History of Spanish Literature, vol. 3 (of 3)Ticknor, George
History
History of Spanish Literature, vol. 3 (of 3)
Ticknor, George
Spanish literature -- History and criticism
[222] From the times of Charles V. and Philip II., when, in
Aragon and Castile, chroniclers were multiplied as a part of the
pageantry of the court, the rest of the kingdoms that entered
into the united Spanish monarchy began to desire to have their
own separate histories, as we can see in Valencia, where those
of Beuter, Escolano, and Diago were written. Besides this,
a great number of the individual cities obtained their own
separate annals from the hand of at least one author,--sometimes
works of authority, like that on Segovia by Colmenares, and
that on Seville by Avila y Zuñiga. But though more of such
local histories were written in Spain between the middle of the
sixteenth and the end of the seventeenth centuries, than were
written during the same period, I believe, in any other country
in Europe, none of them, so far as I know, has such peculiar
merit as to be noticeable in the literary history of the country.
Still, the spirit that produced them in such great numbers,
and especially the spirit which, during the reign of Philip
II., made, with so much care and cost, the vast collections of
documents yet to be found in the Castle of Simancas and the
convent of the Escurial, should not be overlooked.
When the chapter on the Chronicles of the fifteenth century
(First Period, Chap. IX.) was printed, I had not seen the
Chronicle by the Prince of Viana, “Crónica de los Reyes de
Navarra,”--of which there is only one edition, that of Pamplona,
1843, 4to, by Don José Yanguas y Miranda. It was written in 1454
by the Prince Don Carlos, to whom I have already alluded, (Vol.
I. p. 332, note,) who died, forty years old, in 1461, and whose
translation of Aristotle’s Ethics was printed at Saragossa in
1509. (Mendez, Typographia, 1796, p. 193.) The Chronicle was
carefully prepared for publication from four manuscripts, and it
embraces the history of Navarre from the earliest times to the
accession of Charles III. in 1390, noticing a few events in the
beginning of the next century. Besides the life of the author,
it makes about 200 pages, written in a modest, simple style,
but not so good as that of some of the contemporary Castilian
chronicles. A few of the old traditions concerning the little
mountain kingdom, whose early annals it records, are, however,
well preserved; some of them being told as they are found in the
General Chronicle of Spain, and some with additions or changes.
The portions where I have observed most traces of connection
between the two are in the Chronicle of the Prince of Viana, Book
I. chapters 9-14, as compared with the latter portion of the
General Chronicle, Part III. Sometimes the Prince deviates from
all received accounts, as when he calls Cava the _wife_ of Count
Julian, instead of calling her his _daughter_; but, on the whole,
his Chronicle agrees with the common traditions and histories of
the period to which it relates.
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