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                 JUAN DE MENA'S  'LABERINTO' REMEMBERED

582 YEARS AFTER PUBLICATION 

Al muy prepotente don Juan el segundo

aquél con quien Júpiter tuvo tan zelo

que tanta de parte le fizo de mundo

quanta a sí mesmo se fizo del cielo;

al gran rey d'España, al César novelo,

al que con Fortuna es bien fortunado,

aquél en quien caben virtud e reinado,

a él, la rodilla fincada por suelo. (CCC, I)

 

 

Juan de Mena published his Laberinto de fortuna on Thursday 22 February 1444. He was born in Córdoba in 1411 and died young, probably in 1456. Juan de Mena was one of Spain's most prominent poets. Traces of his poetry may be encountered in Góngora's oeuvre. (e.g. in Sol.II. 698 and Mena's CCC. XV)

Further reading:

Laberinto de Fortuna, Edición de John Cummins, Cátedra, 1984.

Laberinto de Fortuna, Edición de Louise Vasvari Fainberg, Alhambra, 1976.

Laberinto de Fortuna, Edición de Miguel Angel Pérez Prieto, Espasa Calpe, 1989.

Poetas cortesanos del siglo XV, Edición de José Onrubia de Mendoza, Bruguera, 1975.

In: The Camino de Santiago de Compostela, Jack de Groot, p. 99. (Published in 2009 by the University Press of the South, New Orleans, USA.)

In: Intertextuality  Through Obscurity. The Poetry of Federico García Lorca and Luis de Góngora, Jack de Groot, pp. 2, 47 etc. (UPS, New Orleans, 2002).

And in many writings published by María Rosa Lida de Malkiel.

P.S.

Only a few drawings exist of Juan de Mena. In the drawing above the poet presents himself to King Juan II. In another one not Mena is featured but Pedro Calderón de la Barca in stead.