- Hernán Núñez
Hernán Núñez de Toledo y Guzmán (
Valladolid , 1475 -Salamanca , 1553) was a Spanish humanist,classicist ,philologist , and paremiographer. He was called "el Comendador Griego", "el Pinciano" or "Fredenandus Nunius Pincianus". He earned his degree in 1490 from the Spanish College of San Clemente inBologna . He returned to Spain in 1498 and served as apreceptor to the Mendoza family, inGranada . In this city, he studiedclassical languages as well asHebrew andArabic . CardinalGonzalo Ximénez de Cisneros hired him as censor of the cardinal’s press atAlcalá de Henares . There, Nuñez worked on theComplutensian Polyglot Bible , specifically on theSeptuagint . Nuñez was named professor ofrhetoric at theUniversidad Complutense , which had recently been founded. He then taught Greek from 1519. During theCastilian War of the Communities , Nuñez sided with the "comuneros" but avoided execution. He then taught at theUniversity of Salamanca , occupying the post once filled byAntonio de Nebrija . At the age of 50, he retired from teaching to dedicate himself fully to research, although he seems to have still given classes on Hebrew at the University of Salamanca.Works
He wrote a gloss on the "
Laberinto de Fortuna " byJuan de Mena , which appeared in two editions (Seville, 1499; and Granada, 1505).In 1508, he collected and glossed a diverse body of proverbs and
adages , first published inSeville . After his death, it was published as "Refranes o proverbios en romance" (Salamanca , 1555). He included proverbs from many languages, including Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, French, Italian,Asturian ,Aragonese ,Latin , and Greek. The work was popular: it was reprinted several times, although it sufferedcensorship (some of its obscene or foreign proverbs were removed). It inspired imitators in Spain and abroad, such as the French work "Proverbiorum Vulgarium Libri Tres" (1531) and the Italian "Opera quale contiene le Dieci Tavole de proverbi" (Turin, 1535).In 1509, he translated into Castilian Enea Silvio Piccolomini's "History of
Bohemia ". In 1519, he published a Greek and Latin text of the letter “To the Christian youths,” written bySaint Basil .He published critical studies on the works of
Pliny the Elder ,Theocritus , Seneca, andPomponius Mela . He also studied the work ofSaint Jerome .List of Works
* "Glosa sobre las Trezientas" de Juan de Mena, Sevilla (1499) y Granada (1505).
* "L. Annaei Senecae Opera", Basilea, 1529. Se hicieron diez ediciones hasta 1627.
*"Observationes Fredenandi Pintiani in loca obscura et depravata Hist. Natur. C. Plinii", Salamanca, 1544.
*"Refranes de la lengua castellana", Salamanca, 1555. Hay edición crítica moderna, "Refranes o proverbios en romance" (1555) de Hernán Núñez. Edición crítica. Madrid, Ediciones Guillermo Blázquez, 2001; 2 vols.
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