A Humanistic Biography of John II of Aragon

Abstract

Students of the early Renaissance period in the Spanish Peninsula, in contrast to their colleagues in France and Italy, have been loth to study evidence of humanistic literary endeavour in the language in which one would most expect to find it. It is true, of course, that there is no super-abundance of original Latin literature, so that the search for humanistic traits has been confined mainly to the vernacular. Consequently there has been a tendency to over-value those stylistic elements which appear to point forward to the mature Renaissance of the sixteenth century. This is particularly true of historiographical studies in the fifteenth century, and more concretely within the restricted limits of the biographical genre. The reason why this genre has figured prominently in general surveys of humanistic trends is easy enough to explain. It has long been considered one of the characteristic genres of the Renaissance, and the appearance of numerous vernacular examples in fifteenth-century Peninsular litera...