Collection of proverbs by Marquis de Santillana and his contribution to the formation of the Pyrenean paremiological tradition

Bakanova Anna Valentinovna PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Ibero-Romanic Language Studies, Faculty of Philology, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, g. Moscow, ul. Leninskie Gory, 1, of. 1GUM asia_sim@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Terent'eva Ekaterina Dmitrievna ORCID: 0000-0001-9654-5192 PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 10/2 Miklukho-Maklaya str., Moscow, 117198, Russia terentyeva-ed@rudn.ru

The development of Spanish Renaissance ideas follows the pan–European humanist movement, which originated, as is well known, in Italy and reached its apogee by the XV-XVI centuries. During this period, public sentiment in Europe had a pronounced humanistic orientation, and researchers' interest in national languages and literatures, as well as oral folk art, was growing.

The 15th century is an important stage in the development of the Spanish paremiological school, despite the fact that the tradition of publishing collections of proverbs and sayings dates back to the Middle Ages: «La riqueza paremiográfica española se aprecia en el elevado número de colecciones editadas de forma continuada desde la Edad Media hasta nuestros días, si bien no se conservan muchos repertorios medievales ^[16]. Spain is gradually entering an era of cultural and scientific flourishing, prepared by significant political and economic events: the unification of Castile and Aragon, the completion of the Reconquista, the discovery of the New World. All this allows Spain to actively join the humanist movement, since, as Antonio de Nebrija emphasizes in the preface to the first grammar of the Castilian language (1492) ^[15], the flourishing of the state is always accompanied by the flourishing of language and culture.

The system of folklore genres in the Romance languages began to take shape in the Middle Ages, and in the early stages popular folklore motifs were used, rather than individual genre forms. In the Renaissance, folklore texts are found fragmentally in collections of didactic, historical and religious nature, as well as as samples of folk speech in author's literary works. Despite the obvious intersections of folklore and literature, we are talking about different artistic methods: "In the process of historical development, two systems of literary and artistic creativity have been formed within the framework of fiction - folklore and fiction. They were united by a common – verbal-artistic – way of embodying an art object. At the same time, folklore and literature have been representing two different worldviews and two different artistic methods since their inception. They also oppose each other as two, to a certain extent, independent genre systems" ^{[7, p. 14]}.

It should be noted that both medieval and early Renaissance terminology are very arbitrary. Thus, a short narrative is designated historia, narración or relato, the moral character of the text is emphasized by the terms ejemplo, apólogo or fábula, heroic – hazaña, fictional – patraña, etc. In this series, the term proverbio is also used, which indicates in the modern system of Spanish folklore one of the minor genres – the proverb. Such a variety of terminology indicates the conventionality of genre boundaries in the period under review.

During the Renaissance, researchers focused on small forms of folklore, such as proverbs and sayings. To denote them in Spanish, the terms refrán, proverbio, beforismo, locución, dialogismo, etc. are used, and the main content of the genre is human knowledge and experience, expressed in a concise linguistic form: "La paremiología viene ya desde hace largo tiempo descripiendo cómo los refranes dejan entrever diferentes aspectos del bagaje cultural de una sociedad. El hombre hace uso de su ingenio y del poder de la palabra para expresar sus valoraciones sobre el mundo que lo rodea» ^[20].

Since the end of the 15th century, small folklore genres have been published in Spain in separate collections, which are voluminous dictionaries containing in some cases up to 4-5 thousand examples. In these collections, the authors cite proverbs and sayings in ancient classical and young Romance languages, reflecting the richness of both folk and book traditions. In most cases, the texts are arranged in alphabetical order and accompanied by author's comments. Some popular expressions are repeated from collection to collection, eventually forming a Pyrenean and all-Roman folklore corpus. First of all, we are talking about the works of such authors as Hernán Núñez, Pedro Vallés, Juan de Mal Lara: "La llegada del Renacimiento supone el afán por recopilar paremias, tanto de uso culto como popular, lo que se refleja en voluminosas colecciones de enunciados breves y sentenciosos. Así, es la época de la publicación de refraneros considerados clásicos para la paremiografía españolas, como los de Pedro Vallés (1555), Hernán Núñez (1555) o Juan de Mal Lara (1568)» ^[16]. One of the first collections of parodies published in Spain is considered to be the work of the Marquis de Santillana (Marqués de Santillana) "Refranes … que diçen las viejas tras el fuego» (1549): «una obra esencial para comprender la paremiografía española, se trata de los refranes recopilados por Íñigo López de Mendoza, el Marqués de Santillana. Durante mucho tiempo se creyó que era la colección más antigua en lengua vulgar, pero siendo el primer refranero impreso en España» ^[16].

