Historical context: whale fishing, counter-reform (and witch burning)

Céline Mounole began his speech by recalling that Ziburu was an important port in the 17th century, “economically powerful, among other things, because whale fishing was strong at that time. Many young people from Ziburu went fishing across the Atlantic. In Etxeberri’s work there are plenty of references to the sea and he wrote that he remembered the fishermen.”

Etxeberri’s work is framed in the Catholic counterform: “XVI. In the twentieth century Protestantism spread throughout the kingdom of France through the writings of Calvin. To combat this, the Catholic Church made the Council of Trento and launched a reform, known as the counter-form. Preseski, in the seventeenth century, this reform was forcefully extended and in turn numerous monasteries and devotional areas were created. In this context is the construction of the Les Recollets convent of Ziburu, built between 1611-1613”.

The production of devotional books was of great importance in the dissemination of the foundations of Catholic doctrine and in the contribution of people to faith. On the one hand, basic texts were created for priests, but also documents for lay people, in small format, to facilitate their reading.

In this context, labortans flourished: “XVII. In the first half of the twentieth century, the number of texts written in Labortano increased, with a boom similar to that of other regions of the Basque Country. Most of the texts have been written in the surroundings of San Juan de Luz, Ziburu and Sara.” Six books were written in Basque, that is, books designed and created in Basque, and many translations of religious texts were also published. “In quality there was also a flourishing, they were high-level writers: Joanes Etxeberri de Ziburu, Joanes Haranburu, Pierre Argaiñaratz, Axular... The shadow of the latter has come to this day, while others have been forgotten.” From the second half of the seventeenth century, on the contrary, translations or adaptations would predominate and a single book created in Euskera would be drafted.

From the public, a listener recalls that at that time there were witch hunts: “It was very traumatic. The men of Ziburu, Donibane Lohizune and Zugarramurdi went to the sea and the villages were depopulated by men and women played an important role, including the seroras (for example, gave masses). At that time the people of Ziburu had a great conflict with Mr. de Urtubi. In 1607 Pierre de Lancre came and the population suffered a brutal attack. In 1613 the recollections were brought to the monastery to solve the situation, Pier de Lancre goes home and Bertrand Etxauz [son of Mr. Etxauzia de Baigorri, who will appear at the conference as promoter of the Basque country later] is not very happy with everything that has happened, and says that those dirty sects have to be eliminated, but there are no reforms. [The conference will talk later] Materre also brought people’s education, in the forms of counter-reform.” Mounol left the question in the air: “It would be of great interest to analyze the attitude of these writers to the acts of inquisition. They didn't write anything about it. They were silent.”

The origin of the flourishing of editorial production in Basque: the linguistic conflict

The positive trend of the Church in favor of the Basque Country increased the number of books written in Basque in the first half of the seventeenth century: “The Basque texts of this time are religious texts, the rest of the topics will be addressed from the 18th century. That’s how the Church pushed for the development of Basque texts,” Mounol said.

The actor of this favorable position was Bertrand Etxauz, son of Mr. de Etxauzia de Baigorri, who was bishop of Baiona between 1599-1617. Besides being a powerful person in the church, he was very important in cutting Henry IV.aren, which was his remedy: “The name of the farms appears to us on multiple occasions in the writings in Euskera, so it was really an impeller,” Mounol added.

The growth of editorial production in Basque began with Esteve Materre, a well-known French writer. He studied Basque and translated into Basque Christian Doctrine, published in 1617. As he left it written, Etxauze pushed it forward: “My first greeting to the Basque Country had to do to you, because I owe everything I know in this language to you. On your own, with your effort, your heart and your place of residence, which you yourself have pointed out the people of Sara, where I have learned what I know,” he wrote in the introduction of his book, in which he offered the book Etxaleku. “We have Etxauz’s key in the beginnings of the Basque writing movement. At that time Sara's parish priest was Axular. The introduction by Mater shows where the idea of translating that book into Basque has come from: He was bishop of Etxauz of the bishopric of Baiona.”

Why was a Frenchman asked about the translation of that book and not a Basque? “It would be easier for Idu to accept that the word of god was given in Basque made by a Frenchman who was already famous in France,” Mounol replied.

Both Mater and Joanes Etxeberri brought linguistic conflicts to their texts. “Although an ecclesiastical sector joined the drafting of religious texts in Basque, another sector did not agree very much. Joanes Etxeberri shows this in the second part of his book Manual de Debozionez, which he offers to his bishop of Baiona, Claude Rueil (who did not know Euskera), who will understand why he is heading in Basque" [we have brought all the verses of this article to the current wording, hoping it will be easier to read]:

For this I have chosen you as the pattern of your works

Because with a rail error you condemn.

I offer him to keep the wolf,

The tongue of Inbidios for your lust.

