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"The Lucidario." In Encyclopedia of Medieval Iberia. New York: Garland Press,

2003. 519-520.

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 LUCID ARIO

itten in 1448 as a consolation to mark the Cr6nica Najerense and Cr6nica latina de las reyes de
Jrisonment of a cousin by don Alvaro de Castilla. However, for his twelfth and thirteen-century
; the climax of the theme of Fortune in his narrative he employed sources now apparently lost. He
ntradistinction to the difficult allegory of does not utilize Historia Compostelana or Chronica
eta, Bias, the Greek philosopher who is Adefonsi Jmperatoris.
erson for Santillana, makes his views on In addition to earlier but lost chronicles as such,
the world clearly known. The Doctrinal he also freely employed epic materials. That of Ber-
1al vindictive side of Lopez de Mendoza's nardo del Carpio first appears in Lucas' s text. He also
which he employs Fortune and confession incorporates epic materials dealing with the reigns of
varo de Luna, his dead enemy, denounce Sancho II of Castile (r. 1065-1072) and Alfonso VI
isgressions. of Leon and Castile (r. 1065-1109). There are also
.6pez de Mendoza died in 1458, the event minor tales, including that of the pilgrimage of Louis
contemporaries to write a number of ele- VII of France to Santiago de Compostela in 1154.
her literary compositions to mourn his Writing slightly later, Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada incor-
porated these materials almost verbatim into his De
E. MICHAEL GERL! rebus Hispaniae and from there they became the com-
mon property of subsequent historians.
iy BERNARD F. REILLy

a obra literaria de! Marques de Santillana.

1959. Bibliography
? Mendoza Family in the Spanish Renaissance,
Reilly, B. F. "Sources of the Fourth Book of Lucas of Tuy' s
)50. Rutgers, NJ., 1979.
Chronicon Mundi." Classical Folia 30 (1976), 127-37.
! bibliotheque du marquis de Santillane. Paris,
Tuy, L. de "Chronicon Mundi ab Origine Mundi usque ad
Eram MCCLXXIV." In Hispaniae Illustratae. Ed. An-
dreas Schottus. Frankfurt, 1608, 1-116.
rTUY
iy (fl. thirteenth century) was the bishop
see of Tuy in Galicia on the Portuguese LUCIDARIO
.veen 1239 and 1249 where he had also The Latin Elucidarium, composed around 1095 by An-
er scolarum and canon just previously. His selm of Canterbury's disciple Honorius Augustodu-
.vas not particularly significant and he is nensis (c. 1075-c. 1156), was a highly popular work
; chiefly as an author. Lucas was likely a translated soon after its creation into every major Euro-
r of the city of Leon or its environs and, pean language. The Castilian version, the Lucidario,
une to Tuy, had been a canon and deacon was commissioned by Sancho IV (r. 1284-1295)
~dral of Leon. While in that position, he around 1293 and forms a complement to the other
a translatio detailing the movement in the minor encyclopedic works from the reign of the second
itury of the relics of St. Isidore of Seville son of Alfonso el Sabio: the Castigos e documentos
:y to the great shrine church built for them and a translation of Brunetto Latini' s Li Livres dou
1ere as well he also wrote an apologetic tresor. Lucidario is extant in five manuscript copies
: the Albigensian heresy. ranging from the late fourteenth or early fifteenth to
vorks may have brought him to the atten- the early sixteenth centuries. Like the original Elucida-
~ueen Mother Berenguela, former wife of rium and its vernacular congeners, the Castilian rendi-
of Leon, who asked him to compile a his- tion is couched in the form of a dialogue between a
~alm. The result was his most famous work, master and his pupil wherein the student poses a ques-
Mundi, composed before 1238. A world tion to which the master duly responds with a conven-
form, the work largely follows Isidore of tional answer based on the interplay between the fun-
he earlier period and only with the fourth damental medieval doctrines of lex naturalis or laws
covers the time from the Muslim invasion of nature and lex theologiae or laws of God. In this
t to the recapture of Cordoba by Fernando respect, the work was a highly successful attempt to
is it of independent interest. Lucas ex- reconcile the pagan Aristotelian scientific corpus with
ly from the chronicles of the Alfonso III the essential canons of Christian dogma. As such, the
Historia Silense, and from Cr6nica del Castilian Lucidario became a standard text of Christian
Pelayo. It is possible, as well, that he used orthodoxy at the level of the cathedral schools where

