Background
Antonio de Guevara was born in 1481 in Western coast of Cantabria, Spain, of a noble family.
Antonio de Guevara was born in 1481 in Western coast of Cantabria, Spain, of a noble family.
Antonio de Guevara spent some of his youth at the court of Isabella I of Castile. In 1528 he entered the Franciscan order, and afterwards accompanied Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, during his journeys to Italy and other parts of Europe.
Antonio de Guevara successively held the offices of Charles V's court preacher, court historiographer, Bishop of Guadix, Bishop of Mondoñedo and Charles V's counselor.
His earliest work, entitled The Dial of Princes (Reloj de príncipes in its original Spanish), published at Valladolid in 1529, and, according to its author, the fruit of eleven years' labour, is a mirror for princes in the form of a didactic novel, designed after the manner of Xenophon's Cyropaedia, to delineate in a somewhat ideal way, for the benefit of modern sovereigns, the life and character of an ancient prince, Marcus Aurelius, distinguished for wisdom and virtue. It was often reprinted in Spanish; and it so speedily attained fame that before the close of the century there were published several translations in Latin, Italian, French, German, Dutch and English. It is difficult now to account for the extraordinary popularity of the work. It gave rise to a great literary controversy, the author having tried to claim it as historically accurate, appealing to an imaginary "manuscript in Florence."
Other works of Antonio de Guevara are the Década de los Césares (Valladolid, 1539), or "Lives of the Ten Roman Emperors," in imitation of the manner of Plutarch and Suetonius; and the Epístolas familiares (Valladolid, 1539-1545), sometimes called "The Golden Letters," often printed in Spain, and translated into all the principal languages of Europe. They are in reality a collection of stiff and formal essays which have long ago fallen into merited oblivion.
In the same year, Antonio de Guevara wrote a work of crucial importance called “Aviso de privados y doctrina de cortesanos”. In this work, he laid the foundations for the concept of the courtier, and thus, also for the 'court society' described by the seminal and namesake work by Nobert Elias. Antonio de Guevara, who most certainly had read "Il Cortegiano" (1518) by Baldassare Castiglione - whom Charles V called the greatest courtier of his age - brought a different aspect to the figure of the courtier: while the latter's work was a 'behavioral' guide, Guevara described the practical aspects of men surrounding a monarch and differentiated their duties from those who were part of religious orders.
(translated by Sir Thomas North, abridged by K. N. Colville)
1919In 1504 Antonio de Guevara became a Franciscan.
Antonio de Guevara criticized the Spanish conquest of America.