People must be defended by the king.

To speak so well of a language.

Mounol concluded: “Therefore, the authors in Euskera claim the protection of the powerful clergy, as they collect blows. The book Etxeberri wrote to take him to church was dedicated to Etxauzia, although he was no longer a bishop of Bayona. But with this he reviews the protection and acceptance of a man with a great reputation. The texts in Basque emerged in the first half of the seventeenth century in a religious context and of linguistic oppression”.

As French becomes consolidated in the middle class, books created in Euskera decrease.

In the second half of the seventeenth century there was a rapid decline in the number of books in Basque. Why? “It should be noted that in the first half of the seventeenth century, when editorial production in Basque flourished, French was not so included in the peoples here. Many people only knew Basque, or if they knew another language they knew Latin. Trained people learned to read in Latin but spoke Basque. Given this situation, there was a need for texts in Euskera,” Mounol explained.

But in the second half of the seventeenth century, French was introduced normally, middle-class people did not need more books in Basque, as they were able to use texts directly in French. Thus, the production of books in Euskera, both in quantity and in quality, became evident.

Joanes Etxeberri “Ziburukoa”, who gave Basque “on the Spanish”

Why is the adjective “Ziburukoa” added to the writer Joanes Etxeberri? “For there was another Joanes Etxeberri, Sarah’s. He was secular, doctor and left another kind of work,” Mounol explained. He also explained this other element that makes it difficult to keep track of Ziburu's writer and that caused laughter: “After the analysis of the founding and sacrificial documents at the time, Joanes Etxeberri was attending at that time.”

The investigator provided limited data on Etxeberri: “1580. It looks like he was born around 1638. We know that their letters existed, but unfortunately their manuscripts have not come to us. The only ones that have come to this day are their three books.” But fortunately, the uniqueness of his books is paratexos and “those pre- or post-text writings give us a lot of information about him.” She belonged to an affluent family, studied in the Jesuits and was a PhD in Theology. “But it’s hard to know his trajectory as a priest. They say that in 1638 he was a pastor of Ziburu,” Mounol added.

A man of fame, in his three books, the verses written by his friends in his honor appear. Here are the coplas installed by the doctor Irigoiti:

Old people were going to fall Euskera

Entering the new house, he refounded himself.

The Castellanoparlantes address their peoples

They won't lose Euskera with desire.

What was once for all

It shall be placed at the maximum height raised by Etxeberri.

I was honored by the Basques.

because it's about the Spanish that Euskera has given.

Mounol concluded: “In all the praising verses made by his friends, Etxeberri’s ability to write poems is mentioned, but it is particularly emphasized that it has been done in Euskera.”

Poetry in verse in Etxeberri's three books

The first book published by Etxeberri is the Debozion Manual, published for the first time in 1627 and for the second time in 1669.

The second book is Noelas and other new spiritual songs, dating back to 1630. There he gathered Christmas songs and to sing in honor of God and the saints. It was a great success, since in the seventeenth century it had six editions.

The last book is a book that serves the Church. The date on which it is the first is unknown, but the second edition that has reached so far is 1665. Mix verso and prose. It explains what the time is and contains timetables for that year and for the next twenty years. He explains the obligations of Christians, the foundations of doctrine, prayers... “It’s different in terms of format, because it’s very small, to take it to church in the pocket,” Mounol said.

Etxeberri’s first work, Devotional Manual, was explained closely by Mounol, “the most singular, both in content and in quality. It has been given in bertsos in Basque and they were made to sing these verses.” Etxeberri recognized at the entrance why he gave verso:

Seeing that I am Basque by birth

Our nation is the beloved copla.

I've established with verses.

It's faster and more often remarkable.

Mounol then read several Etxeberri verses to delight the audience. Behold, for example, what he wrote about death, saying that it equals the poor and the rich:

Rich poor

Bloody O, the heart of nature,

Araitzina hobiratu is our mother Eva.

Every time honey forgives us big or ttipis.

But guns are opposed to the world.

The arrow throws the one who has up to,

And the ingenious life of the old, of the young.

How does the herb sega itch?

It goes up to the slums and the poor.

Kings and fraudsters demonstrate this.

That you know for her the great choice.

I couldn't rub yours.

To the sharpened souls that cut on both sides.

There is no sympathy for your tragic.

No herbs in the fields to heal the wound.

Mounol emphasized the poetic value of these verses: “It uses multiple images, not limited to simple sentences, they are texts of great rhetoric. The goal is to move the reader and make them believe.” Etxeberri created a sentence for each specific moment of life and collected it in Manuala, so he explained with great precision the daily life, for example, for young children there is a sentence: what must be sung when the child has become ill, what to sing when the child has been cured to thank god, what to sing when the little child dies ... There are also sentences based on time: when you see the lightning, when you hear the rain, when you see the sun and the moon what to sing... He has prayers to travel: to be lucky, prayers to say in the face of mistreatment... It has prayers of romerías, prayers to make beige... And there are cruise prayers, “and these are the most special ones,” Mounol said.

