MENA, JUAN de. - Spanish poet, born in Córdoba in 1411, died in Torrelaguna in 1456. He studied for some time in Rome, where he was introduced to humanistic culture; upon his return to his homeland, he was
He fell under the fascination of Dante's Commedia, from which, as well as from the Aeneid and the Pharsalia, he drew inspirations for the allegorical poem in dodecasyllabic octaves El laberinto de Fortuna: an otherworldly journey to the "gran casa", where, guided by Providence in the guise of a beautiful woman, the poet beholds the "máquina mundana", made of wheels and circles named after the planets and populated by spirits. Following the example of Alighieri, M. also pursues the tendency to reconnect with earthly life through episodes drawn from legend or history, which constitute the most artistically successful section of the ponderous work and the first attempt at a celebration of national history. Less effective is the unfinished rhymed sermon Coplas contra los pecados mortales; but all of M.'s work, with its vigorously personal style, is often muddied by hyperbata and exoticisms, clearing up only in the areas of achieved poetry.