In Spain, the Renaissance is developing under the influence of two traditions: Italian and Northern European. Another "significant feature of the Spanish Renaissance must be recognized as the lack of a broad base for the development of humanism in the country [...]. Rather, we are talking about individuals (Fernando de Cordova, Enrique de Villena, Marquis de Santillana, Juan de Lucena and many others) who, during the period of the destruction of medieval foundations, are searching for a new path, relying on the philosophical, moral and aesthetic views of ancient authors, church fathers and medieval philosophers" ^{[10, p. 19]}.

Representatives of the Spanish aristocratic and literary circles are actively engaged in the humanities, collect rich libraries, and form cultural communities. The allocation of cultural centers such as Seville, Toledo and Valencia, the emergence of a number of large universities and the development of book printing also played an important role in the public life of Spain. Italy's influence affects various spheres of life, and the conquest of Naples by Alfonso V leads to an even greater rapprochement between the two countries, to the point that noble Spanish families send their heirs to Italy to receive education. The fascination with Italian models is one of the main features of Spanish literature of this period, Spanish writers show a deep interest in the works of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and also turn to antiquity and its key authors – poets and philosophers.

The influence of Northern European humanism, inspired by the authority of the Dutch thinker Erasmus of Rotterdam, is expressed, among other things, in an increased interest in small folklore genres. Among his works, a special place is occupied by the collection of proverbs and sayings "Adagii" and the collection of short sayings "Apophthegmata", focusing on which representatives of Spanish humanism begin to pay special attention to the folklore heritage and find in the folk tradition a source of national identity and linguistic wealth. Erasmus of Rotterdam cites proverbs of Greek and Latin origin and also mentions several Dutch catch phrases. Special value is attached to the collection by the author's comments and examples, which in some cases reach the volume of a small essay. The collection of proverbs by Erasmus of Rotterdam had a huge impact on the European folklore tradition and helped to arouse interest in ancient wisdom. Spanish humanists were familiar with his writings, so Juan de Valdés focuses on them, referring to Spanish parodies as examples of correct usage in his work "Dialogo de la lengua" (1535-36) ^[19].

The influence of humanistic traditions affects not only the activities of folklore collectors and the authors of the first grammatical works, but also the literary process of Spain. Over time, the poetic genre system changes, and aristocratic forms of poetry begin to be interspersed with examples of folk satirical genres: "the works of poets have come down to us in the collective collections cancioneros (songbooks). Especially significant are the Cancionero de Baena and Cancionero Stúñiga, in which the authors clearly fall into two groups: supporters of the old Galician-Portuguese school and representatives of new trends coming from Italy. Hence the stylistic diversity of the collections, the clash of old lyrical forms in it – villancico, serranilla, etc. with new ones that came from Italy – sonnet, canzone, etc." ^[8].

The fascination with Italian versification was noted for the first time in the work of the famous poet, paremiologist and public figure of the Proto-Renaissance Marquis de Santillana (real name Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza y de la Vega). Santillana is also the author of the epistle to Portuguese Constable Don Pedro of Portugal "Proemio e carta al condestable don Pedro de Portugal" ^[18], which is considered the first work on the theory of poetry in the Castilian language. Written in 1449, it contains information about the development of the European literary tradition, a comparative analysis of poetic styles, as well as an assessment of the Pyrenean folklore heritage.

