The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume II Part 12

Columbus sailed from Spain on Friday, discovered land on Friday, and re- entered the port of Palos on Friday. These curious coincidences should have sufficed, one might think, to dispel, especially with American mariners, the superst.i.tions dread, still so prevalent, of commencing a voyage on that ominous day.

[9] Primer Viage de Colon, Let 2.

[10] Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 14.--Fernando Colon, Hist.

del Almirante, cap. 41.

Among other specimens, was a lump of gold, of sufficient magnitude to be fas.h.i.+oned into a vessel for containing the host; "thus," says Salazar de Mendoza, "converting the first fruits of the new dominions to pious uses."

Monarquia, pp. 351, 352.

[11] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 133, 134, 140.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 118.--Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. pp. 141, 142.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, ubi supra.--Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 413.--Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 17.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 8, 9.--Gallo, apud Muratori, Rerum Ital.

Script., tom. xxiii. p. 203.

[12] Herrera, Indias Occidental., tom. i. dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 3.--Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 15, 16, 17.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, ubi supra.

[12] In a letter, written soon after the admiral's return, Martyr announces the discovery to his correspondent, Cardinal Sforza, in the following manner. "Mira res ex eo terrarum orbe, quem sol horarum quatuor et viginti spatio circuit, ad nostra usque tempora, quod minime te latet, trita cognitaque dimidia taptum pars, ab Aurea utpote Chersoneso, ad Gades nostras Hispanas, reliqua vero a cosmographis pro incognita relicta est.

Et si quae mentio facta, ea tenuis et incerta. Nunc autem, o beatum facinus! meorum regum auspiciis, quod latuit hactenus a rerum primordio, intelligi coeptum est." In a subsequent epistle to the learned Pomponio Leto, he breaks out in a strain of warm and generous sentiment. "Prae laet.i.tia prosiliisse te, vixque a lachrymis prae gaudio tempera.s.se, quando literas adspexisti meas, quibus de Antipodum Orbe latenti hactenus, te certiorem feci, mi suavissime Pomponi, insinuasti. Ex tuis ipse literis colligo, quid senseris. Sensisti autem, tantique rem fecisti, quanti virum summa doctrina insignitum decuit. Quis namque cibus sublimibus praestari potest ingeniis isto suavior? quod condimentum gravius? a me facio conjecturam. Beari sentio spiritus meos, quando accitos alloquor prudentes aliquos ex his qui ab ea redeunt provincia. Implicent animos pecuniarum c.u.mulis augendis miseri avari, libidinibus obscoeni; noetras nos mentes, postquam Deo pleni aliquandiu fuerimus, contemplando, hujuscemodi rerum not.i.tia demulceamus." Opus Epist., epist. 124, 152.

[13] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 118.--Gallo, apud Muratori, Rerum Ital. Script., tom. xxiii. p. 203.--Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 18.

Peter Martyr seems to have received the popular inference, respecting the ident.i.ty of the new discoveries with the East Indies, with some distrust.

"Insulas reperit plures; has esse, de quibus fit apud cosmographos mentio extra Oceanum Orientalem, adjacentes Indiae arbitrantur. Nec inficior ego penitus, quamvis sphaerae magnitudo aliter sentire videatur; neque enim desunt qui parvo tractu a finibus Hispanis distare littus Indic.u.m, putent." Opus Epist., epist. 135.

[14] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 3.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 8.--Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 17.-- Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 413.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, ubi supra.

He was permitted to quarter the royal arms with his own, which consisted of a group of golden islands amid azure billows. To these were afterwards added five anchors, with the celebrated motto, well known as being carved on his sepulchre. (See Part II. Chap. 18.) He received besides, soon after his return, the substantial gratuity of a thousand doblas of gold, from the royal treasury, and the premium of 10,000 maravedies, promised to the person who first descried land. See Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, Col.

Diplom., nos. 20, 32, 38.

[15] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii. Col. Diplom., no. 45.-- Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 21.

[16] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, Col. Diplom., nos. 33, 35, 45.-- Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 4.--Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 21.

[17] See the original instructions, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, Col. Diplom., no. 45.--Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 22.-- Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 413.

L. Marineo eagerly claims the conversion of the natives, as the prime object of the expedition with the sovereigns, far outweighing all temporal considerations. The pa.s.sage is worth quoting, if only to show what egregious blunders a contemporary may make in the relation of events pa.s.sing, as it were, under his own eyes. "The Catholic sovereigns having subjugated the Canaries, and established Christian wors.h.i.+p there, sent _Peter Colon_, with _thirty-five_ s.h.i.+ps, called caravels, and _a great number of men_ to other much larger islands abounding in mines of gold, not so much, however, for the sake of the gold, as for the salvation of the poor heathen natives." Cosas Memorables, fol. 161.

