The Literary Court of Juan de Zúñiga y Pimentel (Plasencia, 1459- Guadalupe, 1504)

Abstract

Juan de Zúñiga y Pimentel (Plasencia, 1459 - Guadalupe, 1504), the last Master of the Order of Alcántara, Archbishop of Seville and Primate of Spain, brought together a group of eminent scholars in Gata, Villanueva and Zalamea de la Serena, creating an authentic literary court in Castile in a similar way to the Italian humanists. Following the example of his parents, Álvaro de Zúñiga y Guzmán and his second wife, Leonor Pimentel, who sponsored the construction of the Dominican convent of San Vicente Ferrer, a magnificent example of late Gothic art in Plasencia, developed a model of cultural patronage where a group of miniaturists, with popularity among the privileged classes, possibly were included and they executed some of the best illuminated manuscripts in Castile in the fifteenth century.