The Marquis de Santillana (1398-1458) was active during the reign of King Juan II of Castile. Santillana came from a noble family, starting from the 14th century. representatives of this talented family served King Alfonso XI, and then Juan II. Santillana's father and grandfather held high positions and increased the family fortune.: «Su abuelo, Pero González de Mendoza, es conocido por su valentía en la batalla de Aljubarrota (1385); su padre, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, fue Almirante Mayor de Castillo y poseyó una de las más importantes fortunas de la época» ^[16]. On his mother's side, Santillana was related to the royal house and many famous Spanish writers, including Lopez de Ayala, Perez de Guzman, Gomez Manrique and others. All this later allowed him to make a brilliant military and literary career, as well as become one of the most influential people of his time. There is little evidence of Santillana's personal qualities, but both contemporaries and researchers of his work speak highly positively of him: a brave, modest, sensitive man with a big heart ("gozó de una vida sumamente intensa y de una gran personalidad. No solo sobresale por ser un gran militar sino por muchas virtudes: valentía, agudeza, discreción y humanidad» ^[16]). The versatility of his creative nature is noted: "a brilliant statesman, courtier and warrior, educator and philanthropist, poet who tried his pen in many fields of literature – from folk (traditional) to learned genres. His contemporaries already considered him the ideal embodiment of the armas y letras union" ^[9].

It is known that Santillana begins her career at the Aragonese court, where she maintains friendly relations with the Aragonese nobility and court troubadour poets: Enrique de Villena, Jordi de Sant Jordi, and Auzias Marc. In her literary and poetic activity, Santillana relies on the ancient tradition, focusing on the works of such authors as Seneca, Homer, Virgil, and Aristotle. He does not ignore the work of the Italian Renaissance writers, as well as Galician, Provencal, and French poets.

Being an admirer of the Italian humanistic traditions, Santillana was the first to use the sonnet form in Castilian versification (his 42 sonnets in the Italian manner "Sonetos fechos al itálico modo" are known, among them: "Clara por nombre, por obra e virtud", "Sitio de amor con gran artillería", "En el próspero tiempo de las serenas"). "An analysis of similar toposes ("distant love", "praise the lady"), stable motifs, and poetic language allow us to conclude that Santillana's sonnets demonstrate the birth of a special genre consciousness not by borrowing or introducing new poetic models (Petrarch or stylistic, which are presented only sporadically), but by refraction through a new author's introspective optics of traditional courtly topos" ^[9].

Another source of inspiration is Spanish folk poetry, filled with satire and humor (estos romances y cantares de que las gentes de baja y servil condición se alegran) and, in particular, the serranilla genre, combining Spanish rhythmics with a pastoral plot: "Las serranas y las serranillas se convierte en objeto de deseo del caballero medieval o renacentista, en motivo de inspiración poética que continua los patrones del verso cortés. Late en muchos de los versos la sumisión a la dama, el rendir vasallaje a la mujer como señora altiva y vigilante de la montaña, de un lugar adverso que se trata de pasar y traspasar. De un amor cortés que tiene su origen en Provenza y en las Pastorelas italianas, en las cántigas galegas del amigo. Las serranas son, sin duda, una figura literaria clave, cuya presencia se prolonga en la poesía española casi hasta el Romanticismo» ^[17]. Santillana is particularly interested in proverbs and sayings of the Spanish language, which he publishes in a separate dictionary and comments on in detail ("Glosas a los proverbios").

Several letters have also been preserved in Santillana's literary legacy. Among them, it is important to focus in more detail on the text of the epistle to the Constable Don Pedro of Portugal, which, as already mentioned, is essentially the first Spanish poetics and in which Santillana examines in detail the issues of literary history and theory. In it, he also notes the importance of folklore tradition, mentions some folklore genres, and explores folklore motifs of creativity.

