Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo (November 3, 1856 – May 2, 1912) was a Spanish scholar, historian and literary critic. Even though his main interest was the History of ideas, and Hispanic philology in general, he also cultivated poetry, translation and philosophy.
He was born at Santander where he showed that he was an infant prodigy. Only 15 years old, he studied under Manuel Milà i Fontanals at the University of Barcelona (1871–1872), then proceeded to the central University of Madrid. His academic success was unprecedented; a special law was passed by the Cortes to enable him to become a professor at the age of twenty-two. Three years later he was elected a member of the Real Academia Española; but by this time he was well known throughout Spain.
His first volume, Estudios críticos sobre escritores montañeses (1876), had attracted little notice, and his scholarly Horacio en Español (1877) appealed only to students. He became famous, through his Ciencia española (1878), a collection of polemical essays defending the national tradition against the attacks of political and religious reformers. The unbending orthodoxy of this work is even more noticeable in the Historia de los heterodoxos españoles (1880–1886), and the writer was hailed as the champion of the ultramontane party. As the Catholic Encyclopedia (1908–10) described his work "Every page of his writings reveals a wealth of strong common sense, clear perception, and a vein of wonderful and ever varying erudition. Thoroughly Catholic in spirit, he found his greatest delight, he declared, in devoting all his work to the glory of God and the exaltation of the name of Jesus.".[1]
His lectures (1881) on Calderón established his reputation as a literary critic; and his work as an historian of Spanish literature was continued in his Historia de las ideas estéticas en España (1881–1891), his edition (1890–1903) of Lope de Vega, his Antología de poetas líricos castellanos (1890–1906), and his Origenes de la novela (1905). Although some of his judgments, mainly those related to the defense of the Spanish tradition, are no longer accepted, his studies of Spanish literature (medieval, Renaissance, and Golden Age) are still valuable.
He was professor of Spanish literature at the University of Madrid (1878–98) and director of the Biblioteca Nacional de España (1898–1912).
He is buried in Santander Cathedral, where his monument may still be seen.
A History of the Spanish Heterodox, Book One, Translated by Eladia Gomez-Posthill; Saint Austin Press, London, 2009; ISBN 1901157989.
English language site dealing with the History of the Spanish Heterodox.