Ramn Menndez Pidal

Personal

Vocation

Notable

Spanish philologist and historian. He worked extensively on the history of the Spanish language and Spanish folklore and folk poetry. One of his main topics was the history and legend of The Cid. Professor of Romance philology at the University of Madrid (1899–1939), he was also director of the Centre of Historical Studies. Among his first notable works were Manual elemental de gramática histórica española (1904; “Manual of Historical Spanish Grammar”) and the commentary El cantar de mío Cid (1908–11; “The Song of My Cid”). Founding editor in 1914 of the Revista de filología española (“Journal of Spanish Philology”), he was also twice president of the Spanish Academy (1929–39 and 1948–68). Menéndez Pidal was elected to the Spanish Royal Academy (Real Academia Española) in 1901, and in 1925 its director. However, he resigned this position in 1939 as a protest to the political climate in Spain at the time, under the Republic. During the Spanish Civil War he was exiled to France, Cuba and the United States. Menéndez’ vast and meticulous research included monographs on folklore, literary history, the stylistics of Theresa of Ávila, Lope de Vega, and others, and on etymology and place-names. Throughout all his works Menéndez Pidal stressed the native roots of Spanish culture, including the Basque, Gothic, and Arabic. He died 14 November 1968, Madrid. Link to Wikipedia biography