Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola

Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola (August 1562 – February 4, 1631), Spanish poet and historian.

He was attached to the suite of the count de Lemos, viceroy of Naples, in 1610, and succeeded his brother Lupercio as historiographer of Aragon in 1613.

His religious odes (deriving from those of Luis de León) have a Miltonic flavour, e.g. battles in heaven in 'A San Miguel'.

He also commands a light, satirical style as when he warns his brother against palmistry, or a pleasing realism as in the description of a country banquet; but in his religious sonnets, he reveals an existentialist malaise.

[2] An interesting life of this writer by Father Miguel Mir precedes a reprint of the Conquista de las Islas Molucas, issued at Saragossa in 1891.