Garci Sánchez de Badajoz (1460?–1534?) was a Spanish writer and poet. He was an author of lovers' complaints which were popular with the poets of the Renaissance. He was last recorded attending a Toledan imperial feast in 1525 according to an eyewitness account by Francesillo de Zúñiga, a private servant of the Emperor. However, it is thought he lived much later than that. Gregorio Silvestre, an admirer of the poet, met with him while in the service of Conde de Feria. Silvestre, born in 1520, entered into de Feria's service at fourteen years old, suggesting that Sánchez de Badajoz was still alive in at least 1534. It can also be inferred from Silvestre's writings that the poet was the head of a school of poets who continued to develop Spanish poetic forms. Sánchez de Badajoz was either imprisoned or housebound for a purported insanity. The reason for the imprisonment is a mystery. Traditionally, it was thought to be due to an insanity brought on by an incestuous love for his sister, but some speculate it was actually due to the blasphemous nature of some of his works. He himself attributes his madness to unrequited love in his poem ''Garcisánchez preguntádole su amiga que cómo auía bastado ella a tornalle loco''. He was thought to be mad long after he was free from jail, according to Francesillo de Zúñiga. His family came from the low Extremaduran nobility of Badajoz but in the 15th century they settled in

Écija Écija () is a city and municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Seville, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is in the countryside, 85 km east of the city of Seville. According to the 2008 census, Écija had a total popula ...

. ''The General Songbook'' (1511) includes a large number of his compositions, including eight poems. Five

villancicos The ''villancico'' (Spanish, ) or vilancete ( Portuguese, ) was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. Important composers of villancicos were Juan del Encina, Ped ...

and three canciones are found in the ''

Cancionero de Palacio The Cancionero de Palacio (Madrid, Biblioteca Real, MS II–1335), or Cancionero Musical de Palacio (CMP), also known as Cancionero de Barbieri, is a Spanish manuscript of Renaissance music. The works in it were compiled during a time span of aro ...

'' and others appear in loose sheets and in the Romance Songbook. According to Fray Jerónimo Román, Sánchez de Badajoz was an eminent musician who played the

vihuela The vihuela () is a 15th-century fretted plucked Spanish string instrument, shaped like a guitar (figure-of-eight form offering strength and portability) but tuned like a lute. It was used in 15th- and 16th-century Spain as the equivalent of t ...

Works

Villancicos

* Mi mal por bien es tenido

Madrigals

* Puse mis amores en tan buen lugar

References

External links

* Free scores by Garci Sánchez de Badajoz at the

International Music Score Library Project The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public-domain music scores. The project uses MediaWiki software, and ...

(IMSLP) * Free scores by Garci Sánchez de Badajoz in the

Choral Public Domain Library The Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL), also known as the ChoralWiki, is an online database for choral and vocal music. Its contents primarily include sheet music in the public domain or otherwise freely available for printing and performing ...

(ChoralWiki) Spanish male writers People from Écija Date of birth unknown Date of death unknown Year of birth uncertain {{Spain-poet-stub