Fray Luis de León (c. 1527-1591) composed some of the most well known Spanish lyric poetry of the sixteenth century, as well as original prose and translations from Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Italian. His vernacular translation of the Hebrew Song of Songs (also known as the Song of Solomon), among other alleged offenses, led to his being denounced to the Spanish Inquisition in 1572 and imprisoned for nearly five years. Vernacular translations of Scripture had been prohibited in Spain, with varying degrees of severity and success, from the Middle Ages, and the Spanish Inquisition renewed this prohibition with their Index of 1554, because the religious authorities deemed Bible reading perilous for untrained laypeople without priestly guidance based on the Latin Vulgate. Fray Luis’s translations and commentaries had called into question the Vulgate’s exclusive authority to...
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Citation: Fisher, Tyler. "Fray Luis de León". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 November 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13154, accessed 09 June 2026.]
