biography
| name: |
Masdeu, Juan Francisco
|
pronunciation:
[masdayoo]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1744–1817)
|
| biography:
| Historian and encyclopaedic writer, born in Palermo, NW Spain. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1759, but was exiled with the rest of the Order before completing his studies, and went to Ferrara, and later Rome. When the Order was dissolved, he returned to Spain as a secular priest, becoming archivist at León Cathedral. On the fall of Carlos IV (his protector), in 1808 he accompanied him to Rome, but returned yet again when Pope Pius VII restored the Order. His massive Historia crítica de España y de la cultura española (20 vols, 1783–1805) did not extend beyond the 11th-c, but was placed on the index for, among other reasons, its scepticism of traditions not fully documented. His Respuesta... to his censor (1793) defended the work against the Inquisitorial ban. The first two volumes of his encyclopaedic Historia appeared in Italian in 1781. He also composed a Memorial (1800) against the French Revolution, and an Arte poética fácil (1801) in dialogue. |
|
|
