JUAN DE MENA: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

Juan de Mena (1411-1456) was a renowned writer of Spanish origin who mainly stood out for writing poems with cultured content, almost always represented by a figure or image that referred to something specific, that is, an allegory. The Labyrinth of Fortuna his most famous work.

Mena's poetry was loaded with a high moral content, and specifically belonged to the 15th century, the time of the Pre-Renaissance of Spanish literature. It is important to note that he was the first writer to propose the creation of a literary language in poetry, totally isolated from the vulgarism of the time.

Portrait of Juan de Mena (on the right). Source: By sd, via Wikimedia Commons

Mena managed to substitute words from Latin to Spanish, to give her writings a more romantic connotation. Each innovation and renovation gave more sonority to the verses.

With the poetic and musical language of Juan de Mena in each of his works, expressiveness stood out as the main resource. It is considered the best reference for the development of poetry that emerged in Spanish literature.

Biography

Juan de Mena was born in Córdoba in 1411. As in many writers of past centuries, not much information is known about his life. There are no sources that determine who his parents were; however it is believed that he lost his parents while still a child.

Some sources affirm that he was the grandson of Ruy Fernández de Peñalosa y Mena, who was Lord of Almenara, and that in turn Juan was the son of Pedrarias. Mena's father would have died when he was born. Mena had an older brother, who would later be known in the position of Twenty-four or Councilor.

Related to the monarchy

He graduated from the University of Salamanca with the title of Master of Arts. He served as an employee of Latin letters in the reign of Juan II of Castile, and at the same time as the ruler of the city of Córdoba.

He always remained linked to the monarchy. In 1445 he became the official chronicler of the Spanish kingdom. With the Marquis of Santillana Íñigo López de Mendoza, he shared his affinity for literature and poetry.

Juan de Mena with King Juan II. Source: See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons

Some historians affirm that it was the Marquis who took care of all the expenses at the time of his death, precisely because of the friendship that united them. All this even when Mena received good payment from the royal coffers for his outstanding work.

Doubts about your marriage

Like almost his entire life, there are no precise data on his marriage. Some authors agree that he married a young woman belonging to a well-known family in Córdoba, but whose name is not even known, and with whom he had no children.

On the other hand, there are those who claim that he married Marina de Sotomayor for the second time. This is said with the nagging doubt as to whether this was really a wife or a lover. Whether or not she had children is a piece of information that is not recorded in the files that have to do with her life.

Opinions about Mena

Mena's outstanding work, still in its early days, earned her the opinion of various personalities of her time, who valued and admired her work.

The Spanish writer, humanist and historian Alfonso de Cartagena described it as follows: "You have lean flesh from the great vigils after the book…", meaning that he was tireless in studying and in poetry itself.

For his part, the humanist and ambassador of the Catholic Monarchs, Juan de Lucena, said that he was obsessed with poetry, and that he himself commented that because of so much delight he found in the trade, he even forgot to eat. Mena was absolutely passionate about writing and poetry.

Mena and her search for style

At first Juan de Mena did not have a precise metric style and therefore his poetry did not have a harmonic rhythm. He tried first with the little variability that the twelve-syllable verses gave.

Later he was finding in a determined way the orientation of his works towards a literary and romantic style.

Legacy

Mena was the writer who introduced a poetic and literary language to Castilian, leaving out the everyday vulgar and simple language that existed in his time. Many renovations are owed to him, including the fact that he introduced the hyperbaton, in order to achieve emphasis and meter in the verses.

He also incorporated new words into the language of the time, such as Latin variables to give more poetic meaning to his writings, displacing those of the colloquial or popular language. Something characteristic of his work is the use of esdrújulas words, which he considered gave a better sound to the writing.

Death of Mena

Juan de Mena died in 1456, in Torrelaguna (Madrid-Spain). As is known, it was his great friend the Marquis of Santillana, who took care of the funeral expenses. A chapel was erected in the church of the province.

Plays

Tomb of the poet Juan de Mena. Source: By KronosTorre, from Wikimedia Commons

Mena's prose and poetic work is extensive, however reference is made to perhaps nine manuscripts. Among them, the Labyrinth of Fortuna, also known as Las Trescientas, stands out for its composition and worldwide reach.

