th century. He resided for some time in Rome, where he was a familiar of Enea Silvio Piccolomini (the future Pius II); he enjoyed the protection of Alfonso V of Aragon and of Isabella the Catholic, to whom he addressed an Epistola exhortatoria a las letras; d. in 1506.

In his Libro de vida beato, composed in the period 1452-1453, the bishop of Burgos, the Marquis of Santillana, Juan de Mena and L. himself, whose characters are effectively profiled, converse about the active and contemplative life, examining the various states of men and concluding that perfect happiness is precluded on earth. Noteworthy are the apologetic touches with regard to converted Jews. The work, for the most part a reworking of the Dialogus de felicitate vitae of the Italian humanist Bartolomeo Facio, had wide circulation and, for its merits of language, figures among the autoridades of the Spanish Academy. In the National Library of Madrid a manuscript of it is preserved, signed by the author in 1464 and annotated by an anonymous hand.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: The Libro was first published at Zamora in 1483 and, subsequently, at Burgos in 1499 and in 1502; modern edition, edited by A. Paz y Melia, in Opusculos literarios de los siglos XIV a XVI (Sociedad de bibliofilos españoles), Madrid 1892, p. 209 ff.

Enzo Navarra

@incollection{ec7_lucena_juan_de, author = {Navarra, Enzo}, title = {Lucena, juan de}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1614--1615}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/lucena-juan-de} }

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Lucena, Juan de

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