JUAN DE VALLADOLID (called also Juan Poeta):

By: Richard Gottheil, Meyer Kayserling

Spanish poet and Marano of lowly station; born about 1420 in Valladolid. He lived at the courts of Naples, Mantua, and Milan as improvisator and astrologer. On his return to Spain he was captured by Moorish pirates and taken to Fez, but was soon released. After having married a Jewess named Jamila, and, as some maintain, also a Christian, he married a Moorish woman in Fez. He spent some years at the court of the kings of Navarre and later settled in Cordova, where he received a large honorarium from the city council and exchanged satirical poems with Anton de Montoro. Montoro, after tendering some advice to his "good and great friend," concluded with the words: "We both belong to one and the same race—we are both Jews; the insults offered to you wound me also, and the injury which you suffer I suffer too." Contemporary poets invariably refer to Juan as "Judio" (the Jew). With the great, even with Queen Isabella, he was in high favor. His poems are scattered through various collections of songs, both printed and in manuscript. Several are found in "Concionero de Anton de Montoro" (Nos. 157, 161, etc.).

G. M. K.