Draft:Caballeria celestial

Celestial Cavalry is a Spanish book of chivalry , belonging to the so-called books of divine chivalry or spiritual chivalric narratives, written in two parts by the Valencian Jerónimo de Sampedro , also author of La Carolea . The author dedicated his work to Don Pedro Luis Galceran de Borja, Master of Montesa.

In a "proemial epistle to the benevolent reader," the author says that, the taste for reading in those times being so corrupted, people abandoned the sweet and profitable lesson of the Holy Scripture for that of profane books and pernicious customs. Knowing how he himself, blindly led by the blind, was falling into the quagmire of his deception, he turned his thoughts around and determined to cut off the time spent in vain lessons, employing the time he had left in writing true history. But, he adds, "warning that those who have an appetite for the lessons already mentioned would not come unwillingly to the banquet of these, having to go from one extreme to another, I proposed to feed them the partridge of this story, stirred up with the artifice of those that used to please them, because by gluttoning themselves more in it, they lose the taste of the fake ones, and abhorring them, they become fed with this one, which is not. So that after this pasture, as some parents are accustomed to recite to their children the lies of the knights of mockery, they will tell them and make them read the wonders of the real warriors where they will find drawn up, not a Round Table, but many; not a single adventure, but diverse fortunes; and this not by the ingenuity of Merlin or of Urganda the Unknown, but by the divine wisdom of the word son of God. They will also see, not the master Elisabad, skilled in corporal surgery , but many surgeons, cut by the experience of their military, who with the ointments of their holy example will heal the spiritual wounds of the wounded. They will also find, not one Amadis of Gaul, but many lovers of the uncreated truth; not one Tirante the White, but many Tirantes to the target of glory; not one Oriana or a Carmesina, but many holy and celebrated matrons, from whom one can infer exemplary and virtuous erudition. They will also see the liveliness of the old Allegorin, the wise, and the sagacity of Moraliza, the discreet maiden, who will give of themselves sweet and useful discourse, showing in many steps of this Celestial hidden chivalry lofty mysteries and high wonders, and not of a feigned knight of the Cross, but of a precious Christ, who truly was.

The first part, Book of Celestial Chivalry of the Foot of the Fragrant Rose , published in Antwerp in 1554 at the printing house of Martín Nucio, is a chivalrous and allegorical version of the Old Testament , in 110 chapters called "wonders", and it recounts, in the typical style of chivalric books, the lives of several of the patriarchs, prophets, judges and kings of Israel, presented as knights, while God is the Celestial Emperor, and the advent of the Knight of the Lion (Jesus Christ) is announced.

In the Second Part of the Celestial Cavalry of the Leaves of the Fragrant Rose , printed in Valencia in 1554 at the printing house of Joan Mey Flandro and divided into 101 wonders, the allegory refers to the New Testament , and its protagonist is Jesus , also presented as a knight errant, son of the Celestial Emperor. No copy is currently known of this second part, but only what was commented on in the 19th century by scholars such as George Ticknor and Pascual de Gayangos .

The author announced a third part, which he never published.

Sampedro's work achieved little popularity, but its treatment of biblical themes aroused suspicion in the Catholic Church , which included it in the Index of Prohibited Books.

References

GAYANGOS, Pacual de, "Preliminary Speech", in Books of Chivalry , Madrid, Library of Spanish Authors, 1st. ed., 1847, vol. XL, pp. LVII-LVIII.

HERRÁN ALONSO, Emma, ​​"Following the traces of a forbidden work: The book of Celestial Chivalry by Jerónimo de Sampedro", in https://cvc.cervantes.es/literatura/aiso/pdf/06/aiso_6_2_007.pdf