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Juan Meléndez Valdés
Juan Meléndez Valdés | |
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 Portrait by Goya in 1797, Bowes Museum. | |
| Born | March 11, 1754 |
| Died | May 24, 1817 (aged 63) |
| Writing career | |
| Genre | Spanish poetry of the 18th century |
| Signature | |
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Juan Meléndez Valdés (Ribera del Fresno, March 11, 1754 – Montpellier, France, May 24, 1817) was a Spanish poet, jurist and politician.
Biography
He came from a family of the hidalgo nobility. His father was Juan Antonio Meléndez Valdés and his mother María de los Ángeles Díaz Cacho, and he had numerous siblings. After his birth the family settled in Almendralejo, and at the age of seven he lost his mother.
In 1767 he traveled to the Court[clarification needed] to study Latin and philosophy under the guidance of his elder brother, Esteban, at the Colegio de Santo Tomás, and he later entered the Reales Estudios de San Isidro, where he learned moral philosophy and Greek. Finally, in 1772 he began studying Law at the University of Salamanca, while at the same time writing his first poems and frequenting the poetic gatherings (tertulias), especially that of Friar Juan Fernández de Rojas, better known as Liseno, and, in 1773, that of José Cadalso, who introduced him to French culture.
In 1774 his father died, and his character became definitively melancholic. In 1775 he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Law, and in 1777 his brother Esteban also died. He provisionally held the chair of Greek language and met Jovellanos.
In 1780 he won the poetry prize of the Real Academia Española with his work Batilo. In 1781 he returned to the University of Salamanca to take up the chair of Humanities. In 1783 he earned his doctorate in law. During this time he wrote "Las enamoradas anacreónticas" and "Los besos de amor", and he married María Andrea de Coca.
In 1784 Meléndez competed for one of the three prizes offered by the City of Madrid for the best dramatic composition, winning one of them with Las bodas de Camacho el rico. By this point he already enjoyed great fame throughout the country. He had matured and was known to all the intellectuals, poets and writers of the time.
In 1785 the famous printer Joaquín Ibarra published the first volume of his poems with great success, and several editions were produced. In 1789 he began serving as a prosecutor for seven months, and with the favor of Jovellanos he obtained successive posts as judge of the court in Zaragoza in 1789, chancellor in Valladolid in 1791, and prosecutor of the Sala de Alcaldes de Casa y Corte in Madrid in 1797, a post he would hold for barely seven months. He then wrote his Discursos forenses, which circulated in manuscript form until they were published during the Liberal Triennium.
With the fall of Jovellanos, Meléndez was forced to leave Madrid on August 27, 1798, and he was sent to supervise the works on a barracks being built in Medina del Campo, which in practice amounted to a punishment. But in 1802 his emoluments as prosecutor were restored to him and he went to live in Zamora, where he devoted himself to social projects and to study. He then moved to Salamanca and to Madrid.
In May 1808 he was commissioned by the Supreme Junta to go to Oviedo, in the company of the Count of Pinar, to calm the spirits of the people of Oviedo, who had risen up. As soon as they arrived they were imprisoned on the charge of seeking to punish the patriots. On June 19, after several weeks in prison, the authorities tried to transfer them, but the coach that was to transport him was assaulted. Meléndez Valdés and the Count of Pinar were on the verge of being shot by the crowd, accused of being traitors. In the end they were imprisoned again and, after being put on trial, were released in August of that same year.
After the French occupation, he entered the service of Joseph I, holding posts on the Council of State and receiving the decoration of Knight of the Royal Order of Spain, which would bring him serious problems as an afrancesado upon the departure of the King after the Napoleonic Invasion of Spain.
Having fled to France, he lived successively in Toulouse, Montpellier, Nîmes, Alès and Montauban. His health deteriorated, he suffered from severe depression, and four years later he died in Montpellier. His remains returned to Madrid in 1900 and, after a brief stay in the Pantheon of Illustrious Men, they finally rest in a joint mausoleum with Goya, Moratín and Donoso Cortés, the work of Ricardo Bellver, in the San Isidro Cemetery.
In addition to those already mentioned, other works by the author are Poesías (1785), A Llaguno (1794), Sobre el fanatismo (1795), Alarma española (1808), Oda a José Bonaparte (1810–1811), Prólogo de Nimes (1815) and Discursos Forenses (1821).
Works
- Poesías, Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1820, 4 vols. There are two issues, because, as it was published during the constitutional period, it was suspended for three years and its circulation was only authorized after suppressing the prologue by the author Meléndez Valdés and his "Vida" by Manuel José Quintana.
- Discursos forenses, Madrid, Imprenta Nacional, 1821.
See also
Bibliography
- Astorgano Abajo, Antonio. Juan Meléndez Valdés, humanista. Revista de estudios extremeños, ISSN 0210-2854, Vol. 60, No. 1, 2004, pp. 289–400. Study on the Chair at Salamanca. Publications of the Diputación de Badajoz.
- Astorgano Abajo, Antonio. Biografía de D. Juan Meléndez Valdés. Diputación Provincial. Badajoz, 1996.
- Colford, W.E. Juan Meléndez Valdés. New York, 1942.
- Demerson, Georges. Don Juan Meléndez Valdés y su tiempo, 1754-1817. Editorial Taurus. Madrid, 1971.
External links
- Works by Juan Meléndez Valdés on Spanish Wikisource
- Digitized works by Juan Meléndez Valdés in the Biblioteca Digital Hispánica of the National Library of Spain
- Juan Meléndez Valdés Author Library in the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library
