Enrique Villena

ENRIQUE VILLENA (Cuenca 1384- Madrid, 1384)
"The twelve labors of Hercules".
Printer Antón de Centenera, Zamora, 1483.
Facsimile edited by Vicent Garcia, Valencia, 1995.
Limited edition.
Numbered, 1145/3000.
Measurements: 28 x 22 x 2 cm.

Facsimile of the incunabulum published in 1483. The work narrates the exploits that the hero performed under the orders of his cousin Eurystheus in order to return to Argos. From the works, Villena, concerned about the res publica, explains the order of his society and shows a Hercules as a model hero adapted to his time, a perfect medieval knight. Underlying the work is an idea of political renovation linked to legality. It begins with a letter from the author to his friend Pedro Pardo, and in the proem he speaks of the different states into which the world is divided (prince, prelate, knight, religious, citizen, merchant, farmer, artisan, master, disciple, solitary and woman), with an explanation of each of them, and which are exemplified in the works of Hercules. Villena draws on classical sources (Boethius, Virgil, Ovid, Lucan and Seneca) and contemporary sources (Guido da Pisa, Dante and Petrarch).