Jose Amador de los Rios
José Amador de los Ríos y Serrano (Baena, January 1, 1816 - Seville, February 17, 1878) was a Spanish historian, literary critic and archaeologist.
Biography
José Amador de los Ríos y Serrano was born on January 1, 1816 in Baena, the son of María del Carmen Serrano and the sculptor José de los Ríos. He grew up in a highly educated middle-class family. His younger brother was Demetrio de los Ríos, an architect and archaeologist, father of Blanca de los Ríos and Nostench, a renowned writer.
He studied Humanities and Philosophy in Córdoba at the Colegio de la Asunción and at the San Pelagio Conciliar Seminary.
In 1832 the father was employed as a sculptor for the Royal Sites and the family moved to Madrid. He continued his studies at the Reales Estudios de San Isidro and enrolled at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts to learn painting with Federico de Madrazo. At that time he wrote poetry and read the Spanish chronicles and the Historia of Juan de Mariana. He studied French and Italian languages and literature at the Madrid Ateneo with José Madrazo and Alberto Lista, in whose classes on theater in the course of 1836-37 he conceived the idea of preparing a History of Spanish Literature that he published. in 1841-42 translating and expanding the Spanish part of the Histoire de la Littérature du Midi (Paris 1813) by the Swiss Simonde de Sismondi.
When Ferdinand VII died in 1833, his father, a restless man who began and finished his career as a road assistant at the age of forty-seven, had to move again in 1837 to Seville. In this city, José Amador explored the collections of the Colombian Library, investigating all kinds of historical and literary codices. He also participated in gatherings and published a Collection of selected poems and thanks to Manuel María del Mármol, his Sevillian teacher and mentor, he was named honorary academic of the Royal Sevillian Academy of Good Letters in 1839. That same year he had published his first book, Colección de poesías escogidas, with Juan José Bueno.
In 1840, he married María Juana Fernández de Villalta, with whom he would have four sons and a daughter, Isabel Matilde, married to Francisco Fernández y González, scholar and rector of the Central University of Madrid. The other four are Alfonso; Gonzalo, Ramiro Rodrigo, writer, historian, orientalist, lawyer, academic, director of the Archaeological Museum, professor at the Faculty of Law and the Academy of Jurisprudence.
In 1842 he was named a member of the Sociedad de Amigos del País de Baena and the Royal Patriotic Society of Córdoba and his kingdom welcomed him as a member in 1844. That year he published Picturesque Seville, which collects the most important monuments in the city, and premieres Empeños de amor y honra, a comedy. In 1845 he published Picturesque Toledo and as first officer of the Curriculum Directorate, promoting the creation of secondary education institutes throughout all the Spanish provinces.
José Amador began his teaching career in 1848, the year in which he obtained the Chair of Literature at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the Central University of Madrid, where he had as disciples Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, Emilio Castelar, José Canalejas, Leopoldo Alas "Clarin" or Marcelino Menendez Pelayo.
Also in 1848 he published Historical, Political and Literary Studies on the Jews of Spain, which was translated into various languages. He is elected academic number of the Royal Academy of History. With the support of personalities such as Pedro José Pidal (1800-1865), then Minister of the Interior, and his friend and protector Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, he was appointed secretary of the Central Monuments Commission, which will be accompanied by the publication of most of its more than forty-six extensive volumes. He befriends Juan Valera, his former mentor Alberto Lista, Alejandro Dumas, Alejandro Herculano, Prosper Merimée.
Doctor of Literature in 1850, in 1851 the Royal Academy of History entrusted him with the edition of the General and natural history of the Indies, islands and mainland of the Ocean Sea by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, which he concluded in 1856. He also edited the Obras de Don Iñigo López de Mendoza, Marqués de Santillana, with biography, notes and comments in four volumes, which he finished publishing in 1855. In 1853 he was appointed professor of Foreign Literature by the Ministry of Grace and Justice and in 1856 he was appointed theater censor, a position he held free of charge for five years until 1861.
