Showing posts with label Fray Luis de León. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fray Luis de León. Show all posts

Monday, 14 September 2020

'AS WE WERE SAYING YESTERDAY...", THE STONES RETURN

Fray Luis de León
Today, The Grandma has meet The Stones again in Sant Boi. It has been a wonderful reencounter after six months of being separated. The family stayed in Hogwarts when The Grandma travelled to Barcelona to continue her work with The Watsons.

First, MJ has been talking about the new health rules about COVID19 and later, The Grandma has been talking about how to create and construct little compositions.

The family want to restart the classes again as soon as possible to continue studying English and working in the possibility of do a Cambridge Exam. It is difficult and nowadays we do not know anything about it but they are going to work with this objective on the horizon because they are The Stones and they do not give up.

Finally, The Grandma has explained two stories, one about the Capuchins in Sant Boi de Llobregat and another about Fray Luis de León, one of the most incredible Castilian writers of the 16C.

More information: Writing

Luis de León (Belmonte, Cuenca, 1527-Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Castile, 23 August 1591), was a Castillan lyric poet, Augustinian friar, theologian and academic, active during the Spanish Golden Age.

Luis de León was born in Belmonte, in the Province of Cuenca, in 1527 or 1528. His parents were Lope de León and Inés de Varela, and they had five children. His father practiced law, and it was due to his profession that the family moved to Madrid in 1534, and later to Valladolid.

Luis obtained a very thorough and extensive education, and was devoted to the interpretation and translation of religious texts and ideas. He was proficient in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin.

He entered the University of Salamanca at the age of fourteen, in 1541, to study Canon Law under the care of his uncle Francisco. At some point between 1541 and 1543, Thompson states that it was about 5-6 months after beginning his studies, while other authors often claim it was 1543, Luis abandoned his studies and instead entered the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine.

Fray Luis de León's Writings
After a novitiate of uncertain duration he joined the Priory of San Pedro on 29 January 1544. The first record of León as a student of theology is in the matriculation book at the University of Salamanca for 1546-7.

In 1552, Fray Luis graduated with a bachelor's degree in theology from the University of Toledo and continued his education as a student of Hebrew and Biblical interpretation at the University of Alcalá de Henares.

In 1561, he began translating the Song of Songs (Cantar de los Cantares) into Spanish for his cousin, Isabel Osorio, a nun in Salamanca who could not read the Latin text, and wrote an accompanying commentary. This was León's first major translation of a biblical text, and was probably inspired by a commentary his contemporary Arias Montano had lent to him when he passed through Salamanca in 1561.

Translation of biblical texts into Spanish had been banned by the Council of Trent, so there was a certain risk in this undertaking. The manuscript, however, was popular amongst his friends, who copied it and circulated it privately. However, the translations formed part of the accusations levelled against León when he was denounced to the Inquisition in 1572.

Because of the controversial nature of the text, it was not published until 1798.

Having returned to Salamanca the previous year, in 1560 he graduated from the University of Salamanca as a licentiate (7 May) and Master of Theology (30 June), and in the following year he won the election to the Chair of St Thomas, a chair in Theology, at the same university, Salamanca was unusual in that all Chairs were subject to an election for the position. This was a minor Chair, with a limited four-year tenure.

More information: Multimedia English I & II

In 1565, he won the Chair of St Durandus, to which he was re-elected in 1569, he lost it in 1573 because he was in prison while the elections took place. In 1566 he was named administrator of the Augustinian College of San Guillermo in Salamanca, and in 1567 he took on the position of vice rector of the University. In 1571 he attained the Chair of Sacred Letters as well.

While at the university, he translated classical and biblical literature and wrote on religious themes. He was widely known for his works.

In 1571 Dominican professors Bartolomé de Medina and Castro put forth seventeen propositions to the Inquisition documenting Fray Luis' allegedly heretical opinions. His translation into Spanish and commentary of the Song of Solomon (Canto de Salomón) was the biggest evidence presented for their case against him. Another charge touched on his criticizing the text of the Vulgate.

