Juan Eusebio Nieremberg

Juan Eusebio Nieremberg

Juan Eusebio Nieremberg y Ottin (Madrid, September 9, 1595 – ibid., April 2, 1658) was a Spanish humanist, physicist, biographer, theologian and ascetic writer who belonged to the Society of Jesus.

Biography

He was the son of a Tyrolean father, Gottfried Nieremberg, and a Bavarian mother, Regina Ottin, who belonged to the retinue of Maria of Austria, daughter of Charles V and widow of the Emperor Maximilian II. They settled permanently in Spain in 1576, and by the time Juan Eusebio was born in 1595 they had been established at the Court for almost twenty years. They knew Juan Caramuel, with whom Juan Eusebio formed a close friendship.

Bartolomé Maura Montaner, Retrato de Juan Bautista Nieremberg, c. 1880, etching. Madrid, National Library of Spain. It takes its features from an engraved portrait that appeared during the author's lifetime in one of his works.

He studied at the Jesuit Imperial College in Madrid and then went to Salamanca to study civil and canon law. After a spiritual crisis, brought on by a serious illness, and after overcoming stubborn family resistance (he was the only son and heir to his father's entailed estate), he made the Spiritual Exercises at the age of nineteen and entered the Society of Jesus (Salamanca, March 31, 1614). His biographer, disciple and successor at the Imperial College, Alonso de Andrade, described his experience as follows:

God impressed upon him, as he confesses in the notes he made of the favors he received from His hand, three insights on this occasion. The first was of the ugliness and gravity of sin…. The second, of the knowledge of his own wretchedness and vileness. The third was of the infinity of God, His greatness, in which he is engulfed without finding footing, nor bottom, nor measure to His immensity…

Since he was to be a member of the Province of Toledo, not that of Old Castile, he made his novitiate in Villagarcía, Navalcarnero and Madrid. He took his first scholastic's vows on April 3, 1616, before his superiors sent him to Huete to improve his Latin and above all to learn Greek and Hebrew. In 1619 he was residing at the College of Alcalá de Henares, and at the University of Alcalá he studied Arts and Theology alongside his friend Juan Caramuel between 1618 and 1623. In 1623 he was ordained a priest, and he professed as a Jesuit in 1633. He helped Father Juan Luis de la Cerda publish some Commentaries on Tertullian and Saint Aldhelm. He spent some time in Toledo, but was called to Madrid in 1628 to teach humanities and natural sciences at the Imperial College of Madrid, which had been transformed into a university of the Society of Jesus, for six years; Lope de Vega was present at his first lecture, on February 19, 1628, and celebrated it with a poem, the Isagoge. Five years later he made the solemn profession of the fourth vow (July 4, 1633), adding to his Chair of Natural Sciences that of Sacred Scripture, and he held both subjects for a long time. He was also a confessor and prefect, activities he combined with a tireless pastoral life, visiting prisons and hospitals and always bearing witness to his exalted spirituality, this being the most characteristic trait of his personality. Andrade states that he asked to be a missionary in the Indies, but no documentary trace remains to confirm it; rather, it seems that he devoted himself solely to studying and writing; Andrade himself indicates that, withdrawn from the bustle of the Court, he took a room in the most secluded part of the house, four hundred and more paces from the porter's lodge... where he lived as in the solitude of the wilderness, giving himself wholly to contemplation and reading, and to the study of books, not leaving the house unless compelled by a most grave cause.

Detail from the map by Pedro Texeira of the Imperial College of the Society of Jesus, adjoining the Collegiate Church of San Isidro, on the calle de Toledo (Madrid), where Juan Eusebio Nieremberg studied, taught and wrote.