The purpose of his letter to the Constable Don Pedro of Portugal, Santillana designates as follows: at the request of the king, he will try to introduce the infante to such genre forms as decires and canciones. Cancion and desir are common genres preserved in Spanish song collections, the main difference between which lies in the more diverse thematic content of dezir compared to the emotional coloring of the song. Santillana, in his usual modest manner ("de tanta insuficiencia estas obretas mías"), notes in a letter that these genre forms do not deserve special attention.: «no son de tales materias, ni así bien formadas y artizadas». And if such texts may seem funny and useful to the court youth along with other forms of entertainment, they certainly cannot appeal to Santillana himself as an experienced connoisseur of literature: "Y así, señor, muchas cosas placen ahora a vos que ya no placen o no deben placer a mí." However, Santillana is pleased with the fact that the infante shows interest in poetry– an art that, in his opinion, is accessible only to exalted and noble souls: "nunca esta ciencia de poesía y gaya ciencia buscaron ni se hallaron sino en los animos gentiles, claros ingenios y elevados espíritus."

In the letter, Santillana also compares poetry and prose, putting the former above the latter. He emphasized the beauty of poetic form, harmony of rhyme and size: "me esfuerzo a decir el metro ser antes en tiempo, y de mayor perfección y más autoridad que la suelta prosa." Santillana continues to talk about the history of versification since ancient times, noting the contribution to the poetic art of both biblical characters ("el primero que hizo rimas o canto en metro haya sido Moisés") and poets of antiquity ("De los griegos quieren sean los primeros Acatesio Milesio y, aprés de él, Ferécides Siro y Homero, no obstante que Dante 'soberano poeta' lo llama"). Santillana also mentions the Italian authors he most respected and their works – the sonnets of Petrarch ("sus églogas y muchos sonetos"), the poetry of Bocaccio ("Juan Bocacio, poeta excelente y orador insigne"), the lines of Dante's "Divine Comedy" ("Dante escribió en tercia rima elegantemente las sus tres comedias Infierno, Purgatorio y Paraíso").

After paying tribute to the representatives of Italian literature, Santillana proceeds to describe the various levels of mastery in poetry. He identifies three main levels ("tres grados, es a saber: sublime, mediocre e iñfimo") and provides examples of works and authors for each level. Santillana places at the lowest level those who create for the needs of the crowd, without observing either rules or order ("Iñfimos son aquellos que sin ningún orden, regla ni cuento hacen estos romances y cantares"). It can be noted that Santillana's assessment of the oral folk tradition is twofold: on the one hand, Santillana speaks negatively about romances y cantares, which are popular with the common people, on the other, she supports the already established folklore genre forms. Thus, he cites as a positive example the genre of the epithalama, a wedding song of Greek ritual origin ("son cantares que en loor de los novios en las bodas se cantan").

Of particular interest is the part of the letter in which Santillana attempts to highlight the distinctive features of existing national poetic traditions. Comparing the features of versification in Romance languages, Santillana highly appreciates Occitan and Italian poetry and notes Catalan, Valencian and Aragonese poetic art ("Los catalanes, valencianos y aun algunos del reino de Aragón fueron y son grandes oficiales de esta arte").

Santillana also pays attention to Spanish literature and praises the style of such works as "Libro de Alexandre", "Libro de Buen Amor" by Juan Ruiz, "Rimado de Palacio" by Pero Lopez de Ayala and "Peacock's Vows" by Juan Lorenzo Segura ("Entre nosotros usose primeramente el metro en asaz formas, así como el Libro de Alexandre, Los votos del pavón y aun el Libro del Arcipreste de Hita, y aun de esta guisa escribió Pero López de Ayala el Viejo un libro que hizo de las maneras del Palacio y llamaron las Rimas"). But no region of Spain can, according to Santillana, boast such a deep knowledge of the art of arte mayor as Galicia and Portugal ("Y después hallaron esta arte que 'mayor' se llama y el arte común, creo, en los reinos de Galicia y de Portugal, donde no es de dudar que el ejercicio de estas ciencias más que en ningunas otras regiones y provincias de la España").

Talking about his own style, Santillana admits that even as a child he was able to absorb the Galician-Portuguese folklore tradition (cantigas, serranas y decires portugueses y gallegos). His interest in folklore leads Santillana to publish the dictionary of proverbs and sayings "Refranes … que diçen las viejas tras el fuego; e van ordenados por la orden del A, B, C" (1549). The researchers note that the edition of the collection of paremias was prepared by Santillana by order of King Juan II.

