Juan Alfonso de Baena - Plaza de la Constitucíon, Baena, Spain
Posted by: 
vraatja
N 37° 36.876 W 004° 19.555
30S E 382978 N 4163882
Bronze statue of Juan Alfonso de Baena (1375-1434), a medieval Castilian poet and scribe in the court of Juan II of Castile, in his hometown of Baena (Province of Córdoba).
Waymark Code: WM15P16
Location: Andalucía, Spain
Date Posted: 01/31/2022
Views: 1
The bronze statue located near the northwest corner of Plaza de la Constitucíon in Baena depicts a medieval Castilian poet and scribe in the court of Juan II of Castile, Juan Alfonso de Baena (1375-1434). The life-size statue depicts him wearing a long cloak with a cap on his head and holding a famous book "Cancionero de Baena" in his left hand.
Biography
Juan Alfonso de Baena (c. 1375 –c. 1435) was a medieval Castilian poet and scribe in the court of Juan II of Castile. Baena, who was a converso (a Jewish convert to Christianity), is best known for compiling and contributing to the Cancionero de Baena, an important medieval anthology composed between 1426 and 1465 containing the poems of over 55 Spanish poets who wrote during the reigns of Enrique II, Juan I, and Enrique III, and Juan II.
Most probably he was born a Jew and decided to convert. His conversion to Christianity enabled him to enter the court of Juan ii and become one of his high officials. The Cancionero de Baena, an anthology of 14th- and 15th-century poetry which he compiled and presented to the king in 1445 deals with the social and political life of the period and includes many references to Jews and conversos. Hostility toward the conversos is expressed in several poems by Alfonso Alvarez de Villasandino (nos. 140–2, 183). Two decires, or poetic compositions, of the monk Diego de Valencia (probably a converted Jew himself) deal with conversos; the text of the first (no. 501) contains a number of Hebrew words. The Cancionero also includes poems celebrating the birth in 1405 of the future King Juan ii. One of these (no. 230), the composition of a certain Don Mossé (described as surgeon to Henry iii), indicates the part played by the Jews in Spanish cultural life. Baena's poetry is very rich and harmonious in its rhymes.
Cited from (
visit link)