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Arcipreste De HitaThe Arcipreste de Hita was a Spanish poet who was born around 1283 in Alcal de Henares. Little is known about him today, save that he was a cleric and probably studied in Toledo. Though his birth name is known to be Juan Ruiz, he is widely referred to using his title, which translates to "archpriest of Hita." He was imprisoned between 1337 and 1350 by Gil de Albornoz, the archbishop of Toledo. It is possible that he wrote his only work, Libro de Buen Amor (Book of Good Love), while incarcerated. His language is characterized by its richness and its sermon-like tendency to repeat the same concept in several different ways. Noted for being very creative and alive, his work utilizes colloquial, popular vocabulary. At the same time, though, he shows a profound knowledge of human emotion and is able to strike a balance between gentleness and brazenness in his shrewd and frequently ironic writing. It has been estimated that he died around 1350; by 1351, he no longer held the title of archpriest of Hita. There are today three manuscripts of the Libro de Buen Amor. The Salamanca version, denoted S, resides in Madrid's Biblioteca Real and is considered the best of the three codices. The other two are the Academia Espaola version, known as Gayoso (G), and the Toledo (T) manuscript. The poem itself is 1,728 stanzas long and claims to be an autobiographical account of the author's love life. Through his lovers, we see a rich representation of medieval Spanish society.
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