Francisco de Rioja

Francisco de Rioja (born at Seville, 1583; died at Madrid, 1659) was a Spanish poet. Rioja was a canon of Seville Cathedral and a member of the Spanish Inquisition.

Quintana considers his poems the first attempts at descriptive poetry in the Castilian language. The style is original, the thoughts beautifully expressed, the taste refined, and the versification well adapted and harmoniously blended with the theme. Menéndez y Pelayo writes that Rioja's "Ode to Summer", and those "To Tranquillity", "To Constancy," "To Riches" and "To Poverty" are, after the lyrics of Fray Luis de León, the best moral odes in Castilian poetical treasure.

The ode "A las ruinas de Italia", which belongs to Rodrigo Caro, and the "Epístola moral", whose author is probably Francisco de Andrada, were earlier ascribed to Rioja.

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