-Labyrinth of Fortune

It is considered his masterpiece, it is made up of 297 couplets. It is said that it is a poem dedicated to Juan II; It is inspired by Dante Alighieri's paradise in his Divine Comedy. It refers especially to the history and political life of the monarch's reign.

The content or argument goes as follows: the author himself is taken with violence to the chariot of the war goddess Bellona, ​​which was driven by dragons, and taken to the palace of Fortuna, which is an allegory to the goddess of luck. from Roman mythology.

Later, the world is shown to him in the past, present and future by means of a machine that has three large wheels. Each one of those wheels presents places related to mythology where different events take place.

The moral content is present throughout the work, through a language adapted for the time. Each of the verses has a greater art metric, which endow it with harmony and cadence.

The labyrinth is emphatic, loaded with solemnity. His style is ostentatious, elaborate and even pompous; the eloquence, the cultured language, and the amount of expressive symbols as well as comparisons and allegories make it the masterpiece and transcendental work of Juan de Mena.

It refers to the development of human and supernatural conditions that reveal the use of the imagination, without losing the certainty of the concrete.

His admiration for Álvaro de Luna

In addition, in this work, Mena shows how much admiration she feels for Count Don Álvaro de Luna, and dedicates some words of recognition to him, considered by far the most extensive dedicated to a person.

The author considered that he possessed all the qualities to face the political situations of the time.

The man of

Finally, The Labyrinth of Fortune was also known by the name of The Three Hundreds because of the number of verses it contained. Although at first there were 297, later John II asked him to make them as long as the days of the year, so the author added 24 more.

Fragment of

"E tears his face with cruel nails, fierce her breasts with little measure;

kissing her son's cold mouth, curse the hands of whoever killed him, curse the war to begin, seeks cruel complaints with anger, denies himself reparation of those

e just as dead biuiendo stops ".

-The Coronation or The Fifty

It is considered the first and greatest poetic work of this author, it was completed in the year 1438. It had as a kind of subtitle "Calamicleos", which is something like it is described in its introduction: a contract of misery and glory.

It is written in a more relaxed, less pompous language. In this work Mena does not use words from Latin. It is a work that is considered unfinished by many writers of the 15th century, since they assured that the author's time of death came without finishing what he had begun.

-Homer Romance

It was a prose work, written by Mena in 1442. It is a return to the Iliad. The author also dedicates it to King John II, and during the 15th century it achieved great success for its content, because it became a kind of substantial summary of the original work.

-Treaty on the title of the Duke

Written in 1445, it is a short work with the aim of praising the Spanish nobleman Juan de Guzmán after receiving the title of Duke of Medina Sidonia by the monarch Juan II. Its content is formal and chivalrous.

-Memory of some ancient lineages

It is perhaps the last prose work known to Juan de Mena, and it is dated 1448. It deals with the monarchical genealogy and the emblems that represented King Juan II. They are writings of which there are not many references.

It is considered that these memories were a request that Don Álvaro made to Mena, after having had knowledge of the praises that he professed in the labyrinth.

-Proemium to the Book of the Virtuous and Clear Women of Álvaro de Luna

This introduction to the Count of Castile's book was written in 1446. In this writing Juan de Mena highlights de Luna for his attitude of defense to women who had been offended in numerous publications.

The development of Mena's prose is framed in praising women, their characteristics and performance in society. She was totally opposed to the messages issued by those who were against the female gender, and they were despotic.

-Treaty of Love

It is a small treatise that does not specify if it was really written by de Mena. What is clear is that it is made explicit by the subject that is exposed in it. It has a high content of literary resources.

References

1. Juan de Mena. (2018). (Spain): Wikipedia. Recovered from: wikipedia.org
2. Juan de Mena. (2018). (N / a): Biographies and Lives. Recovered from: biogramasyvidas.com
3. Juan de Mena. (Sf). (N / a): Writers. Recovered from: writers.org
4. Juan de Mena. (Sf). (N / a): Mcn Biographies. Recovered from: mcnbiografias.com
5. The Life of Juan de Mena. (2005-2018). (N / a): Persee. Recovered from: persee.fr