Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the Spanish Empire would not have sur-
vived as long and as securely as it did.
medieval Castilian literature were published
in 1910.
Among the most significant publications
of Menéndez were Manual de gramática
histórica española (Manual of historical
Spanish grammar, 1904), an expanded
critical edition of the Cantar de mío Cid
(1908-12), Poesía juglaresca y juglares (Min-
strelsy poetry and minstrels, 1924), Orígenes
del español (Origins of Spanish, 1926), La
España del Cid (The Spain of El Cid, 1929),
and Romancero hispánico (Spanish ballads,
1951). These and other writings appeared
in numerous editions and remain the stan-
dard references on their respective subjects.
Menéndez also found time to act as general
editor of the multivolume Historia de España
(History of Spain). When, toward the end
of the scholar's life, a Hollywood epic was
produced under the title El Cid, he was
asked to lend his name and fame to the
film by giving his imprimatur, so to speak,
to the historical and literary accuracy of
this cinematic version of the subject to
which he had devoted his life. A gentleman
of the old school, Menéndez Pidal limited
himself to the comment that the actor
Charlton Heston presented a fine figure of
the medieval hero. On the inevitable com-
promises made in movie scripts, he offered
no comment.
Menéndez Pidal, Ramón
(1869-1968)
Spanish scholar
A profound and productive scholar whose
career spanned most of the 20th century,
Menéndez Pidal was trained at the Univer-
sity of Madrid, where he was a student of
M ARCELINO M ENÉNDEZ Y P ELAYO . Like his
teacher, he was primarily a student of Span-
ish medieval literature but ranged widely
over the whole of Spanish and European
thought, society, and historical experience.
Menéndez Pidal first attracted public atten-
tion in 1883 when he was awarded a spe-
cial price by the Spanish Royal Academy for
his critical work on the epic poem Cantar de
mío Cid. That great figure of medieval his-
tory and legend would be a reference point
throughout his life. He fulfilled his admir-
ers' expectations in 1896 when he won the
Spanish Royal Academy of History's award
for La leyenda de los siete infantes de Lara.
Three years later he was named to the pro-
fessorship of romance philology at the Uni-
versity of Madrid, a position that he would
hold for the next four decades. During those
years Menéndez played an increasingly
important role in the Spanish Royal Acad-
emy, of which he became a member in
1902. He was chosen director of the Royal
Academy in 1925 and served until 1939. He
resumed this office in 1947. He founded the
Revista de filología española and the Centro de
Estudios Históricos, where he trained the
rising generation of Spanish historians. He
also became well known abroad, traveling
and lecturing in Europe and America. His
lectures at Johns Hopkins University on
Menéndez y Pelayo, Marcelino
(1856-1912)
Spanish historian and literary critic
It has been said that if the record of the
world's intellectual achievements were
destroyed in some catastrophe and only
the writings of Menéndez y Pelayo sur-
vived, the heritage of modern civilization
could be reconstructed from his intellectual
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search