José Pellicer de Ossau Salas y Tovar
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José Pellicer de Ossau y Tovar (26 April 1602 – 16 December 1679) was a Spanish publicist for Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, poet, genealogist, and historian of Castile and Aragon.
Life
[edit]José Pellicer was born in Zaragoza. He studied Grammar in Consuegra under Juan García Genzor and later moved to Salamanca, where he studied Canon Law at the University. He went on to study Philosophy at the University of Alcalá; On 11 May 1620 he married Sebastiana de Ocáriz, by whom he had five children: Marco Antonio, Hipólito Raimundo, Enrique Manuel, Luisa María and Antonia Josefa.
In addition to being a renowned Latinist, he mastered classical Greek, Hebrew, Italian and French. In 1629 he was appointed chronicler of the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon, a position previously held by Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola and his brother Bartolomé Leonardo. In 1640 he was named Chief Chronicler of King Philip IV.
An expert genealogist, he also stood out as a historian and writer of literary works, especially poetry. He published a commentary on Luis de Góngora in 1630, and his own poetry was influenced by that of Góngora. Pellicer corresponded with the archeologist and poet Rodrigo Caro.[1]
As a man of letters he is most known for his polemical writings, and his poems on historical and mythological subjects, such as the Rapto de Ganímedes (1624), or the Poema de Lucrecia (1622). His Spanish translations of John Barclay's Argenis (1626) was highly praised by Baltasar Gracián.
His Avisos históricos, which recount current events occurred from May 1639 to November 1644, are considered an early example of Spanish journalism.[2] The Avisos históricos report a wide range of national and international news and represent an important source of political and social information for the history of contemprary Spain.
Pellicer died in Madrid on 16 December 1679.[3]
Works
[edit]- Lecciones solemnes a las obras de Don Luis de Góngora y Argote, 1630
- Anfiteatro de Felipe el Grande, 1631
- Avisos históricos, ed. Enrique Tierno Galván, 1965
References
[edit]
- ^ Pascual Barea, Joaquín, “Veterum Hispaniae deorum Manes siue reliquiae: noticias del tratado de Rodrigo Caro sobre la religión antigua en Hispania”, Noua et uetera: Nuevos horizontes de la Filología Latina. Madrid: Sociedad de Estudios Latinos, 2002,1049-1064 (1050).
- ^ See Enrique Tierno Galván (ed.), Avisos históricos, Madrid, Taurus (col. Ser y Tiempo. Temas de España, vol. 31), 1965.
- ^ Germán Bleiberg; Maureen Ihrie; Janet Pérez (1993). Dictionary of the Literature of the Iberian Peninsula. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 1247. ISBN 978-0-313-28732-9.
