Juan de Iriarte

Juan de Iriarte

Juan de Iriarte y Cisneros (born December 15, 1702 in Puerto de La Orotava (today Puerto de la Cruz ), † August 23, 1771 in Madrid ) was a Spanish linguist .

education

Juan de Iriarte was born on December 15, 1702 in Puerto de La Orotava (now Puerto de la Cruz ). His father was Juan de Iriarte y Echevarría his mother Teresa de Cisneros y Escañuela. At the age of eleven he traveled to Paris with a friend of the family. There he was taught in the best schools of the time a. A. at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand . One of his teachers was Carlos Porée, who was also Voltaire's teacher . He received a comprehensive education in all subjects of classical philology, in addition to perfect knowledge of the Latin, Greek and French languages. He spent some time in London to improve his English.

activity

In 1722 he returned to his homeland, Tenerife . In 1724 he went to Madrid where he worked as a teacher in noble families. One of his students was the future Duke of Béjar and Alba. He also taught the Portuguese Infante Manuel when he was at the Madrid court. He gained great recognition from the kings Philip V and his sons Ferdinand VI. and Charles III. During this time he worked on several literary magazines. He was considered an important literary critic. He translated various works by Voltaire and collected material to write a history of the Canary Islands. His Latin - Castilian and Castilian - Latin dictionary did not get beyond the letter "A" due to lack of time. The "Latin grammar" in prose and verse occupied him for over forty years. As a royal librarian, he started creating catalogs in 1729, with works in the fields of geography, chronology and mathematics. As an important Latinist and Graecist , he also held the office of translator in the Foreign Ministry from 1742. In 1743 he was appointed a member of the "Academia de la Lengua". He was one of the founding members of the Real Academia Española . His high position and good financial position not only enabled him to make a good living, he was also able to give his three nephews, Bernardo , Domingo and Tomás de Iriarte y Nieves Ravelo an excellent education.

literature

• Nicolás González Lemus, Melecio Hernández Pérez, Isidoro Sánchez García: El Puerto de la Cruz, de ciudad portuaria a turística . Centro de Iniciativas y Turismo del Puerto de la Cruz, Puerto de la Cruz, 2005 ISBN 84-609-7231-3
• Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge , Volume 27, pp. 719–720, digitized version (eng.)