On Daring Variety: Arguijo, Medina, and the Poetics of Negotiation

Abstract

This article explores the influence of the humanist Francisco de Medina on the sonnets of Juan de Arguijo. Collaboration between poets and intellectuals was fundamental in early modern Seville, but these dialogues were often private and unrecorded. The present study focuses on Medina’s suggestion for reordering the sonnets, arguing that Arguijo’s response represents an important innovation in two essential ways. Firstly, the rationale for his reordered collection relies on a new and genre-specific interpretation of varietas, fitted to the form of the sonnet. Secondly, Arguijo then uses this renegotiated varietas to produce an innovative new principle for ordering his collection, by arranging his sonnets in contrapuntal pairs, divided by a shift in perspective akin to a mid-sonnet volta.