[18] See copies of the original doc.u.ments, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Col. Diplom., nos. 39, 41, 42, 43.

[19] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 4.--Munoz, Hist.

del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 18.

[20] A point south of the meridian is something new in geometry; yet so says the bull of his Holiness. "Omnes insulas et terras firmas inventas et inveniendas, detectas et detegendas, versus Occidentem et meridiem, fabricando et const.i.tuendo unam lineam a Polo Arctico, scilicet septentrione, ad Polum Antarctic.u.m, scilicet meridiem."

[21] See the original papal grants, transcribed by Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Col. Diplom., nos. 17, 18. Appendice al Col. Diplom., no. 11.

[22] Padre Abarca considers "that the discovery of a new world, first offered to the kings of Portugal and England, was reserved by Heaven for Spain, being forced, in a manner, on Ferdinand, in recompense for the subjugation of the Moors, and the expulsion of the Jews!" Reyes de Aragon, fol. 310, 311.

[23] La Clede, Hist. de Portugal, tom. iv. pp. 53-58.

[24] Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. p. 463.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, loc. cit.--Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 27, 28.--Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. ii. pp. 606, 607.--La Clede, Hist. de Portugal, tom. iv. pp. 53-58.

[25] Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 413.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 44.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 118.--Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 1.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Historia, lib. 1, cap. 9.--Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 20.

[26] La Clede, Hist. de Portugal, tom. iv. pp. 53-58.--Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 27, 28.

[27] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, Doc. Diplom., no. 75.--Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. p. 463.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 8, 10.--Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. ii. pp. 606, 607.--La Clede, Hist. de Portugal, tom. iv. pp. 60-62.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. v.

fol. 31.

[28] The contested territory was the Molucca Islands, which each party claimed for itself, by virtue of the treaty of Tordesillas. After more than one congress, in which all the cosmographical science of the day was put in requisition, the affair was terminated _a l'amiable_ by the Spanish government's relinquis.h.i.+ng its pretensions, in consideration of 350,000 ducats, paid by the court of Lisbon. See La Clede, Hist. De Portugal, tom.

iv. pp. 309, 401, 402, 480.--Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. ii. pp. 607, 875.--Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquia, tom. ii. pp. 205, 206.

CHAPTER XIX.

CASTILIAN LITERATURE.--CULTIVATION OF THE COURT.--CLa.s.sICAL LEARNING.-- SCIENCE.

Early Education of Ferdinand.--Of Isabella.--Her Library.--Early Promise of Prince John.--Scholars.h.i.+p of the n.o.bles.--Accomplished Women.-- Cla.s.sical Learning.--Universities.--Printing Introduced.--Encouraged by the Queen.--Actual Progress of Science.

We have now arrived at the period, when the history of Spain becomes incorporated with that of the other states of Europe. Before embarking on the wide sea of European politics, however, and bidding adieu, for a season, to the sh.o.r.es of Spain, it will be necessary, in order to complete the view of the internal administration of Ferdinand and Isabella, to show its operation on the intellectual culture of the nation. This, as it const.i.tutes, when taken in its broadest sense, a princ.i.p.al end of all government, should never be altogether divorced from any history. It is particularly deserving of note in the present reign, which stimulated the active development of the national energies in every department of science, and which forms a leading epoch in the ornamental literature of the country. The present and the following chapter will embrace the mental progress of the kingdom, not merely down to the period at which we have arrived, but through the whole of Isabella's reign, in order to exhibit as far as possible its entire results, at a single glance, to the eye of the reader.

We have beheld, in a preceding chapter, the auspicious literary promise afforded by the reign of Isabella's father, John the Second, of Castile.

Under the anarchical sway of his son, Henry the Fourth, the court, as we have seen, was abandoned to unbounded license, and the whole nation sunk into a mental torpor, from which it was roused only by the tumults of civil war. In this deplorable state of things, the few blossoms of literature, which had begun to open under the benign influence of the preceding reign, were speedily trampled under foot, and every vestige of civilization seemed in a fair way to be effaced from the land.

The first years of Ferdinand and Isabella's government were too much clouded by civil dissensions, to afford a much more cheering prospect.

Ferdinand's early education, moreover, had been greatly neglected. Before the age of ten, he was called to take part in the Catalan wars. His boyhood was spent among soldiers, in camps instead of schools, and the wisdom which he so eminently displayed in later life, was drawn far more from his own resources, than from books. [1]

Isabella was reared under more favorable auspices; at least more favorable to mental culture. She was allowed to pa.s.s her youth in retirement, and indeed oblivion, as far as the world was concerned, under her mother's care, at Arevalo. In this modest seclusion, free from the engrossing vanities and vexations of court life, she had full leisure to indulge the habits of study and reflection to which her temper naturally disposed her.

