Juan de Mena
Juan de Mena was a Spanish poet of the late Renaissance, born around 1411 near Córdoba. He is recognized for his significant contributions to poetry, particularly influenced by the works of Dante, which he encountered during his studies in Rome and Florence. Mena completed his education at the University of Salamanca, a notable institution of the time, and later served as secretary and court historian to King Juan II of Castile. His poetry often blends allegorical themes with religious doctrine, as seen in his notable works such as *Calamicleos* and *El laberinto de fortuna*.
In *Calamicleos*, Mena employs Renaissance astronomical concepts to celebrate the legacy of a minor poet, while *El laberinto de fortuna* showcases a visionary journey exploring themes of fate and the interplay of time. Despite his innovative approach, Mena’s work is sometimes perceived as derivative when compared to Dante's, and his poetic style can appear dry to modern readers. Throughout his life, he also penned love poems and verse commemorating notable figures, but he passed away young, in 1456, while completing a work on the deadly sins. Mena's writing reflects the Spanish Renaissance's engagement with classical models, emphasizing poetry's role in didactic and religious discourse.
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Juan de Mena
Poet
- Born: c. 1411
- Birthplace: Near Cordova, Spain
- Died: 1456
- Place of death: Torrelaguna, Spain
Biography
Little is known about the early life of late Renaissance Spanish Catholic poet Juan de Mena. Imperfect church records indicate that he was born sometime around 1411, most likely near Córdoba. Apparently of a formidable intelligence, he completed his university education at the age of twenty-three with a master of arts from the prestigious University of Salamanca, one of the oldest universities in Europe and known during Spain’s Golden Age just before Mena’s generation for producing not only significant theological scholars but also civic leaders versed in the operations of government—both significant disciplines in Mena’s eventual career. He also studied briefly at Rome and lived in Florence, where apparently he was first introduced to the epic religious poetry of classic Latin models, specifically the work of Dante, whose allegorical sensibility and Christian conception of the world deeply impacted Mena’s own verse.
Returning to Spain in 1443, Mena was appointed secretary and court historian to Juan II, king of Castile. Mena’s first important poetic work, Calamicleos, reflects his embrace of Dante’s model. Both allegorical and doctrinal, the lengthy poem offers a world vision that draws on conventional Renaissance astronomical theories to enhance the celebration of the marquis of Santillana, a minor poet, as an ascent into immortality reserved for ancient writers. Although the marquis himself is of little consequence historically, Mena’s poem offers a bracing vision, rich with elaborate symbolism that draws on the planets and the stars, to affirm the appropriate hierarchical position of writers, which in turn affirms a larger reassuring vision of a harmonic universe.
In El laberinto de fortuna, considered Mena’s defining work, the influence of Dante is even more pronounced. Drawing specifically on the model of La divina commedia, particularly the visionary spectacle effects of the closing book, Paradiso, in Mena’s work the poet begins wandering in an unfamiliar forest that is alive with threatening animals. A woman, radiant with a benevolent light and dressed in white, appears as in a vision and conducts the poet through the thickets of the forest, along the way providing him access to the formidable secrets of the universe itself, specifically the workings of destiny and the particular momentum of time, with the intricate cooperation of past, present, and future rendered as a series of turning wheels, constantly propelling events. Much like Dante, Mena includes contemporary personages from both the court and the church to exemplify the virtues of living within the puzzling events of the unfolding present.
Unfortunately, for contemporary readers already familiar with Dante, Mena’s work can seem derivative, his poetic line (even in translation) dry and stilted. In addition to his epic allegories, Mena also wrote minor love poems and occasional verse, most often on the death of important men of court. At the time of his death, he was working on another ambitious poetic work on the deadly sins and specifically the eternal conflict between reason and will. Mena died young, in his mid-forties, in 1456 at Torrelaguna. Often eclipsed by the historic position of Dante, Mena nevertheless represents a significant expression of late Spanish poetry and reflects the Spanish embrace of the classic model that regarded poetry as primarily a vehicle for didacticism and religious affirmation.