León, Luis Ponce de

León, Luis Ponce de (lēs` pōn`thā dā lāōn`), 1527?–1591, Spanish mystic and poet, an Augustinian monk. Fray Luis held various theological chairs at the Univ. of Salamanca. A noted Hebraist, he translated the Song of Songs and the Book of Job. His theological disputes with leading Dominicans and his translations caused him to be imprisoned for four years by the Inquisition. Of his exquisite lyric poetry, enhanced by a humanist familiarity with classical and Hebrew literature, only 23 poems survive. His work was not published until 1631. Fray Luis's prose works include Los nombres de Cristo (1583; tr. The Names of Christ, 1926) and La perfecta casada [the perfect wife] (1583).

Bibliography

See studies by M. Durán (1971) and K. A. Kottman (1972).