Mendoza's Renunciation of Fame as Revealed in His "Carta VI" from Alcantara

T HAS ALWAYS BEEN PUZZLING why Diego Hurtado de Mendoza published nothing under his name during his lifetime. Without considering in this paper the variety of scholarly, satirical, and historical works which are his or are attributed to him, I propose to question why, in a time when there was a lively demand for collections of Spanish verse, he did not even publish his poetry? (In the sixteenth century books of Spanish poetry appeared continuously on the presses of Spain, Portugal, and Italy.) There is only one exception to Mendoza's lack of signed publication, his rhymed a Boscan in which he urges his friend to take up poetry again. This Epistola is contained in the first edition of the works of Boschan and Garcilaso de la Vega of the year 1543.1 It is included again in the 1549 edition of the Obras of Boscain and Garcilaso2 (and in all subsequent editions of Boscain up to the present time). In this somewhat inconspicuous way, Mendoza was joined in print with these two finest poets of his time, but in his well-known rile as patron rather than author

Renunciation · Theology · Early Modern Spanish Literature · Early Modern Women Writers · Philosophy · Spanish Literature and Culture Studies