He was appointed dean of the Central University in 1857, which he took advantage of to make some trips through national and foreign archives and libraries. He was elected vice-rector in 1867 and rector in 1868, a position from which he was removed by & # 34; La Gloriosa & # 34; for a short time, since he was reinstated in his chair at the age of two. He was also Inspector General of Public Instruction between 1856 and 1861. This last year he published the first volume of his Historia crítica de la literatura española, dedicated to Latin literature and poetry from the Visigothic period and paid for by the Queen Elizabeth II, with whom he had frequent audiences. In 1859 he became part of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando with a speech "De la arquitectura Mudéjar", in which the term was used for the first time to classify a type of art that was already pointed out in his Picturesque Toledo (1845).
In 1860 he began the work Historia de la Villa y Corte de Madrid in four volumes, the last one from 1864, together with Juan de Dios de la Rada y Delgado and Cayetano Rosell.
Member of the Liberal Union, he participated in active politics: he was a deputy to Cortes for Almería in 1863, although he only served for less than a year.
In 1868 he was elected director of the National Archaeological Museum, although he resigned after "La Gloriosa" upon being dismissed on December 4 as rector of the University; His son Rodrigo would later occupy that position. He took the opportunity to begin his Social, political and religious history of the Jews in Spain and Portugal , which would be published in 1875-76 in three volumes. In 1870 he was returned to his chair at the University through the mediation of Juan Valera, appointed director of Public Institutions. In 1874 he was appointed General Inspector of Public Instruction. In 1876 his sons Alfonso and Gonzalo died. He participates as a founding partner in the Geographical Society of Madrid, but his health is very broken and the doctor orders him to abandon his unrestrained work; he therefore abandoned Madrid and went successively to Córdoba, Málaga and Seville. He died on the morning of February 17 and is buried in the chapel of the Seville University.
He was a multifaceted man (rather mediocre poet, author of three historical dramas, translator) but he is more well known as a historian of ancient Hispanic literature, art historian and archaeologist. He was also an amateur painter.
His seven-volume Historia crítica de la literatura española (1861-1865) ranges from Latino authors born in Spain to the time of the Catholic Monarchs. Following a positivist methodology, he accumulates data, documents and texts, as well as critical judgments. It was mainly used by Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo. In an introduction he writes that he undertook this task motivated by a palpable emptiness regarding the existence of a Spanish literary history and summarizes the main European currents of that discipline at that time.
Archaeological and artistic activity
Amador de los Ríos carried out extensive work in the field of archaeological and artistic heritage. In 1839 he represented the Sevillana Academy in the Itálica excavations directed by another member of the Academy, Ivo de la Cortina. Extended for five years, he was dismissed and Amador de los Ríos wanted to take charge of them.
He published the aforementioned Picturesque Seville (1844), a walk through the most important monuments of this city, and wrote a manuscript that is preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Seville: Italica: History of this famous city, from its foundation to the present day, with all its discoveries (1845).
In 1846, his brother Demetrio de los Ríos, recently graduated in Architecture, joined the excavations as a draughtsman. Between 1860 and 1875, he was in charge of the excavations and published an Archaeological-descriptive report of the Itálica amphitheater (1862), which also included drawings by Ivo de la Cortina and his brother José of the.
In 1848 he published Historical, Political and Literary Studies on the Jews of Spain and was appointed a member of the Royal Academy of History, in whose Antiquities Commission he participated actively together with Aureliano Fernández Guerra and Eduardo Saavedra among others. In 1858 he also entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando with a speech (De la arquitectura Mudejar) in the title of which he introduced the concept of Mudejar art, previously defined by him in his work Picturesque Toledo (1845) to designate the art of Christians in Muslim lands.
Treasure of Guarrazar
His intervention was decisive in 1859 to return the Visigothic treasure of Guarrazar (Toledo), sold to France without permission from the Spanish State. He also ordered excavations to be carried out at the place of discovery and there the funerary inscription was discovered in which, with Aureliano Fernández-Guerra, he identified some verses by Eugenio de Toledo. With these experiences he wrote Latin-Byzantine art in Spain and the Visigothic crowns of Guarrazar: Critical Historical Essay (Madrid 1861), partly in response to the Description du Trésor de Guarrazar published a year earlier by Ferdinand de Lasteyrie in which he argued that the cloisonné technique was foreign to the Peninsula. Furthermore, he identified with Pedro de Madrazo y Kuntz the name of the Visigothic monarch Suintila on one of the crowns.
