Nebrija (or Nebrissa or Nebrixa), Elio Antonio Martínez de Cala de (1444–1522)

Spanish scholar and writer. One of the greatest Spanish humanist of the Renaissance, Nebrija published the first sound Latin grammar to be used in Spain, a Spanish-Latin dictionary, and the first scientific grammar of any European vernacular, Gramática sobre la lengua castellana (1492). He taught at the university of Salamanca.

He was born at Lebrija (in Latin Nebrissa), Seville, and studied at Salamanca and then (from 1461 to 1470) at Bologna, concentrating on classical languages, but also reading widely in law, medicine, and theology. He taught grammar and rhetoric at Salamanca from 1475. In 1502 he was one of the scholars gathered by Cardinal Ximénes de Cisneros at Alcalá to produce the Complutensian Polyglot Bible. He was royal chronicler during 1508–09. In 1513, failing to get the chair in grammar at Salamanca, he moved to the university of Alcalá.

His celebrated Latin grammar, Introductiones latine appeared in 1481, and he later translated it into Spanish for Queen Isabella. His Latin-Spanish dictionary, Interpretatio dictionum ex sermone latino in hispaniensem, was published in 1492, followed by his Spanish-Latin dictionary about 1494 (expanded 1516). He also published a book in which he attempted to standardize Spanish spelling, Reglas de orthographia en la lengua castellana (1517), an educational manual based on the classics, and commentaries on the classical authors Persius and Prudentius.