Herrera, Fernando de

Herrera, Fernando de (fārnän`dō thā ārā`rä), 1534–97, Spanish poet. One of the outstanding poets of the 16th cent. and the leader of the Seville school, he earned the name Herrera el Divino. He is remembered for his Neoplatonic love lyrics and sonnets inspired by Doña Leonor de Gelves and for his heroic odes on Don Juan of Austria and the victory of Lepanto. His annotated edition of the poetry of Garcilaso was a masterpiece of Renaissance criticism and analysis. Herrera's Tomás Moro (1592) was a defense of Sir Thomas More.

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Herrera, Fernando de 

Born 1534, in Sevilla; died there 1597. Spanish poet.

Herrera was a leading member of the Sevilla school of poetry of the High Renaissance. Under the influence of Petrarch, he wrote of love in the spirit of Neoplatonism. He was the author of such affecting odes as “Song to the Victory of Lepanto.” Herrera anticipated the development of Gongorism with Notes on the Works of Garcilaso de la Vega (1580), in which he advocated the saturation of the literary language with complex stylistic figures and images.

WORKS

Poesías. Foreword by P. Bohigas. Barcelona, 1944.

REFERENCES

García Puertas, M. Humanidad y humanismo de Fernando de Herrera (el Divino). Montevideo, 1955.
Macri, O. Fernando de Herrera. Madrid, 1959.