Santillana's authorship was repeatedly questioned in the twentieth century, for example, in the works of W. Cronan, whose main argument was that the aristocrat Santillana could not have been so deeply interested in folklore tradition: "En 1911, Urban Cronan pone en duda tal paternidad, lo que provoca una viva polémica. Cronan estima que no hay argumentos suficientes para atribuir esta obra al Marqués de Santillana [...] un aristócrata como Íñigo López de Mendoza no sentiría inclinación alguna por la sabiduría popular cristalizada en los refranes» ^[16]. Other researchers of the history of Spanish literature, on the contrary, spoke in favor of Santillana's authorship, among them Rafael Lapesa: "Otros eruditos, en cambio, Fermín Sánchez Escribano (1942) y Rafael Lapesa (1957: 261) están a favor de la partenidad del Marqués" ^[16].

In their opinion, Santillana's authorship is supported by the fact that the collection has never appeared as anonymous, although the first edition mentioned by Juan de Mal Lara has not been preserved. Navascuez believes that the idea of compiling a collection of proverbs belongs exclusively to Juan II, and Santillana acts only as a performer: "Así no consideramos como folklorista al Marqués de Santillana, sino al rey, y de esta forma Podemos dar explicación al cómo, siendo Lopez de Mendoza enemigo declarado de la producción popular, coleccionó, no obstante los refranes" ^{[14, p. 32]}. Nevertheless, the collection of Santillana, containing 4,225 folklore units with comments by the author, is still considered, if not the first, then one of the earliest collections of proverbs and sayings published in Spain and preserved to this day: "una obra esencial para comprender la paremiografía española [...]. Por estos motivos, merece estar en la Biblioteca fraseológica y paremiológica» ^[16].

Santillana's collection was loved by the public and went through many reprints, especially in the first half of the 16th century. Spanish researchers consider this fact surprising, since nowhere in Europe during this period was there such an interest in collecting and publishing proverbs and sayings. Small folklore genres were perceived rather as a sign of the language of the uneducated segments of the population, incompatible with a return to the classical tradition, despite the authority of the Northern Renaissance and the famous collection of proverbs by Erasmus of Rotterdam: "Este hecho es realmente sorprendente, porque esto ocurría en España mientras en otros países de Europa, con la llegada del Renacimiento, se daba la espalda a los refranes, que eran considerados cosa del vulgo y poco compatible con la renovación de la cultura en su vuelta al Clasicismo. Y eso, a pesar de la muy importante aportación de Erasmo con su magnífica obra Adagiorum chiliades quatuor» ^[16].

In the title of the collection, Santillana points to the folk origin of the units represented in it, referring to the image of poor old women whiling away time at the hearth (Refranes … que diçen las viejas tras el fuego), for which the work was unfairly ridiculed more than once in the future.: «Se ha criticado a veces el carácter popular que se da a los refranes y se ha tratado de ridiculizar esa para nosotros preciosa característica que surge de la observacón «que dizen las viejas tras el fuego». Para nosotros, resulta no sólo simpático sino también muy significativo, porque, en efecto, no sólo en aquellos ya lejanos tiempos de finales del siglo XV y principios del XVI, sino también en nuestros días las «viejas» eran y son como un archivo muy rico y muy valioso de refranes» ^[16]. This feature distinguishes the collection from other folklore dictionaries of the period, which show a tendency to mix Roman and antique catch phrases.

The idea of the value of the texts of the oral folk tradition in the same period is formulated in the "Dialogue on Language" by Juan de Valdez: "para considerer la propiedad de la lengua castellana, lo mejor que los refranes tienen es ser nacidos en el vulgo" ^[19]. Valdez divides the parodies by their origin: on the one hand, he talks about folklore texts collected from the mouths of the people, on the other, he mentions proverbs and sayings that came from antiquity and are not directly related to the Spanish oral tradition. Comparing these two types of texts, Valdez comes to an unequivocal conclusion about the importance of the Castilian paremias. Like Santillana, he uses the image of elderly women sitting at work by the fire: "los castellanos son tomados de dichos vulgares, los más de ellos nacidos y criados entre viejas, tras del fuego hilando sus ruecas" ^[19].