National Archaeological Museum
He collaborated with Juan de Dios de la Rada on a History of the Town and Court of Madrid. There he incidentally claimed the creation of a National Museum of Antiquities, since the cabinets of the National Library and the Royal Academy of History were no longer sufficient. Emil Hübner, who was in Spain collecting Latin epigraphic inscriptions, supported the project and the National Archaeological Museum was finally created in 1867. A year later José Amador was appointed its director, although as already mentioned he had to resign due to the revolution of 1868.
Works
- Collection of chosen poetry (Seville, 1839).
- History of Spanish literature written in French by Sismonde [sic] of Sismondi; principally translated, scored and completed by José Lorenzo Figueroa and continued by José Amador de los Ríos (Seville: Imprenta de Álvarez y Compañía, 1841-1842).
- Seville picturesque or Description of its most famous artistic monuments... bearing in mind the notes of Juan Colom and Colom... ornada with... views of the main buildings, drawn by Joaquín Domínguez Becquer and Antonio Brabo (Seville: Francisco Álvarez, 1844).
- Toledo picturesque or Description of its most famous monuments (Madrid: Ignacio Boix, 1845).
- Italica: History of this famous city, from its foundation to the present day, with all its discoveries (manuscript of 1845).
- Historical, political and literary studies on the Jews of Spain (1848).
- Edition of the Works by Don Iñigo López de Mendoza, Marqués de Santillana (with biography, notes and comments in four volumes, which ends in 1855).
- Latin-Byzantine art in Spain and the Visigothic crowns of Guarrazar: Critical historical essay (Madrid: Imprenta Nacional, 1861).
- With Juan de Dios de la Rada and Delgado and Cayetano Rosell, History of the Villa and Corte de Madrid (1861, second edition in 1867).
- Critical History of Spanish Literature (7 vols., 1861-1865).
- Social, political and religious history of the Jews in Spain and Portugal (3 vols., 1875-1876).
- La Casa-Lonja de Valencia del Cid (Madrid: José Gil Dorregaray, 1876).
- Monumental and archaeological studies (1877).
- The Holy House of the Cathedral of Oviedo and its oldest art-industrial monuments (Madrid: José Gil Dorregaray, 1877).
- The monastery of San Juan de los Reyes in Toledo (Madrid: José Gil Dorregaray, 1877).
- Gentile mosaics, Galatea mosaic in Elche (Madrid: José Gil Dorregaray, 1877).
- Latin-Byzantine Monuments of Merida (Madrid: José Gil Dorregaray, 1877).
- Chapel of Santa Cristina in the council of Pola de Lena (Asturias) (Madrid: José Gil Dorregaray, 1877).
- Churches of San Salvador de Val-de-God and parish of San Salvador de Priesca in the Council of Villaviciosa (Asturias) (Madrid: José Gil Dorregaray, 1877).
- Church of Saint Michael of Lillo and Palace of Ramiro I, currently destined for parish church under the name of Saint Mary of the Naranco (Asturias, Council of Oviedo) (Madrid: José Gil Dorregaray, 1877).
- Ancient Gate of Bisagra in Toledo (Madrid: José Gil Dorregaray, 1877).
- First religious monuments of Mohammedan art in Toledo: mosques called the Holy Christ of Light and Tornerias (Madrid: José Gil Dorregaray, 1877).
- Triptych-Relicario del Monasterio Cisterciense de Piedra en Aragón (Madrid, 1877).
- With his son Rodrigo Amador de los Ríos and Villalta, Latin-Byzantine monuments of Córdoba (Madrid, 1879).
- Historic-critical report on the tréguas held in 1439 between the Kings of Castile and Granada read in... the Royal Academy of History (Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 1879).
- Poesías de Don José Amador de los Ríos (prologist Juan Valera, Madrid: Imp. y Librería de Eduardo Martínez, 1880).
- Review and edition of the General and Natural History of the Indies, Islands and Firm Land of the Ocean Sea, originally written by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo and Valdés in the 16th century, by the Royal Academy of History (1854).