She was acquainted with several modern languages, and both wrote and discoursed in her own with great precision and elegance. No great expense or solicitude, however, appears to have been lavished on her education.

She was uninstructed in the Latin, which in that day was of greater importance than at present; since it was not only the common medium of communication between learned men, and the language in which the most familiar treatises were often composed, but was frequently used by well- educated foreigners at court, and especially employed in diplomatic intercourse and negotiation. [2]

Isabella resolved to repair the defects of education, by devoting herself to the acquisition of the Latin tongue, so soon as the distracting wars with Portugal, which attended her accession, were terminated. We have a letter from Pulgar, addressed to the queen soon after that event, in which he inquires concerning her progress, intimating his surprise, that she can find time for study amidst her mult.i.tude of engrossing occupations, and expressing his confidence that she will acquire the Latin with the same facility with which she had already mastered other languages. The result justified his prediction; for "in less than a year," observes another contemporary, "her admirable genius enabled her to obtain a good knowledge of the Latin language, so that she could understand without much difficulty whatever was written or spoken in it." [3]

Isabella inherited the taste of her father, John the Second, for the collecting of books. She endowed the convent of San Juan de los Reyes at Toledo, at the time of its foundation, 1477, with a library consisting princ.i.p.ally of ma.n.u.scripts. [4] The archives of Simancas contain catalogues of part of two separate collections, belonging to her, whose broken remains have contributed to swell the magnificent library of the Escurial. Most of them are in ma.n.u.script; the richly colored and highly decorated binding of these volumes (an art which the Spaniards derived from the Arabs) show how highly they were prized, and the worn and battered condition of some of them prove that they were not kept merely for show. [5]

The queen manifested the most earnest solicitude for the instruction of her own children. Her daughters were endowed by nature with amiable dispositions, that seconded her maternal efforts. The most competent masters, native and foreign, especially from Italy, then so active in the revival of ancient learning, were employed in their tuition. This was particularly intrusted to two brothers, Antonio and Alessandro Geraldino, natives of that country. Both were conspicuous for their abilities and cla.s.sical erudition, and the latter, who survived his brother Antonio, was subsequently raised to high ecclesiastical preferments. [6] Under these masters, the infantas made attainments rarely permitted to the s.e.x, and acquired such familiarity with the Latin tongue especially, as excited lively admiration among those over whom they were called to preside in riper years. [7]

A still deeper anxiety was shown in the education of her only son, Prince John, heir of the united Spanish monarchies. Every precaution was taken to train him up in a manner that might tend to the formation of the character suited to his exalted station. He was placed in a cla.s.s consisting of ten youths, selected from the sons of the princ.i.p.al n.o.bility. Five of them were of his own age, and five of riper years, and they were all brought to reside with him in the palace. By this means it was hoped to combine the advantages of public with those of private education; which last, from its solitary character, necessarily excludes the subject of it from the wholesome influence exerted by bringing the powers into daily collision with antagonists of a similar age. [8]

A mimic council was also formed on the model of a council of state, composed of suitable persons of more advanced standing, whose province it was to deliberate on, and to discuss, topics connected with government and public policy. Over this body the prince presided, and here he was initiated into a practical acquaintance with the important duties, which were to devolve on him at a future period of life. The pages, in attendance on his person, were also selected with great care from the cavaliers and young n.o.bility of the court, many of whom afterwards filled with credit the most considerable posts in the state. The severer discipline of the prince was relieved by attention to more light and elegant accomplishments. He devoted many of his leisure hours to music, for which he had a fine natural taste, and in which he attained sufficient proficiency to perform with skill on a variety of instruments. In short, his education was happily designed to produce that combination of mental and moral excellence, which should fit him for reigning over his subjects with benevolence and wisdom. How well the scheme succeeded is abundantly attested by the commendations of contemporary writers, both at home and abroad, who enlarge on his fondness for letters, and for the society of learned men, on his various attainments, and more especially his Latin scholars.h.i.+p, and above all on his disposition, so amiable as to give promise of the highest excellence in maturer life,--a promise, alas! most unfortunately for his own nation, destined never to be realized. [9]

