Note 771 — Chapter II
Reading edition
Pedro Fernandez de Villegas, Archdeacon of Burgos, who, in 1515, published a translation of the “Inferno” of Dante, (see ante, p. 409, n.,) says, in his Introduction, that he at first endeavoured to make his version in terza rima, “which manner of writing,” he goes on, “is not in use among us, and appeared to me so ungraceful, that I gave it up.” This was about fifteen years before Boscan wrote in it with success; perhaps a little earlier, for it is dedicated to Doña Juana de Aragon, the natural daughter of Ferdinand the Catholic, a lady of much literary cultivation, who died before it was completed.