Articles

Benito Arias Montano, Benet Girgós, and the poem De sacrarum litterarum studio

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Abstract

In this article, I study the relationship between the distinguished humanist Benito Arias Montano and the little-known Catalan Benet Girgós, secretary to the Spanish embassy in Rome. First, I summarize the available information on Girgós’s biography and give an overview of his friendship with Arias Montano as recorded in epistolary exchanges. I then consider Girgós’s Catalan translations of two devotional works (Breu compendi per examinar be la consciència and Summa de la doctrina christiana), written for a Catalan audience in the context of the Aragonese diaspora in Rome, and argue that Arias Montano was part of this editorial project. Finally, I present the first critical edition, English translation, and commentary of the poem De sacrarum litterarum studio, which Arias Montano dedicated to Girgós and which is the second poem of his collection Hymni et secula (1593).

Keywords: Benito Arias Montano, Benet Girgós, humanism, Bible, Catalan, Rome