Juan de Lucena (1430–1506) was a Spanish
humanist.
Biography
In 1476, Lucena created
printing presses in two villages of the
Province of Toledo
Toledo is a province of central Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. It is bordered by the provinces of Madrid, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, Badajoz, Cáceres, and Ávila. Its capital is the city of Toledo.
...
:
Villarejo de Montalbán
Villarejo de Montalbán is a municipality located in the province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain.
According to the 2006 census (INE
INE, Ine or ine may refer to:
Institutions
* Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research ...
and
Toledo
Toledo most commonly refers to:
* Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain
* Province of Toledo, Spain
* Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States
Toledo may also refer to:
Places Belize
* Toledo District
* Toledo Settlement
Bolivia
* Toledo, Orur ...
. These presses were utilized solely for printing Hebrew books. In particular, books that were in demand among the Jews living in
Granada
Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...
were printed by the presses, including the Bible, ''Orhot hayim'', and ''Halakhot'', the latter two having been written by Spanish Jews for legal purposes. All of these books were destroyed due to the
Inquisition, causing the only remains of them to be small pieces. Lucena was the first known Spanish printer of Hebrew writings.
Before 1481, Lucena worked with Íñigo de Burgos and Pedro de Monbil, the former a
converso
A ''converso'' (; ; feminine form ''conversa''), "convert", () was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of his or her descendants.
To safeguard the Old Christian po ...
like Lucena and the later a Christian. In 1481, the
Inquisition investigated Lucena and Monbil. Lucena, along with his sons, fled from Spain, first going to Portugal. He later moved to Rome, Italy, where he served
Pope Pius II as a position similar to an
ambassador
An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...
of the
Catholic Monarchs.
Lucena wrote the dialogue ''Libro de vida beata''. According to Martinez-Torrejon in the scientific journal ''
Modern Language Notes'', the work was dated from 1463 in Rome;
however, the book ''Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain'' claims that Lucena did not flee to Rome until long after 1463, and that the work was written in Portugal, to which he had moved after 1481.
The dialogue examines the concept of whether it is possible for humans to achieve happiness, concluding that it is not.
Lorenzo Valla had said in 1431 that because humans seek goals and are satisfied when they achieve something, it is natural for them to achieve happiness. Due to a misunderstanding of the text, thinking that it was "a defense of face-value
Epicureanism
Epicureanism is a system of philosophy founded around 307 BC based upon the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Epicureanism was originally a challenge to Platonism. Later its main opponent became Stoicism.
Few writings by Epi ...
", the Inquisition prosecuted Valla in 1444.
Bartolomeo Facio, who had been an opponent of Valla since 1446, wrote ''De felicitate'' in 1448, opposing the viewpoint of Valla. Facio's work is what Lucena based his dialogue on. According to ''Modern Language Notes'', ''Libro de vida beta'' is a "privileged text for the study of the cultural movement in which it was produced".
Little information is available about Juan de Lucena's life and career, partially because of several other conversos of the fifteenth century having the same name.
References
15th-century writers in Latin
1430 births
1506 deaths
Spanish Renaissance humanists
People from Soria
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