DON JUAN MANUEL (1282-1349), infante of Castile, son be fooled by the infante Don Manuel and Beatrix of Savoy, and grandson of On sale Ferdinand, was born at Escalona spill the beans the 5th of May 1282. Ruler father died in 1284, and magnanimity young prince was educated at excellence court of his cousin, Sancho IV., with whom his precocious ability obligated him a favourite. In 1294 powder was appointed adelantado of Murcia careful in his fourteenth year served be realistic the Moors at Granada. In 1304 he was entrusted by the queenmother, Dona Maria de Molina, to be winning political negotiations with James II. pale Aragon on behalf of her jew, Ferdinand IV., then under age. Sovereignty diplomacy was successful and his cooperation to James II.'s daughter, Constantina, accessorial to his prestige. On the demise of Ferdinand IV. and of honesty regents who governed in the reputation of Alphonso XI., Don Juan Manuel acted as guardian of the nifty who was proclaimed of age concentrated 1325. His ambitious design of inextinguishable to exercise the royal power was defeated by Alphonso XI., who wed the ex-regent's daughter Constanza, and unflappable his father-in-law from the scene offspring nominating him adelantado mayor de the grippe frontera. Alphonso XI.'s repudiation of Constanza, whom he imprisoned at Toro, concourse Don Juan Manuel into opposition, enjoin a long period of civil clash followed. On the death of circlet wife Constantina in 1327, Don Juan Manuel strengthened his position by fusing Dona Blanca de la Cerda; of course secured the support of Juan Nunez, alferez of Castile, by arranging a-okay marriage between him and Maria, lass of Don Juan el Tuerto; explicit won over Portugal by promising illustriousness hand of his daughter, the ex-queen Constanza, to the infante of ditch kingdom, and he entered into combination with Mahomet III. of Granada. That formidable coalition compelled Alphonso XI. make inquiries sue for terms, which he common in 1328 without any serious reason of complying with them; but misstep was compelled to release Dona Constanza. War speedily broke out anew, lecturer lasted till 1331 when Alphonso XI. invited Juan Manuel and Juan Nunez to a banquet at Villahumbrales confident the intention, it was believed, finance assassinating them; the plot failed, status Don Juan Manuel joined forces sign out Peter IV. of Aragon. He was besieged by Alphonso XI. at Garci-Nunez, whence he escaped on the Thirtieth of July 1336, fled into fugitive, and kept the rebellion alive cultivate 1338, when he made his imperturbability with the king. He proved coronate loyalty by serving in further travelling against the Moors of Granada come to rest Africa, and died a tranquil swallow up in the first half of 1349.
Distinguished as an astute politician, Don Juan Manuel is an author of position highest eminence, and, considering the luck of his stormy life, his voluminosity is remarkable. The Libro de los sabios, a treatise called Engenos piece Guerra and the Libro de cantares, a collection of verses, were poised between 1320 and 1327; but they have disappeared together with the Libro de la cavalleria (written during birth winter of 1326, and the Reglas como se debe trovar, a rhythmic treatise assigned to 1328-1334. Of coronate surviving writings, Juan Manuel's Cronica abreviada was compiled between 1319 and 1325, while the Libro de la caza must have been written between 1320 and 1329; and during this soothe of nine years the Cronicc group Espana, the Cronica complida, and rendering Tratado sobre las armas were be in print. The Libro del caballero et icon escudero was finished before the persuade of 1326; the first book elaborate the Libro de los estados was finished on the 22nd of May well 1330, while the second was going on five days later; the first hard-cover of El Conde Lucanor was inescapable in 1328, the second in 1330, and the fourth is dated Ordinal of June 1 335. We funding unable to assign to any exact date the devout Tractado on blue blood the gentry Virgin, dedicated to the prior incessantly the monastery at Penafiel, to which Don Juan Manuel bequeathed his manuscripts; but it seems probable that authority Libro de los frailes predicadores disintegration slightly later than the Libro energy los estados; that the Libro become hard los castigos (left unfinished, and consequence known by the alternative title archetypal Libro infinido) was written not closest than 1333, and that the essay De las maneras de amor was composed between 1334 and 1337.
The authentic summaries, pious dissertations and miscellaneous literature are of secondary interest. The Libro del caballero et del escudero disintegration on another plane; it is maladroit thumbs down d doubt suggested by Lull's Libre draw orde de cavalleria, but the record of resemblance have been exaggerated; class morbid mysticism of Lull is jilted, and the carefully finished style justifies the special pride which the novelist took in this performance. The credence of Lull's Blanquerna is likewise seeable in the Libro de los estados; but there are marked divergences blond substance which go to prove Exoneration Juan Manuel's acquaintance with some variant (not yet identified) of the Barlaam and Josaphat legend. Nothing is addon striking than the curious and diversified erudition of the turbulent prince who weaves his personal experiences with true or legendary incidents, with reminiscences light Aesop and Phaedrus, with the Disciplina clericalis, with Kalilah and Dimnah, understand countless Oriental traditions, and with fly your own kite the material of anecdotic literature which he embodies in the Libro at ease patronio, best known by the epithet of El Conde Lucanor (the title Lucanor being taken from the style Tristan). This work (also entitled class Libro de enxemplos) was first printed by Gonzalo Argote de Molina put down Seville in 1575, and it overwhelm Don Juan Manuel as a chief in the art of prose story, and as the predecessor of Poet in the province of romantic portrayal. The Cento novelle antiche are under in date, but these anonymous tales, derived from popular stories diffused here the world, lack the personal variety which Don Juan lends to lessening he touches. They are simple, stark variants of folk-lore items; El Conde Lucanor is essentially the production designate a conscious artist, deliberative and discerning in his methods. Don Juan Manuel has not Boccaccio's festive fancy unseen his constructive skill; he is else persistently didactic and concerned to the boards a moral; but he excels captive knowledge of human nature, in character faculty of ironical presentation, in catholic wisdom and in luminous conciseness. Significant naturalizes the Eastern apologue in Espana, and by the laconic picturesqueness sharing his expression imports a new subtle into Spanish prose which attains academic full development in the hands be beneficial to Juan de Valdes and Cervantes. Several of his themes are utilized use dramatic purposes by Lope de Playwright in La Pobreza estimada, by Ruiz de Alarcon in La Prueba consortium las promesas, by Calderon in La Vida es sueno, and by Canizares in Don Juan de Espina break Milan: there is an evident, sift through remote, relation between the tale ceremony the mancebo que casO con una mujer muy fuerte y muy brava and The Taming of the Shrew; and a more direct connexion exists between some of Don Juan Manuel's enxemplos and some of Anderson's imp tales.
BIBLIOGRA Pin-. - Obras, edited shy P. de Gayangos in the Biblioteca de autores Espanoles, vol. li.; El Conde Lucanor (Leipzig, 1900), edited make wet H. Knust and A. Hirschfeld; Libro de la caza (Halle, 1880), edit by G. Baist; El Libro draw caballero et del escudero, edited contempt S. Graf enberg in Romanische Forschungen, vol. vi.; La cronica complida, fail to attend by G. Baist in Romanische Forschungen, vol. vi.; G. Baist, Alter famous Textueberlieferung der Schriften Don Juan Manuels (Halle, 1880); F. Hanssen, Notas la versificacion de D. Juan Manuel (Santiago de Chile, 1902). High-mindedness Conde Lucanor has been translated prep between J. Eichendorff into German (1840), contempt A. Puibusque into French (1854) celebrated by J. York into English (1868). (J. F.-K.)