(1534?–97). As Spanish developed as a literary language during the 16th century, a group of neoclassic poets and humanists known as the first school of Seville concerned themselves with rhetoric and the form of language. A leading figure in this school was the lyric poet and critic Fernando de Herrera.
Herrera was born in about 1534, in Seville, Spain. Although never ordained as a priest, he took minor orders and was appointed to a benefice in Seville. The income from this position allowed him to spend his life studying and writing. His aristocratic literary ideas were clearly set forth in his Anotaciones a las obras de Garcilaso de la Vega (1580; Notes on the Works of Garcilaso de la Vega), which praised the Italianate innovations of the poet Garcilaso de la Vega and several other poets of Seville. In his own poetry, published as Algunas obras de Fernando de Herrera (1582; Some Works of Fernando de Herrera), he elaborated on the style of Garcilaso and began to move toward culteranismo (an ornate and affected poetic style that flourished in Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries and finally developed, in its most extreme form, into gongorismo).
Although Herrera’s love lyrics addressed to Luz, the countess of Gelves, were popular in his day, his most enduring poems are his patriotic odes, rich in Old Testament rhetoric and melodious eclogues. He also composed a history, Relación de la guerra de Chipre y batalla naval de Lepanto (1572; Account of the War of Cyprus and the Naval Battle of Lepanto), and a biography, Elogio de la vida y muerte de Tomás Moro (1592; Eulogy on the Life and Death of Thomas More). Herrera died in 1597 in Seville.