Montesino, Ambrosio

MONTESINO, AMBROSIO. - Franciscan, orator and writer, b. at Huete (year unknown), d. probably at Madrid on 29 Jan. 1514. The scanty biographical data known derive from his works. He is at Cifuentes in July and at Huete in Nov. 1499, at Granada in 1501, at the convent of St. John de los Reyes (Toledo) in May 1512; on 30 July of the same year he is created titular bishop of Sarda; he dies as auxiliary bishop of Card. Cisneros and is buried at Huete.

His first writing belongs to the religious poetry of the people: Coplas sobre diversos devociónes y mysterios de nuestra santa fe católica (Toledo, ca. 1485; the only known copy is in the British Museum and has been reproduced in facsimile by H. Thomas, London 1936). From 1499 to 1501 M. attends, by commission of the Catholic kings, to the translation of the Vita Christi, of Landulf of Saxony (4 vols., 1502-1503); a work among the best in the Castilian language of the time, it notably influenced the religious literature of Spain in the 16th-17th centuries; it was, among other things, the spiritual nourishment of St. Teresa and of the Bl. John of Avila and much appreciated by preachers. For the latter M. prepared the reworking of an ancient version of the epistles of the liturgical year: Epistolas y evangelios, por todo el año, con sus doctrinas y sermones (Toledo 1512), reprinted several times. M.'s activity in verse is for the most part documented by the Cancionero (ibid. 1508, reissued in vol. XXXV of the Biblioteca del Rivadeneyra); more than the mystic poet, there is revealed in it the preacher, who makes use of metrical expression for devout and moralizing exhortations, though artistically happy touches are not lacking. It is said that he also compiled a Brevuarum Immaculatae Conceptionis for the use of the Conceptionist nuns, who began to flourish in Spain toward the end of the 15th century.