As a result, he was imprisoned at Valladolid from 27 March 1572 until December 1576, fell ill and remained in bad health throughout his imprisonment. Though he suffered greatly from his isolation and less than desirable conditions, Fray Luis continued to actively write and study during his confinement.

At the end of 1576, the tables turned, and on 11 December Fray Luis was cleared of all charges and released from prison with an admonishment to be more careful and reserved in his publications and speech. He returned to Salamanca on 30 December in triumph.

Tradition has it that he began his university lecture on 29 January 1577, his first after returning from four years' imprisonment, with the words Dicebamus hesterna die (As we were saying yesterday...).

He died at the age of 64 on 23 August 1591, in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Ávila, and is buried in Salamanca in the Priory of San Agustín. Ten days before his death he was elected Vicar General of the Augustinian Order.



There is a lack of words in the language
for the feelings of the soul.

Fray Luis de León

Tuesday, 13 March 2018

THE JONES IN SCOTLAND, PRINCES OF DÙN ÈIDEANN

The Grandma in Capuccinos Convent, Sant Boi
This morning, The Jones have revised some English grammar before travelling to Scotland. They have talked about how to create nouns (Gerunds) from a verb and about Imperative in affirmative and negative forms. They have also written some profiles about them.

The family has received an important present from The Grandma: the last IPhone model. She bought lots of them in the last World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, and they have tested them sending some WhatsApp’s and tweets and playing with some new apps like Who is Who?, an interesting mobile application to find a hidden character after asking for some questions; Memo, another app that is useful to describe cards with the idea of finding its partner; The Bomb, a stressing game where you need speed and vocabulary and Simon, a funny mobile app about memory.

More information: Imperative I, II and III

The Grandma has started to do one of her favourite things: explaining stories. Today, she has explained one story about Capuccinos in Sant Boi and their relationship with the philosophers like Ramon Llull and ascetics like Santa Teresa de Jesús or Fray Luis de León. The little story has been useful to talk about the syntactic order of the sentences.

Samanta Jones has talked about the loss of Hubert de Givenchy, the famous French designer. She's a fashion designer and nobody better than her to talk about one of her references.

This afternoon, The Jones have flying from Barcelona to Edinburg to start her Scottish visit accompanied by Connor MacLeod and his family. Tomorrow, The Grandma is going to explain some stories in common between Sant Boi and Scotland and they're going to plan their visit in this amazing and unforgettable country, plenty of legends, history, and the most important: wonderful people.


More information: Lonely Planet

Alba is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is cognate with the Irish term Alba and the Manx term Nalbin, the two other Goidelic Insular Celtic languages, as well as contemporary words used in Cornish (Alban) and Welsh (Yr Alban), both of which are Brythonic Insular Celtic languages.

Paqui and Silvia Jones with some MacLeods
In the past these terms were names for Great Britain as a whole, related to the Brythonic name Albion.

The term first appears in classical texts as Ἀλβίων Albíon or Ἀλουΐων Alouíon, in Ptolemy's writings in Greek, and later as Albion in Latin documents. Historically, the term refers to Britain as a whole and is ultimately based on the Indo-European root for white. It later came to be used by Gaelic speakers in the form of Alba as the name given to the former kingdom of the Picts which when first used in this sense had expanded. The region Breadalbane, Bràghad Albann, the upper part of Alba, takes its name from it as well.
More information: Visit Scotland-Alba

As time passed that kingdom incorporated others to the southern territories. It became re-Latinized in the High Medieval period as Albania. This latter word was employed mainly by Celto-Latin writers, and most famously by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It was this word which passed into Middle English as Albany, although very rarely was this used for the Kingdom of Scotland, but rather for the notional Duchy of Albany. It is from the latter that Albany, the capital of the US state of New York, takes its name.


When you hear someone from the very north of Scotland speaking, 
I think its nice, very musical and harmonious. 
Sean Connery