GUEVARA, ANTONIO DE (c.1490 1545). A Spanish writer. He was attached to the Court of Isabella I. for a part of his early life, entered the•Franciscan Order in 1528, and became Court preacher and historiographer of Charles V. He enjoyed great favor in his own time, both at home and abroad, for the peculiarly artificial style of his didactic and political trea tises, which are marked also by decidedly moraliz ing tendencies. This rhetorical manner of Gue vara prevailed in his Marco Aurelio con el relox de principes (1529), which, translated into Eng lish—The Golden Book of Marcus Aurelius, Em peror and Eloquent Orator, translated from the French by Lord Berners (London, 1532) ; and again, The Diall of Princes, Engloshed oute of the Frcnche. by Thomas North (London, 1557; cf. a later ed., London, 1619)—first made known in England the literary mannerisms and affecta tion which in Lyly's hands became euphuism. Like the other productions of Guevara, this work was frequently translated into French, and from it, through an interesting French translation, La Fontaine derived the subject-matter for his fable Le paysaq du Danube (libre xi., fable 7). When publishing the Iklor, Guevara pretended that it was a genuine autobiography of•Marcus Aurelius. and that the original manuscript was to be found at Florence. This fraud was detected and made known in 1540, by Pedro de Run. a professor at
Soria, and Guevara had to admit his authorship. The proceeding was the occasion of undue stric tures upon him on the part of several critics. His other productions comprise a volume (Valla dolid, 1539) containing the DOcada de las Hillis tic los X. COsarcs, emperadarcs romanos, the Dr menosprecio de la colic, the Aviso do prieddos doctrina de cortesdnos, and the The los inern (ores del marear: the Epistolas familiarcs (also published at Valladolid in 1539) ; and two devout treatises, the Monte Calrario (1542) and the Oratorio de religiosos (1543). Of these the Epfstolas familiares became the most famous, and were widely read for the sake of their refined diction, which for us is overwrought and absurd ly pompous. Among the English translations of the Epis.tolas—called generally the 'Golden Epis tles,' so great was their vogue—may be noted that of E. Hellowes (London, 1574), and that of G. Fenton (1575). Consult : Guevara, "Epistolas familiares y escogidas," in the Biblioteca clOsica espan'ola (Barcelona, 1886) ; the selections from Guevara given in "Obras eseogidas de filosofos," etc., in Biblioteca de autores espailoles (Madrid, 1873) ; and for his life, Antonio, in Biblioteca nova.