The utilization of glosses in the didactic-moralizing works by the Marqués de Santillana : a contribution to its relationship with Hispanic Humanism

Abstract

In his wide literary repertoire, the Marqués de Santillana worked with special zeal in the composition of poems and prose of didactic and moral inspiration. His “Proverbs” follow the oratory and the style of the Church Fathers and medieval writers, an austere poetry that deals with classical topics (the ideal of nobility, the deadly sins, the Christian virtues) through conventional genres (enxiemplos, didascalics, judgments, mirrors for princes). However, the Marqués introduces glosses or comments, which frequently include explanatory digressions that do not always fulfil a didactic-moralizing function, as they cannot be reduced to religious o moral disquisitions. In fact, the glosses try to convey the author’s readings and how they underpin their moral canons. Hence, the author’s library constructs a particular doctrine in which the scholarly sources (auctoritas) coexist with popular wisdom (sayings and proverbs). Moreover, we can notice a moment of self-consciousness or theorizing about literary art and, thus, the announcement of a special place for the aesthetic function. This paper, then, analyzes how the gloss introduces a humanistic worldview within the traditional didactic moralizing format, which would allow to include his work within a first Spanish Renaissance or vernacular humanism (Lawrance, Weiss, Cortijo Ocaña, Jiménez Calvente). This debate, far from being resolved, illuminates the transition between the Middle Ages and modernity in the Peninsula.