In fact, at the beginning of the second part of this book, Etxeberri first warned the sailors reading, explaining why he wrote expressly for the sailors much of his book: the sea, the suit that most believers say he produces. “If you don’t know what devotion is, you leave the sea,” Etxeberri said. Here you have the song in full verse:

Notice to the reader Itsasturi

Let's see if you don't know who the devotor is.

It leaves the way to learn to the sea.

The horseradish sang to them.

Because there are major diseases that usually occur in the year.

Those who visit him have many times in the mouth Jangoikoa.

Ilkhi and has a good forgetfulness.

Here I have some thoughtfully formed sentences.

For anyone who needs a sailor to remember it.

Every moment has risks of great goals,

Because people are scared.

The sailor's wife has husbands in the morning.

And changing the ditxa, widow in the afternoon.

Now a bourgeois millionaire, soon without mois,

Because the wind is good in the water.

The sea is also the hardest to officiate.

He who forgets the earth.

The other face of tiredness is near death,

The thickness of the keel of the herbaceous boat.

For him, sailor, pleas God,

The model of sick sentences.

The life of the peril that looks at you by the males,

And he won the Safe sweat moi.

And the big bottlenecks at your best,

To be recited to Pietoso.

And so did Jangoikoak Itsasoaren.

They'll keep the balloon with it from the peril.

Here are the prayers of people from the world of the sea to make a good trip, to protect the boat... These are the most famous and the ones that attract the public the most. One of the verses read by Mounol is:

Hit the whale and

& '97; Lord, more than us of wood,

We've injured the whale with the bruise.

Please do us the grace (Jaun Puxanta),

Great Frequently Detained Fish.

Without hurting any crane with its strength,

In leash with tail or chest.

Or don't turn the boat past the kilo.

Or downstream without carrying with you.

Please trust us in all these evils.

So we thank you for coming back to the ground.

The benefit is great, the perila is also great.

Let's look at life in principle.

Mounol read a series of fishermen’s verses that had to do with the public: one spoke of Etxeberri having a sentence for every moment of fishing the whale, and so he would like to know if the writer himself had been to some of those fisheries, because “he says so clear that he had lived things.” He also pointed out that this book would serve to give more culture to the men of the sea. Another postponed the question: “But would a fisherman read it?” Mounol replied that the fishermen would learn by singing these verses: “They had a very elaborate memory at that time and they could learn it by reading one and learning from ear.”

Why has the shadow of Joanes Etxeberri been lost?

Mounol explained that the 17th-century poet Oihenart mightily saw the works of Joanes Etxeberri: “His poetry didn’t like anything, he used that kind of rhyme he thought was poor, he had a tendency to hyperbaton (because he changed the order of the usu words) and a special grammar that provoked him...” But Mounol added that Oihenart had a different conception from that of poetry, “he wanted to develop in Basque the Bertsolarism of the French poetry model. And from that point of view he saw with evil eyes the works of Joanes Etxeberri and also those of Bernat Etxepare.” Meanwhile, Etxeberri used in his works a traditional bertso model, a 15-syllable line.

In the 18th century Manuel Larramendi mentioned Etxeberri in his dictionary. “But after him it has been forgotten, unlike Axular.” However, Mounol referred to the academic papers on Etxeberri: “Isaac Atutxa intended to make a new edition of Etxeberri’s three books, but unfortunately he did not”; Beñat Oihartzabal did several works on the language used by Etxeberri in the verses; Aurelia Arkotxa demonstrated that at that time it was customary to reproduce the structures of the Latin and that from there it is explained that Etxegularity used the linguistic unilarity.

Mounol noted that there were no new editions that would publish Etxeberri's work: “This has also meant that Etxeberri’s work has not become popular. On the contrary, the works of Etxepare and Axular were republished in the renaissance of the nineteenth century”.

But Mounol recalled that Etxeberri’s work eventually gained great fame, remembering that the book Noela was published six times and used in many churches. To date the song Oi Eguberri has arrived, which is sung that night in the churches of Iparralde and which Azkue picked up in his basket.

Mounol concluded his speech with the following phrase from Lafitt: “Etxeberri should never die in the heart of the Basques.” And it issued the following last request: “The Basques and the people of Ziburu are indebted to Etxeberri for their contribution. Let us hope that the works of Etxeberri are well valued and that the Basques will know them and make some honourable gestures: it would be good if Ziburu had a street, a square or a good auditorium with the name of Joanes Etxeberri”.