Fernan Nonius (Or Nunez)
Fernan Nonius (Or Nunez) [1]
Nonius (Or Nunez), Fernan
also called El Pinciano, from Pintia Vaccaeorum, the former name of Vallisoletum, now Valladolid, where he was born, of noble parentage, about 1470, was, although a knight of the military order of Santiago, devoted with much ardor to literary pursuits and the diffusion of learning in Spain, where he promoted the study of the Greek, after that of the Latin language had been rendered easy by Nebrisensis (Antonio Lebrija). Among the many eminent literary persons who followed Nebrija's steps, Pinciano stood conspicuous, even before he went to Italy to receive further instruction from Philippus Beroaldtus and Govian, a celebrated Greek refugee. On his return to Spain, Nunez brought back numerous Greek books with him; and cardinal Cisneros, who admired his talents, appointed him and Demetrius the Cretan professors of Greek at the University of Alcala, and moreover entrusted to him and to Lope de Astuniga the Latin version of the Septuagint. Endowed with a lofty spirit and a high patriotic feeling, which were fostered by the writings of antiquity which he expounded, he fought in 1521 with the unsuccessful Commons of Castile against the tyranny of Charles V, or rather his courtiers, a set of unprincipled foreign adventurers, who took advantage of the young prince's vanity and inexperience. Being obliged to leave Alcala, he took refuge at Salamanca, in which university he taught Greek, Latin, rhetoric, and the natural history of Pliny. He died in 1553, above the age of eighty, at Salamanca, and left to that famous seminary his select library. He wrote for himself the following epitaph: "Maximum vitae, bonum mors." Besides the share that he had in the Complutensian Polyglot, Nunez published Annotationes in Senecce Philosophi Opera, the text of which writer he restored: — Observationes in Pomp. Melam: Observat. in Hist. Nat. C. Plin., which have often been reprinted: — Glosa sobre has Obras de Juan de oMena, which is full of classical learning: — Letters to Zurita: Refranes y Proverbios Glosados, which he left incomplete in the midst of his infirmities, a valuable book to the commentator of Cervantes, as Nunez was well acquainted with Spanish proverbs, and skillful in applying them.