During his period as a professor of natural sciences he published some scientific works such as Curiosa Filosofía, y tesoro de maravillas de la naturaleza, examinadas en varias cuestiones naturales (Madrid: Imprenta del Reino, 1630), which is in reality an uncritical compendium of popular science, and Historia naturae, maxime peregrinae (Antwerp, 1634), written in an engaging style, though without original contributions, although he made use of drawings by the famous naturalist F. Hernández. In Filosofía renovada de los cielos he sets out the theory of Tycho Brahe, to which he adheres, and comments on the discoveries of Galileo Galilei concerning the lunar surface, sunspots, the phases of Venus, and so on. In Oculta filosofía. Razones de la música en el hombre y la naturaleza (Madrid: Imprenta del Reino, 1634) he gave an account of the therapeutic capacity of music for the ailments of the body, as well as of its value as medicine for the soul, drawing inspiration from Neoplatonism. He nevertheless had the good sense to prefer, even though the root of his thought on questions of physics is Aristotelian, the corpuscular explanation of atomism to that of the substantial forms of the Stagirite, in which he coincided with his friend Juan Caramuel and in which he would later be followed by the novatores of the 18th century. His scientific works are completed by Del nuevo misterio de la piedra imán y nueva descripción del globo terrestre (Madrid, 1643). He was also Rector of the House of Probation of Madrid and Master of Novices.

At court he attained a certain prominence that earned him respect. Confessor to Margaret of Savoy, Duchess of Mantua, granddaughter of Philip II and cousin of Philip IV, he was also an adviser to the King and to his favorite the Count-Duke of Olivares, to whom he addressed his pamphlet Causa y remedio de los males públicos, and an intellectual engaged in the debates affecting the Catholic religion in matters of doctrine between the Papacy and the Hispanic Monarchy itself, taking part in the Royal Junta on the Immaculate Conception, a subject to which he devoted several works.

An unknown illness, probably a stroke, struck him at the age of fifty (1645), leaving him hemiplegic for long periods, unable to move his hands, deprived of speech and even of sight, which he endured with fortitude, recovering part of his faculties until he died at the age of sixty-three in Madrid, on April 2, 1658.

Thought

Nieremberg's philosophical thought is extremely eclectic: it mixes Scholasticism with Averroist, Kabbalistic, Platonic and Stoic elements, and for that reason it suffers from the lack of organic unity of the eclectic school, although always subject to Catholic dogma. He soon turned toward theology, asceticism and hagiography, which make up the bulk of his written work, itself abundant (73 printed titles, 53 of them in Latin, and 11 manuscripts). One of his principal scholars, Hugues Didier, states that "Nieremberg was above all a scholar and a Neoplatonic thinker, perhaps more Plotinian than strictly Augustinian, and very typical of the Baroque. In some of his Latin works one finds the theoretical foundations of the worldview of Pedro Calderón de la Barca: both authors reflect the intellectual atmosphere of the Imperial College of Madrid".

Father Nieremberg does not cite Vives; but he does cite disciples of his, such as Francisco Vallés. The impulse of Vivism meant that our Jesuit was never content with the philosophical opinions of a single author, but gleaned from among the most respectable of all times.

As a writer he used an elegant Castilian prose, still pure, fluent and clear in the century of conceptismo, engaging and somewhat ornate, in the Baroque taste, with antithesis, paronomasia and wordplay, but without the culterano excesses of Paravicino and with a certain good taste and brilliance for metaphor and example.

He left testimony of his scriptural studies in De origine S. Scripturae libri duodecim and in Stromata S. Scripturae. He produced a version of the Roman Catechism that was reprinted many times, and he defended the Immaculate Conception in numerous short works, taking part at the King's request in its dogmatic definition. His ascetic works were a great publishing success throughout Europe, including during the 18th century, and were translated into the most important languages. While still young he wrote a poorly documented life of Saint Ignatius of Loyola that was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1646. The biographies contained in the four volumes of Varones ilustres de la Compañía de Jesús (Madrid 1643-47) also seem too credulous; these his disciple Alonso de Andrade would later complete with two more. He also wrote the Vida del santo padre, y gran siervo de Dios el beato Francisco de Borja (1644), which is somewhat better. He translated the De imitatione Christi / Imitation of Christ of Thomas à Kempis, his version even coming to replace that of Friar Luis de Granada.

Among his ascetic works, the most outstanding is Diferencia entre lo temporal y eterno. Crisol de desengaños con la memoria de la eternidad, postrimerías humanas y principales misterios divinos (Madrid, 1640), a work written in admirable prose, which went through 60 reprints and numerous translations and which inspired Jacinto Verdaguer's poem La Atlántida; it is one of the masterpieces of Spanish Baroque literature. It was the first book published entirely in the Guarani language (1706) and also the oldest book printed in the Arabic language and in an Arab country (18th century, the Arabic printing press having been created in Italy during the 16th century). This work was plagiarized by the English Anglican writer Jeremy Taylor in Contemplations of the state of man in this life, and in that which is to come, 1702.

