biography
| name: |
Martínez de Toledo, Alfonso
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known as el Arcipreste de Talavera
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pronunciation:
[mah(r)teeneth tha
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (c.1398–c.1483)
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| biography:
| Prebendary of the Cathedral of Toledo (1448), born in Toledo, C Spain. He wrote Vidas de San Ildefonso y San Isidoro and a historical work, Atalaya de las crónicas, but his fame rests on the book conventionally known as the Corvacho (or Corbacho), despite his injunction that it should be called El Arcipreste de Talavera. The book, subtitled Reprobación del amor mundano (1438) was written when he was chaplain to Juan II. It is an attack on lust and is divided into four parts, unequal in length and importance. The first is a treatise against worldly love; the second a lively satire against women; the third and fourth contain much contemporary lore on astrology and the humours of men. It was influenced not by Boccaccio, as the title might indicate, but by French ‘fabliaux’ and the Llibre de les dones by the Catalan Francesc Eiximenis, a book popular in Barcelona when Martínez was there. Other sources include the third book of Andreas Capellanus' De amore. The style of El Corvacho is a mixture of Latinized and colloquial speech: the former typical of the 15th c; the latter, looking ahead to La Celestina, was a device perhaps taken from the practice of introducing vivid popular speech in sermons in order to hold the attention of the congregation. |
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