If we talk about the thematic content of Santillana's collection, it can be noted that the texts of proverbs and sayings collected by him cover almost the entire variety of life situations. For example, issues of morality and life experience are raised, as in the famous parodies in Russian: It's good to fish in muddy water. A well-fed man does not understand a hungry man. Whoever has the power is right. Every cricket knows its own pole. You can't easily fish a fish out of a pond. Seven nannies have a child without an eye. It is better to have a bird in your hand than a crane in the sky (A ri o revuelto, ganancia de pescadores. Al hombre harto, las cerezas le amargan. Allá van leyes do quieren reyes. Cada gorrión con su espigón. No hay atajo sin trabajo. Asno de muchos, lobos lo comen. Más vale pájaro en mano que buitre volando).

Of interest are also proverbs and sayings about mother-in-law, which are very common in different languages, the main message of which is that a mother-in-law cannot be kind in any way (Suegra, ni de barro buena. Let's compare it in Russian. The dashing mother-in-law also has eyes from behind).

A separate place is occupied by numerous examples of folk wisdom related to issues of human communication, correspondence between word and deed, etc.: A buen entendedor, pocas palabras. A dos palabras, tres pedradas. Boca que dice que no, dice que sí. Decir y hacer, no es para todos hombres. Más vale saber que haber.

Such an important area of human life as finance (to borrow or lend, earn, steal, the money-power dichotomy), and related character traits are not ignored: A dineros tomados, brazos quebrados. Duerme quien duerme, y no duerme quien algo debe. Quien dinero tiene, alcanza lo que quiere.

The traditional themes of such collections are also descriptions of various occupations and professions (comparable to the Russian Shoemaker without boots): Barbero, loco o parlero.

It should also be mentioned that Santillana's collection contains many sayings about witches and witches: Hadas malas me hicieron negra, que yo blanca era. Hadas malas y corazón ancho. Los pollos de Marta piden pan, y danles agua. Evil fairies (hadas malas) in Spanish folklore traditionally appear as golden-haired beauties sitting by the water. They can steal other people's children and take care of animals, and next to them is often depicted a golden hen with golden chickens (comparable to the golden egg in Russian fairy tales): "Consta de otro gran número de historias, en que la gallina es de oro, y son de oro asimismo los polluelos..." ^{[14, p. 210]}. Let us also recall the famous European fairy tale story about the Sleeping Beauty, known in a later edition by Sh. Perrault and the brothers Grimm: "These lower deities fully justify the origin of their name from the Latin fatum – fate. [...] Already in Juan Ruiz (1283 – c. 1350), the Book of Good Love speaks of the powers of fadas alvas, white fairies who bring good luck, beauty and other virtues from birth, in the texts of the first third of the XIV century. black fairies who send troubles and diseases are also mentioned" ^{[5, p. 232]}.

To summarize, I would like to emphasize the contribution of the Marquis de Santillana collection to the science of folklore at an early stage of its formation and note the deeply folk basis of his work, reflecting various aspects of the national worldview of the Spaniards, where folk faith in common sense, talent and professionalism is combined with witchcraft, fortune-telling and superstition. It should also be noted that the texts from the collection of Santillana in the following centuries became sources of examples and knowledge about the Spanish folk tradition in the works of many Spanish folklorists, having already been laid in the XV century. the basis for the formation of the paremiological foundation of the Spanish language: "Los primeros vestigios seguros del Folklore hispano los encontramos en el siglo XV, representado en las colecciones de refranes y de costumbres que entonces se hicieron" ^{[14, p. 32]}.

Interest in proverbs and sayings on the Iberian Peninsula originates in the first collections of romance texts and reached unprecedented peaks during the Renaissance. Gradually, collections of proverbs and sayings of Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician origin, together with texts inherited from the Greek-Latin tradition, form a common base of folk wisdom, where researchers of subsequent centuries draw inspiration.