Also important are his Aprecio y estima de la divina gracia (Madrid, 1638); De la hermosura de Dios y su amabilidad (Madrid, 1641) and De adoratione in spiritu et veritate (Antwerp, 1631). Narciso Alonso Cortés edited in 1915 part of his extensive Epistolario, made up not of genuine letters but of treatises addressed to imaginary persons. In them he discusses divorce, duels and the vanity of the rich, and, although verbose, they make up an extremely valuable record of contemporary life. Menéndez Pelayo defined him as "One of the five or six great prose writers of our 17th century", adding that he possessed a style "most elegant but ornate, verbose and exuberant, more profuse in words than in ideas". In the De regimine principum genre, his Obras y días. Manual de Señores y Príncipes, 1629, stands out. In Devoción y patrocinio de San Miguel (1643), he proposed changing Spain's supernatural protection and replacing the discredited Saint James with the Archangel Saint Michael, who was already protector of the House of Austria. In Corona virtuosa y virtud coronada (1643), he brought together in a single book the past glories of Castile and those of the Holy Roman Empire in order to set their examples before Prince Baltasar Carlos.

The old catalog of the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, as well as Antonio Palau y Dulcet, mistakenly add to the long list of his works those of another teacher at the Imperial College, the Burgundian Claude Clément, or Claudio Clemente, S. I.

His Obras completas were published in Madrid in 1892 in six volumes, and Eduardo Cepeda Enríquez has edited his Obras escogidas (BAE, vol. CIII, 1957). He was recognized as an authority on good usage of the language by the Royal Spanish Academy.

Works

Historia natvrae, maxime peregrinae (libris XVI). 1635.

Vidas ejemplares y venerables memorias de algunos claros varones de la Compañía de Jesús (fourth volume). 1647.

