Poetry and spirituality in Francisco de Aldana. A new reading of ‘Letter to Arias Montano’ and other devotional verse

Abstract

Among the numerous studies in recent decades of the poetry of Francisco de Aldana, “Carta a Arias Montano” has received the most attention. In many studies, this epistle—in addition to being determined in part by the theological authority of its recipient—is taken to be the culmination of a process in which the other religious poems are a mere sketch. These other poems, however, both have their own significance, independent of the epistle, and also reflect a typically Franciscan spirituality existing in the Aldana family and akin to the mysticism evident in several works by Arias Montano. It was surely this coincidence of beliefs that brought about the meeting between the poet and the biblical scholar.