Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco

Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco, Marquis of Villena

Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco y Zúñiga (born September 7, 1650 in Marcilla, Navarra , † June 29, 1725 in Madrid ) was Grande de España , Marqués of Villena and Duke of Escalona . He was the founding director of the Real Academia Española , which is still the main institution for the care of the Spanish language .

Life

Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco was the eighth Marqués of Villena , a family with roots in the Portuguese nobility who had settled in Castile . Since then, the family had held important positions at court and in politics in all generations. Juan Manuel was born in a village when his father Diego López de Pacheco Cabrera y Bobadilla was on his way to Pamplona to take over the office of Viceroy of Navarre and New Spain . In 1651 the mother Juana María Francisca de Zuñiga died and the following year the father, so that the child was raised by his uncle Juan Francisco Pacheco, the bishop of Cuenca . With him he received a rich education, which included knowledge of the classical languages, Italian and French.

The Marquis of Villena took part in the Great Turkish War under Leopold I in Hungary, from which he returned wounded. In 1687, Charles II awarded him the Order of the Golden Fleece for his work . In 1689 he was appointed ambassador to Rome and in 1691 Viceroy of Navarre. The following year he became viceroy of Aragon , in 1693 of Catalonia . An accident in a campaign against the French in 1694 led to his retreat into private life. After the death of Charles II in 1700 he performed important services abroad for Spain: in 1701 he became viceroy of Sicily and Naples , where he stayed for six years. There he was captured by Austria during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1707. The treatment must have been cruel, as he returned crooked legs and was forced to walk on crutches for the rest of his life. After the battle of Brihuega it was exchanged in 1711. In 1713 he was appointed Mayordomo mayor at the court of Philip V and at the same time released from all obligations.

Establishment of the Real Academia Española

The Marquis of Villena was considered one of the most educated Spaniards of his time, strongly influenced by the French way of life. He maintained a large library, which had also included the library of his uncle, the Bishop of Cuenca. A group of friends met at his home, including librarians from the king, examiners from the Inquisition , a Hebrew professor from the University of Salamanca, and a grammarian. Here the idea arose to publish a dictionary of Spanish based on the Italian and French models. For this purpose they decided on August 3, 1713 to found an academy. In fact, the plans of the Marquis of Villena went far beyond that: he had actually intended a “General Academy of Sciences and Arts” ( Academia general de Ciencias y Artes ).

At the same meeting, the Marquis of Villena was elected director. On October 3, 1714, the king granted them his protection, so that the institution has since been allowed to call itself Real Academia Española ("Royal Spanish Academy"). In 1715 the statutes were published, a seal that shows a melting pot in the fire and the motto Limpia, fija y da esplendor ("cleans, determines and gives shine") determined. In September all 24 seats - with the exception of one member who had died in the meantime - were occupied and the academy was ready to work.

Although the academics were making rapid progress, the Marquis of Villena did not live to see the publication of the dictionary Diccionario de la lengua castellana (“Castilian” means something like “Spanish” in this context). The first volume appeared in 1726, a year after his death; the work is better known as the Diccionario de Autoridades . From it emerged the short version of the Diccionario de la lengua española , which has been the authoritative dictionary of the Spanish language ever since. The director's office of the Royal Academy remained in the family until 1751 when the founder's nephew, Juan López Pacheco, died.

literature

• Alonso Zamora Vicente : La Real Academia Española . Espasa Calpe, Madrid 1999, ISBN 84-239-9185-7 , pp. 22-31.
• Emilio Cotarelo: La fundación de la Real Academia Española y su primer director, D. Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco, marqués de Villena . In: Boletín de la Real Academia Española. Vol. 1, 1914, ISSN  0210-4822 , pp. 2-8, pp. 89-127.

Web links

• Real Academia Española, 2014

Single receipts

1. ↑ Baptismal register of the Marcilla parish, page 101, "En la Villa de Marcilla en ocho días del mes de setiembre de mil y seiscientos y cincuenta años = Yo el Lido. Domingo ferriz Moreno Vicario de la Villa de Peralta, Bautice en caso de necesidad a un niño a quien se puso por nombre Juan Manuel María del Aurora Hijo legítimo de los Excmos señores Don Diego López Pacheco, Sr Marques de Villena Duque de Escalona, ​​Conde de S. Esteban, Marques de Moya y de la Exsma Sra Dona Juana de Çuñiga , su legítima mujer; fue su Padrino, Dn Gaspar Piñero de Elio Sr de Elio y diputado de este Reyno de Navarra; y en veinte y nueve del mismo mes y año le puse los santos óleo y crisma haciendo las demás ceremonias que manda la Iglesia de licencia del Sr Obispo de Pamplona en la capilla del Palacio del Sr Marques de Falces siendo también padrino a esta solemnidad ...
2. ↑ The presentation in this and the next paragraph follows Alonso Zamora Vicente: La Real Academia Española. 1999, p. 23f. and 32f.
3. ^ Zamora Vicente: La Real Academia Española. 1999, p. 32 f.
4. ^ Zamora Vicente: La Real Academia Española. 1999, p. 25.
5. ^ Zamora Vicente: La Real Academia Española. 1999, p. 26.
6. ↑ Pedro Álvarez de Miranda: Los diccionarios del español moderno (= Biblioteconomía y Administración Cultural. Vol. 236). Trea, Somonte-Cenero et al. 2011, ISBN 978-84-9704-512-4 , p. 18.
7. ^ Zamora Vicente: La Real Academia Española. 1999, p. 28.
8. ^ Zamora Vicente: La Real Academia Española. 1999, p. 26.
9. ^ Zamora Vicente: La Real Academia Española. 1999, p. 50.

predecessor	Office	successor
Alejandro Bournonville	Viceroy of Navarre 1691–1692	Baltasar de Zúñiga y Guzmán
Antonio Ibáñez de la Riva Herrera	Viceroy of Aragon 1693	Domingo Judice
Manuel Alonso Pérez de Guzmán y Pimentel	Viceroy of Catalonia 1693–1694	Francisco de Agurto
Pedro Colón, Duke of Veragua	Viceroy of Sicily 1701–1702	Francisco Judice, Cardinal (Interim)
Luis Francisco de la Cerda	Viceroy of Naples 1702–1707	Georg Adam, Count of Martinitz
	Director of the Real Academia Española August 3, 1713–29. June 1725	Mercurio López Pacheco, 9th Duke of Escalona