• Obras y Días. Manual de Señores y Principes; en que se Propone con su Pureza y Rigor la Especulación y Ejecución Política, Económica y Particular de Todas las Virtudes (Madrid, 1628)
• Centuria de dictámenes prudentes (Quiñones, Madrid, 1641).
• Prolusión a la doctrina e historia natural (Madrid, 1629).
• Sigalion sive de sapientia mythica (Madrid, 1629; Lyon, 1642)
• Curiosa Filosofía y cuestiones naturales (Imprenta del Reino, Madrid, 1630)
• Vida del glorioso Patriarca San Ignacio de Loyola (Madrid, 1631)
• De adoratione in spiritu et veritate, lib. IV. In quibus totius spiritualis vitae Imitationes Christi et Theologiae mysticae nucleus eruitur ex sanctis Patribus et spiritualissimis viris Diadocho, Dorotheo, Climaco, Rusbrochio, Sosone, Thaulero, Kempis et Gersone. (Antwerp: Baltasar Moreti, Officina Plantiniana, 1631)
• De arte voluntatis, libri sex. In quibus platonicae, stoicae et christianae disciplinae medulla digeritus, succo omni politioris Philosophiae expresso ex Platone, Séneca, Iambichio Epicteto, Dione, Chrysostomo, Plotino et aliis. Accedit ad calcem historiae panegyricae de tribus martyribus... in Uruguay pro fide occisis (Lyon: Iacobi Cardon, 1631)
• De la afición y amor de Jesús, (1630?; Madrid, 1632)
• De la afición y amor de María... (1630?; Madrid, 1632)
• Vida Divina y Camino Real de Grande Atajo para la Perfección (Madrid, 1633; 1633)
• Oculta Filosofía, (Barcelona, 1645)
• Curiosa y oculta filosofia: primera y segunda parte de las marauillas de la naturaleza, examinadas en varias questiones naturales... Tercera impression añadida por el mismo autor (Alcalá: Imprenta de María Fernández, at the expense of Juan Antonio Bonet, 1649).
• Libro de la vida de Jesús crucificado, impreso en Jerusalén con su sangre (Barcelona, 1634)
• Historia naturae, maxime peregrinae (Antwerp, 1634)
• Trophaea mariana seu de victrice misericordia Deiparae, gefolgt von De virginitate S.S. Dei Matris apologetica dissertatio (Antwerp, 1638)
• Del aprecio y estima de la gracia divina, que nos mereció el Hijo de Dios, con su Preciosa Sangre, y Pasión (Juan Sánchez, Madrid, 1638; Hospital Real y General, Zaragoza, 1640)
• Compendio de la vida del V. P. Martin Gutiérrez (Madrid, 1639)
• De la diferencia entre lo temporal y lo eterno, y Crisol de Desengaños con la memoria de la eternidad, postrimerías humanas y principales misterios divinos (Madrid, 1640, 1654; Imprenta Real, Madrid, 1675)
• Práctica del Catecismo romano y doctrina cristiana (Diego Díaz de la Carrera, Madrid 1640, 1641; Imp. María de Quiñones, Madrid, 1646)
• Vida del dichoso y venerable Padre Marcelo Francisco Mastrilli (Madrid, 1640)
• Flores espirituales en que se proponen varios puntos muy provechosos para las almas (Madrid, 1640)
• Prodigio del amor divino y finezas de Dios con los hombres (Juan Sánchez, Madrid, 1641).
• De la hermosura de Dios y su amabilidad por las Infinitas Perfecciones del Ser Divino (Juan Sánchez, Madrid 1641)
• Theopoliticus sive brevis illucidatio et rationale divinorum operum atque providentia humanorum (Antwerp, 1641)
• Causa y remedio de los males públicos. Dedicado al Conde-Duque (Madrid: María de Quiñones / Francisco de Robles, 1642)
• Consuelo de las almas escrupulosas y su remedio, (Madrid, 1642).
• Dictámenes de espíritu (Puebla de Los Ángeles, 1642)
• Tratado sobre el lugar de los Cantares Veni de Libano Explicado de la perfección religiosa (Madrid: Francisco Maroto at the expense of Francisco de Robles, bookseller, 1642)
• Ideas de virtud en algunos claros varones de la Compañía de Jesús, para los Religiosos de Ella (María de Quiñones, Madrid, 1643)
• Doctrinae asceticae sive spiritualium institutionum pandectae (Lyon, 1643)
• Partida a la eternidad y preparación para la muerte, (Madrid, 1643)
• De la devoción y patrocinio de San Miguel (María de Quiñones, Madrid, 1643)
• Corona virtuosa y virtud coronada (Francisco Maroto, Madrid, 1643)
• Del nuevo misterio de la piedra imán y nueva descripción del globo terrestre (Madrid, 1643)
• Firmamento religioso de lucidos astros en algunos claros varones de la Compañía de Jesús (Quiñones, Madrid, 1644)
• Honor del gran patriarca S. Ignacio de Loyola, fundador de la Compañía de Jesús, en que se Propone su Vida, y la de su Discípulo el Apóstol de las Indias S. Francisco Xavier. Con la Milagrosa Historia del Admirable Padre Marcelo Mastrilli, y las Noticias de Gran Multitud de Hijos del Mismo P. Ignacio, Varones Clarísimos en Santidad, Doctrina, Trabajos, y Obras Maravillosas en Servicio de la Iglesia (Quiñones, Madrid, 1645)
• Vida del Santo Padre Francisco de Borja (Madrid, 1644)
• Partida a la eternidad y preparación a la muerte (Imprenta Real, Madrid, 1645)
• Vidas ejemplares y venerables memorias de algunos claros varones de la Compañía de Jesús, de los Cuales es este Tomo Cuarto (Alonso de Paredes, Madrid, 1647)
• De la constancia en la virtud y medios de perseverancia (Madrid, 1647)
• Epistolas del reverendo Padre Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, Religioso de la Compañía de Jesús. Publicadas pour Manuel de Faria y Sousa, Caballero de la Orden de Cristo, y de la Casa Real (by Alonso de Paredes, Madrid, 1649)
• Devocionario del Santísimo Sacramento (Madrid, 1649).
• Cielo estrellado de María (Madrid, 1655)
• Obras cristianas del Padre Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, Volume I of his works in Romance (Imprenta Real, Madrid, 1665)
• Obras filosóficas del Padre Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, Volume III (Imprenta Real, Madrid, 1664)
• Obras cristianas (Lucas Martín de Hermosilla, Seville, 1686)
• Vida de Santa Teresa de Jesús (Madrid, 1882)
• De origine Sacra e Scripturae, libri XII. In quibus multa Scripturae loca explanatur et antiquitate ex sacra profanaque eruditione eruuntur (Lugduni: Petri Post, 1641)