Esteban Manuel de Villegas

Background

Esteban Manuel de Villegas was born at Matute (Logrono) on the 5th of February 1589.

Education

He first studied classics at the University of Madrid, translating works of the 6th-century-bc Greek poet Anacreon at the age of 14, and later obtained a law degree from the University of Salamanca.

Career

Intending to devote his life to literature, he was forced to practice law to support his family. In 1659 he was jailed by the Inquisition because of satires he had published. Returning to Nájera, he spent his remaining years on a translation of the 5th-century-ad Roman scholar Boethius’ De Consolatio philosophiae (Consolation of Philosophy).

Villegas was a poet who essentially exhausted his art in his early youth. The Poesías eróticas, most of which were written in his teens, are a mixture of translations and imitations of Horace and Anacreon, satires, and idylls. Some critics regard these poems as possessing a grace and delicacy unequaled in Spanish literature.

He died at the age of 80 in Nájera.

Achievements

• He was a Spanish lyric poet who achieved great popularity with an early book of poems, Poesías eróticas y amatorias (1617–18).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Obras de Esteban Manuel de Villegas (Spanish Edition)

    (Obras de Esteban Manuel de Villegas Esteban Manuel de Vil...)

  • Eróticas ó amatorias (Spanish Edition)

    (This book was digitized and reprinted from the collection...)

Connections

At the age of 36, he married Doña Antonia de Leyva Villodas, twenty years younger than him.

Spouse:

Doña Antonia de Leyva Villodas