The Labyrinth of Fortune, composed around 1444 by Juan de Mena (1411-1456), represents one of the most systematic attempts in pre-Renaissance Castilian literature to construct a cultured poetic language, of Latin descent, suitable for allegorical and moralizing expression. In the form of an extensive allegorical poem of more than three hundred verses of high art, the work displays a structure that combines elements of the medieval topos of the visionary journey with a humanist reinterpretation of historical time.
The plot is articulated around a symbolic journey guided by the goddess Providence through the Wheel of Fortune, which merges with a peculiar representation of time as three simultaneous wheels: past, present and future. Through this vision, the narrator reflects on the virtues and vices of the historical characters of the Peninsula and poses an exhortation to King Juan II to take an active role in the moral and political regeneration of the kingdom. Allegory, in this context, is not only a formal resource but a structuring device of historical thought. At this point, the influence of Dante Alighieri is visible: the figure of the supernatural guide, the allegorical organization of the journey and the ethical purpose refer indirectly to the Divine Comedy, although in Mena the eschatological dimension is replaced by a political perspective centered on recent Castilian history.
The style is characterized by its desire to ennoble the Castilian language, subjecting it to a rhetorical discipline that emulates Latin models. The use of the arte mayor (a stanza of dodecasyllabic verses with consonant rhyme in pairs) responds to this search for a serious and elevated musicality. Mena introduces a Latinizing syntax, cultured lexicon and parallel structures that reinforce the oracular tone of the poem. This aesthetic operation distances it from the troubadour tradition and inscribes it in a program of poetic renovation in line with the ideology of courtly humanism.
The impact of the Labyrinth on later literature was considerable, especially as a model of formal ambition and political allegory. Although its prestige declined in the following centuries in the face of more dynamic or clearer forms, baroque authors such as Quevedo and Gracián indirectly took up its project of high conceptual density and emblematic use of language. The construction of a literary language that does not reproduce the common, but rises through difficulty, finds in Mena a deliberate antecedent.
Luis Gómez Canseco’s edition allows for a critical re-reading of the text, highlighting both its procedures and its internal tensions. Apart from its function within the courtly framework of Juan II, the poem is constituted as a central piece in the transition from medieval poetry to pre-classical forms, establishing a genealogy that will be updated in a different key during the Golden Age.
