JUAN DE ESPAÑA

JUAN DE ESPAÑA (El Viejo; c. 1350–c. 1420), Spanish Marrano poet and controversialist. Born in Villamartín, Juan de España apparently embraced Christianity under the impact of the preaching of vicente ferrer , but may also have been influenced by the arguments presented by the apostate Geronimo de Santa Fé at the Tortosa disputation (1413–14). An accomplished talmudist, Juan de España became a fervent apologist for his adopted faith and turned his rabbinic knowledge against the Jews. His experiences and opinions are contained in the Memorial de los misterios de Christo (1416), the original manuscript of which is in the Madrid National Library. His Declaración del Salmo LXXII del Salterio also bears the stamp of wide learning. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Amador de Los Ríos, Estudios Históricos, politicos y literarios sobre los judíos de España (1848), 430–6; Roth, Marranos, 26; Baer, Spain, 2 (1966), 159, 476.