Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Labyrinth of Fortune

The Labyrinth of Fortune

de Mena, Juan
Domínguez, Frank A.
Domínguez, Frank A.

Hardcover

Series: Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library

PhilosophyGeneral PoetrySpainish & Portuguese History

ISBN10: 0674290917
ISBN13: 9780674290914
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: May 6 2025
Pages: 336
Weight: 0.94
Height: 0.86 Width: 5.56 Depth: 8.23
Language: English

A classic, Dantesque political epic from medieval Spain that inspired Cervantes and Góngora, in its first English translation.

Why do the injustices of the past still afflict the present? With this question, Juan de Mena is transported to heaven by a vision in the Dantesque The Labyrinth of Fortune. Composed in 1444 by Mena, a royal chronicler and Latin secretary in the court of Juan II of Castile, El Laberinto de Fortuna became the most important political allegory of medieval Spain. Allegorizing the past, present, and unknowable future through the figure of Providence, the poem reflects on the contentious kingship of Juan II and frames the Reconquest of Moorish territories--the foundational mythos of the emerging nation--as a virtuous, sacred task that would restore justice and the moral order because it fulfills a destiny ordained by God. This is the first English translation of a masterpiece that enriched the Spanish language with a density of learned allusions and a new Latinate humanistic style that deeply influenced subsequent writers such as Miguel Cervantes and Luis de Góngora.

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