Juan Francisco Masdeu
Juan Francisco Masdeu (born October 4, 1744 in Palermo , † April 11, 1817 in Valencia ) was a Spanish historian and Jesuit .
Life
Juan Francisco Masdeu studied in Barcelona and entered the order of the Jesuits on December 19, 1759 , in which he distinguished himself through his extensive knowledge and held various offices. After the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain (1767) he withdrew to Italy and became a teacher at the Jesuit seminars in Ferrara and Ascoli . He visited Spain in 1799 but was expelled. When Pope Pius VII restored the Jesuit order, Masdeu went to their college in Rome . In the last years of his life he became interested in Roman antiquities and got into a polemical scientific dispute with the antiquarian Carlo Fea on this subject . He returned to Spain in 1815 and died in Valencia in 1817 at the age of 72.
Masdeu devoted himself to the writing of a general history of Spain, collected numerous materials and initially had them published in Italian ( Storia critica di Spagna e della cultura spagnuola in ogni genere , 1st vol. Foligno 1781, 2nd vol., Florence 1787). Since this writing was not well received, he published an expanded version as Historia critica de España y de la cultura española (20 vols., Madrid 1783-1805) in Spanish. Despite the large size of this work, it remained unfinished and only lasted until the 11th century; If the author had continued it with the same wealth of detail into his own time, the volume of this history of Spain would have increased to a good 50 volumes. Masdeu wrote his historical work in a very critical spirit and with an accuracy that was rare for his time; however, he is more concerned with small details than with the philosophy of history. Masdeu also wrote an Arte poética fácil (1801) and Arte poética italiana (1803).
His work Historia critica de España y de la cultura española was placed on the index of forbidden books by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1826 .
literature
- Masdeu, Juan Francisco , in Encyclopædia Britannica , 11th Edition, 1910-11, Vol. 17, p. 836.
- Masdeu (Jean-François) , in: Louis Gabriel Michaud (Ed.): Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne , 2nd edition, 1843 ff., Vol. 27, p. 181.
Web links
- Masdeu, Juan Francisco , on mcnbiografias (Spanish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jesús Martínez de Bujanda, Marcella Richter: Index des livres interdits: Index librorum prohibitorum 1600-1966 . Médiaspaul 2002, Sherbrooke University. Center d'études de la Renaissance. ISBN 2-89420-522-8 . freely accessible Google eBook , p. 596: MASDEU, Juan Francisco (1744–1817).
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Masdeu, Juan Francisco |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish historian and Jesuit |
DATE OF BIRTH | October 4, 1744 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Palermo |
DATE OF DEATH | April 11, 1817 |
Place of death | Valencia |