Cristóbal de Virués

Cristóbal de Virués (* 1550 in Valencia ; † around 1614 ) was a Spanish soldier and writer and is one of the representatives of the Spanish literature of the Siglo de Oro .

Life

Cristóbal de Virués was probably born in Valencia in 1550 as the son of the doctor Alonso de Virués. The father, personal physician of the Archbishop of Valencia, Juan de Ribera, was close to the humanist Juan Luis Vives , who mentions the father several times in a letter to Erasmus of Rotterdam . The sister Jerónima Agustina Benita de Virués had a recognized knowledge of Latin. Two brothers Francisco de Virués, a theologian, and Jéronimo de Virués, a doctor, also appeared as poets and were members of the Valencian literary society "Academia de los Nocturnos".

Little is known about Cristóbal's youth and education. His participation in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 is documented several times by autobiographical insertions in his poetry. Presumably towards the end of 1585, Cristóbal the Virués resigned from the Spanish army, in which he last held the rank of captain . After returning to Valencia he created his dramatic works: Elisa Dido , La gran Semiramis , La cruel Casandra , Atila furioso and La infelice Marcela . The dramas were not published in the Obras until 1609. Possibly the late publication at a time when Lope de Vega in particular had made a leap in the development of Spanish theater literature, the reason for the limited scope of the dramatic work. In 1587 Virués published his poetry in 20 songs El Monserrate , which Cervantes counted among the best poems in the Castilian language. In 1605, Cristóbal der Virués again took part in an expedition of a Spanish army unit from Milan to Flanders with the rank of captain and commanded the vanguard of the 3,000-strong contingent that crossed the Catholic cantons of Switzerland and the Black Forest on the Camino de Suizos .

The year of death is unknown, since no reliable sources report on Virués after 1608. A laudation by Lope de Vega, who mentions Cristóbal der Virués by name in 1614, is understood by some authors as an indirect reference to the last year of life. No portrait of the poet has survived. Cristóbal de Virués described himself after a sonnet by the poet Matthias de Vargas at the end of Canto 5 of the poem El Monserrate : ... with a serene expression, hawk nose, lean face, pleasing appearance, respectable affability, humility and rare modesty; pale, blond, graceful and with a pleasant demeanor.

Works

• El Monserrate , Querino Gerardo, Madrid, 1587
• El Monserrate segundo , Grattiadio Ferioli, Milan, 1602
• El Monserrate, tercera impressión añadida y notablemente mejorada , Alonso Martin, Madrid, 1609
• Obras trágicas y liricas del Capitán Cristóval de Virués , Alonso Martin, Madrid, 1609

Secondary literature

• John G. Weiger: Cristóbal de Virués Twain Publishers, Boston 1978, ISBN 0-8057-6338-4
• Rudolf Bolzern: The Spanish troop movements through Switzerland from 1604 and 1605, Rivista storica svizzera, Allgemeine Geschichtforschende Gesellschaft der Schweiz, Vereinigung Schweizerischer Archivare, Volume 36, 1986, p. 47