Juan Boscán Almogáver - Generalife - Granada, ES - Etched in Stone on Waymarking.com

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In a wall of the garden of the Generalife there is is stone plaque with a quote of a text of the poet Juan Boscán, it reads:

".. porque estando un dia en Granada con el navagero... tratando con el en cosas de ingenio y de letras, y especialmente en las variedades de muchas lenguas, me dijo porque no probaba en lengua castelhana sonetos y otras artes de trovas usadas por los buenos autores de Italia. Y no solamente me lo dijo asi livianamente, mas aun me rogo que lo hiciese... mas esto no bastara a hacerme pasar muy adelante si garcilaso con su juicio el cual no solamente en mi opinion, mas en la de todo el mundo, ha sido tenido por regla cierta, no me confirmara en esta mi demanda...

de la casta del poeta Juan Boscán a la Duquesa de Soma."

Translation with the help of google:

".. because being one day in Granada with the navagero ... dealing with him in things of wit and letters, and especially in the varieties of many languages, he told me why he did not try sonnets and other used trova arts in Spanish. by the good authors from Italy. That of the whole world, has been taken as a true rule, I will not confirm my demand in this ...

from the letter of the poet Juan Boscán to the Duchess of Soma. "

Juan Boscán Almogáver

"The exact date of birth for Boscà is unclear, but there is a consensus that he was born anywhere between 1487 and 1492. Boscà was born in Barcelona and was one of three children. His father, Joan Valentí Boscà, was a public official, and his mother was named Violant Almogàver. Boscà's father died in 1492. Around 1507, Boscà left to live in the court of Fernando and Isabel, where he was a student of Lucio Marineo Siculo from Vizzini, Italy, who taught him the skill of translating Italian love poetry, Latin, and Greek lyrics into Spanish. Marineo's teachings evidence the close cultural interactions that existed between Spain and Italy and helped to develop the talent of Boscán.

By 1522, Joan Boscà was working as a tutor to Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba. In this same year, he participated with Garcilaso de la Vega in giving naval assistance to the Isle of Rhodes during a Turkish invasion. Boscà fought against the Turks again in 1532 with Álvarez de Toledo and Charles I in Vienna. During this period, Boscán had made serious progress in his mastery of verse in the Italian style.

Boscà is most famous for the incorporation of hendecasyllable verses into Spanish. Although he was preceded by Íñigo López de Mendoza, 1st Marquess of Santillana, who wrote 42 sonnets in the Italian style, Boscà was one of the first people to use the present-day structures of the sonnet in Castilian. His originality and open-minded nature made him an innovator, and his use of hendecasyllabic verse gave his poetry a distinctly creative flare that allowed him to emphasize the emotions and significance of each poem.

In the 1520s he came under the influence of Andrea Navagiero, the Venetian ambassador to Spain. It is because of Navagiero's persuasion that Boscà abandoned the traditional eight-syllable verses of Spanish poetry. Boscán was also influenced by another Italian ambassador (a friend of Navagiero) named Count Baldassare Castiglione. Boscán was urged by Castiglione and Garcilaso to translate the ambassador's "Il Cortegiano" into Spanish, which was published on 2 April 1534 to great success.

With Boscán's fame came great controversy, because he constantly had to combat with those who preferred the old style of poetry over the new. In 1539, he married Ana Girón de Rebolledo of Valencia and fathered three daughters. Boscán died on 21 September 1542 after becoming ill in Perpignan, while he was preparing some of his poetry for publication."

Retrieved from the wikipedia website:http://wikipedia.org