Sebastián de Covarrubias
Spanish lexicographer and cryptographer (1539-1613)
Sebastián de Covarrubias (1539–1613) was a Spanish lexicographer, cryptographer, chaplain and writer. He wrote the Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española.
Biography and family
Sebastián de Covarrubias's father, Sebastián de Horozco, was a New Christian; his family had converted from Judaism to the Catholic Church. Covarrubias's mother, Maria Valero de Covarrubias Leyva, was from an Old Christian family of great prestige.
Covarrubias studied in Salamanca from 1565 to 1573. During that time he lived with his uncle, Juan de Covarrubias, who was a canon of the Cathedral of Salamanca. After Sebastián became a priest, the elder Covarrubias resigned his position in favor of his nephew. Thereafter, Covarrubias became chaplain to Philip II of Spain, a consultant to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and canon of the Cuenca Cathedral.
Work
In 1610 Covarrubias became seriously ill, but he recovered and began work as an author. He published his Emblemas morales ("Moral Emblems") in 1610.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 16, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3816857. VIAF identifies the subject as 100187896. The Library of Congress control number is n94080368. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1539, 1613, 1565 and 1573.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sebastián de Covarrubias” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.