Ginés Pérez de Hita

Ginés Pérez de Hita (* 1544 in Mula , Murcia ; † 1619 ), a Spanish novelist , was the most important novelist of the Siglo de Oro in the Murcia region. He wrote, among other works, the Historia de las guerras civiles de Granada .

Life

Front of the Historia de los bandos de los zegríes y abencerrajes .

Ginés Pérez de Hita was probably born in Mula in 1544. He was 25 years old when he took part in the Rebelión de las Alpujarras in the guerra contra los moriscos . His books Bello troyano and Libro de la población y hazañas de la ciudad de Lorca attest to his knowledge of these events. These epic poems were also the basis for his main work Las guerras de Granada , which founded the genre of the historical novel through its brilliant form .

His work Historia de los bandos de los zegríes y abencerrajes, caballeros moros de Granada, de las civiles guerras que hubo en ella ... hasta que el rey don Fernando quinto la ganó ( Eng . "History of the gangs of Zegríes and Abencerrajes, Moorish Knights of Granada, of civil wars that existed there ... until the king won Mr. Fernando V ") appeared in the first and most interesting part in Zaragoza in 1595 . It tells of the rivalries between Zegríes and Abencerrajes, fights and duels between Christians and Moors, and gives a vivid picture of Granada at the end of the 15th century, shortly before the end of the Reconquista . His work inspired popular beliefs and created the sub-genre of Romancero Nuevo (romance morisco), which was often used by Lope de Vega and others. The second part, published in Cuenca in 1619, told of the rebellion of the Moriscos of las Alpujarras , in which the author participated under the command of Luis Fajardo y de la Cueva , the second Marqués de los Vélez . Ginés added romances to the text, some of which were made by himself. One recognizes the influence of La Austriada by Juan Rufo in this part . At the end of the book, Pérez de Hita courageously laments the complete expulsion of the Moriscos. His work exerted a great influence on national literature (e.g. in Calderón , Francisco Martínez de la Rosa , Manuel Fernández y González , Pedro Antonio de Alarcón etc.) and also on European literature (translations into English took place in 1801 , into French 1809 and into German 1821), which was characteristic of the appreciation of Arabic by thinkers of the 18th and 19th centuries, such as ( La Fayette , Chateaubriand , Washington Irving etc.) His world was the environment of the artisans in the Murcia area. From the workshop of “Ginés Pérez, zapatero”, carriages and inventions for the celebrations held by the city sprang up. There are also poems and dramas that were performed on such occasions. Many years later, after the publication of his "Historia", he worked with much more famous men for the exequies of Felipe II that were held in Murcia. As a representative of popular culture, Perez de Hita was unable to perform successfully as a poet, even if he contributed two long poems. He lacked the humanistic and courtly education although he had acquired a fragmentary literary education through his reading. For example , he knew the Orlando Furioso well, fundamental influences, their range and gradations, were already detailed by Máxime Chevalier . He was also familiar with the courtly novels and with chronicles and treatises on the end times of the Kingdom of Granada, and it is believed that he was also familiar with the Romanceros (old and new), which means that all of his stories can be certified as truthful. This reading, combined with great sensitivity, stimulated his imagination and his artistry combined historical truth with poetic truth, blurring the lines between reality and fiction in a closed poetic world.

literature

Joaquín Espin Rael: De la vecindad de Pérez de Hila en Lana desde 1568 a 1577 (Lorca, 1922).
N. Acero y Abad: Ginés Pérez de Hita: Estudio biográfico y bibliográfico (Madrid, 1888).
Paula Blanchard-Demouge: Edition of the works of Pérez de Hita. Guerras civiles de Granada (Madrid. 1913-15).

Web links

Commons : Ginés Pérez de Hita - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Ginés Pérez de Hita - Sources and full texts (Spanish)

personal data
SURNAME	Pérez de Hita, ginés
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Spanish writer
DATE OF BIRTH	1544
PLACE OF BIRTH	Mula , Murcia
DATE OF DEATH	1619