Next to her family, there was no object which the queen had so much at heart, as the improvement of the young n.o.bility. During the troubled reign of her predecessor, they had abandoned themselves to frivolous pleasure, or to a sullen apathy, from which nothing was potent enough to arouse them, but the voice of war. [10] She was obliged to relinquish her plans of amelioration, during the all-engrossing struggle with Granada, when it would have been esteemed a reproach for a Spanish knight to have exchanged the post of danger in the field for the effeminate pursuit of letters. But no sooner was the war brought to a close, than Isabella resumed her purpose. She requested the learned Peter Martyr, who had come into Spain with the count of Tendilla, a few years previous, to repair to the court, and open a school there for the instruction of the young n.o.bility. [11] In an epistle addressed by Martyr to Cardinal Mendoza, dated at Granada, April, 1492, he alludes to the promise of a liberal recompense from the queen, if he would a.s.sist in reclaiming the young cavaliers of the court from the idle and unprofitable pursuits, in which, to her great mortification, they consumed their hours. The prejudices to be encountered seem to have filled him with natural distrust of his success; for he remarks, "Like their ancestors, they hold the pursuit of letters in light estimation, considering them an obstacle to success in the profession of arms, which alone they esteem worthy of honor." He however expresses his confidence, that the generous nature of the Spaniards will make it easy to infuse into them a more liberal taste; and, in a subsequent letter, he enlarges on the "good effects likely to result from the literary ambition exhibited by the heir apparent, on whom the eyes of the nation were naturally turned." [12] Martyr, in obedience to the royal summons, instantly repaired to court, and in the month of September following, we have a letter dated from Saragossa, in which he thus speaks of his success. "My house, all day long, swarms with n.o.ble youths, who, reclaimed from ign.o.ble pursuits to those of letters, are now convinced that these, so far from being a hindrance, are rather a help in the profession of arms. I earnestly inculcate on them, that consummate excellence in any department, whether of war or peace, is unattainable without science. It has pleased our royal mistress, the pattern of every exalted virtue, that her own near kinsman, the duke of Guimaraena, as well as the young duke of Villahermosa, the king's nephew, should remain under my roof during the whole day; an example which has been imitated by the princ.i.p.al cavaliers of the court, who, after attending my lectures in company with their private tutors, retire at evening to review them with these latter in their own quarters." [13] Another Italian scholar, often cited as authority in the preceding portion of this work, Lucio Marineo Siculo, co- operated with Martyr in the introduction of a more liberal scholars.h.i.+p among the Castilian n.o.bles. He was born at Bedino in Sicily, and, after completing his studies at Rome under the celebrated Pomponio Leto, opened a school in his native island, where he continued to teach for five years.

He was then induced to visit Spain, in 1486, with the admiral Henriquez, and soon took his place among the professors of Salamanca, where he filled the chairs of poetry and grammar with great applause for twelve years. He was subsequently transferred to the court, which he helped to illumine, by his exposition of the ancient cla.s.sics, particularly the Latin. [14] Under the auspices of these and other eminent scholars, both native and foreign, the young n.o.bility of Castile shook off the indolence in which they had so long rusted, and applied with generous ardor to the cultivation of science; so that, in the language of a contemporary, "while it was a most rare occurrence, to meet with a person of ill.u.s.trious birth, before the present reign, who had even studied Latin in his youth, there were now to be seen numbers every day, who sought to shed the l.u.s.tre of letters over the martial glory inherited from their ancestors." [15]

The extent of this generous emulation may be gathered from the large correspondence both of Martyr and Marineo with their disciples, including the most considerable persons of the Castilian court; it may be still further inferred from the numerous dedications to these persons, of contemporary publications, attesting their munificent patronage of literary enterprise; [16] and, still more unequivocally, from the zeal with which many of the highest rank entered on such severe literary labor as few, from the mere love of letters, are found willing to encounter. Don Gutierre de Toledo, son of the duke of Alva, and a cousin of the king, taught in the university of Salamanca. At the same place, Don Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, son of the count of Haro, who subsequently succeeded his father in the hereditary dignity of grand constable of Castile, read lectures on Pliny and Ovid. Don Alfonso de Manrique, son of the count of Paredes, was professor of Greek in the university of Alcala. All ages seemed to catch the generous enthusiasm; and the marquis of Denia, although turned of sixty, made amends for the sins of his youth, by learning the elements of the Latin tongue, at this late period. In short, as Giovio remarks in his eulogium on Lebrija, "No Spaniard was accounted n.o.ble who held science in indifference." From a very early period, a courtly stamp was impressed on the poetic literature of Spain. A similar character was now imparted to its erudition; and men of the most ill.u.s.trious birth seemed eager to lead the way in the difficult career of science, which was thrown open to the nation. [17]

In this brilliant exhibition, those of the other s.e.x must not be omitted, who contributed by their intellectual endowments to the general illumination of the period. Among them, the writers of that day lavish their panegyrics on the marchioness of Monteagudo, and Dona Maria Pacheco, of the ancient house of Mendoza, sisters of the historian, Don Diego Hurtado, [18] and daughters of the accomplished count of Tendilla, [19]