519
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LUCIDARIO

it was utilized as a most effective if rather limited and ence to augment their power at the expens
rudimentary mode of instructing Christian cosmogony crown. (In later years the king would be co
and cosmography. In the process of reproducing and by the nobles with rumors of their homosex
translating the primitive text of the Elucidarium, tionship). Luna, however, remained confide1
scribes frequently incorporated additional questions king's support and relied heavily on the ba
and answers which were then suitably accommodated others who associated the crown's interests \1
and passed on as if they had been part of the original own, namely the lower and middle layers of
work, thus accounting for the variety of contents found Luna brilliantly exploited the concerns and as
in the extant Castilian codices of the Lucidario, which of the non-noble sectors of society and, at t
range from 59 to 113 chapters. The title Lucidario time, sought to increase his own influence a~
eventually came to be used as a generic term for a centralize the power of the monarchy. As a r
variety of encyclopedic works cast in the master-disci- undermined the power of the cortes (parliam
ple format of question and answer. Today its value the local municipalities, as he gathered more 2
resides precisely in that aspect of the text that made it power for the crown and for himself. The ki
so popular during the Middle Ages: the certainty that remained largely disinterested in affairs of s
it accurately reflects the orthodox Christian views of came a virtual pawn of the ambitious Luna.
the average Spaniard between the thirteenth century In 1420 Luna, who had been elevated to c
and the demise of Aristotelianism some four hundred been given large estates, rescued the king j
years later when, in testament to the esteem it contin- lnfantes de Aragon, who had seized the mon
ued to enjoy, an abbreviated Latin translation based on taken him to Talavera de la Reina. The Infante
the Castilian version was made by Padre Juan Eusebio ers of Alfonso V of Aragon, were closely all
Nieremberg (1595-1658). the Castilian nobles who sought to curb the I
RICHARD P. KINKADE the monarchy in the kingdom. Both had reg
tions themselves and looked to protect their
Bibliography enormous interests in Castile. Luna was made
stable of Castile in 1423, a step which greatly i
Kinkade, R. (ed.) Los "Lucidarios" espafioles. Madrid,
his power and influence by making them offic
1968.
"Sancho IV: Puente literario entre Alfonso el Sabio y Juan
move provoked the nobles and the lnfantes to
Manuel." Publications ofthe Modem Language Associ- their efforts against him, which met with su
ation 87 (1972), 1039-51. 1427, when they and the other nobles forced
to exile Luna. Neither the king nor the nobl1
ever, were capable of governing Castile witho
LUNA, ALVARO DE whose talents had ensured his indispensabili
Don Alvaro, as he is commonly referred to, was the result, he was quickly recalled and fully reinst~
illegitimate son of a minor noble of Aragonese origin Castilian victory in the war against Aragon (1
by the same name. He was born in Castile at Canete only restored but amplified Luna's power ai
in 1388, and his mother was from that village. When ence.
his father died in 1395, Alvaro was taken in by his Luna seemed unstoppable. At one point,
uncle, Juan Martinez de Luna. In 1408 Alvaro de Luna tery of the military Order of Santiago was c
was sent to court to further his education. There he upon him after it had been stripped from thf
was known for his elegance and wit, and quickly be- Enrique, heir to the throne. With this new I
came the friend, companion, and favorite of Prince hand, Luna began to campaign against the
Juan, the considerably younger boy who had inherited south and led the Castilians to an important v
the throne during infancy and would become Juan II, the battle of La Higueruela in 1431. The nob
king of Castile. From their earliest days together, Luna sided over by the Manrique and Enriquez clans
and the king were constant companions and confi- ued to resist Luna and plot against him at c<
dantes. Fearing the worst of the association, the young though their efforts led to a second exile in
prince's mother, the Queen Regent Catalina de Lancas- 1445 Luna had been restored to favor and hac
ter, arranged to have Luna removed from court in 1415. the nobles a resounding defeat at the battle of
Juan was miserable without his friend's company, and Only King Juan's second wife, Isabel of I
Luna was quickly recalled. By 1418, when Catalina managed to rid the kingdom of Luna. With the
had died, Luna and the king's relationship had grown ration of the nobles, especially the conde de I
to the point that it inspired both public gossip and pri- the marques de Santillana, she persuaded the
vate envy among many of the nobles, who sought influ- arrest Luna and condemn him to death. He w

520