Juan de Mena


 

Juan de Mena, (b. 1411, Córdoba—d. 1456, Torrelaguna, Castile), poet who was a forerunner of the Renaissance in Spain.

Mena belonged to the literary court of King John II of Castile, where he was renowned for the Latin erudition he had acquired at the University of Salamanca and in Italy. He is best known for his poem El laberinto de Fortuna (1444; “The Labyrinth of Fortune”), also called Las trescientas (“The Three Hundreds”) for its length; it is a complex work that owes much to Lucan, Virgil, and Dante. Writing in arte mayor, lines of 12 syllables that lend themselves to stately recitation, Mena sought to make the Spanish language a literary vehicle adequate to his epic vision of Spain and her mission. His themes are medieval, but his use of Latinisms and rhetorical devices and his references to classical personages suggest an affinity to the new manner of expression that came to be associated with the Renaissance.