ARJONA, MANUEL MARÍA DE

MANUEL MARÍA DE ARJONA (ARJONA, MANUEL MARÍA de). Spanish poet, born in Osuna near Seville on 12 June 1771, died in Madrid on 25 July 1820. His sources of inspiration can be reduced to three: Latin literature, Italian literature, and religion. Among the Latin poets he especially cherished Horace; from modern Italian poets he translated some works by Verri, Filicaia, and Guarini; Rome inspired one of his most praised compositions in classical taste, entitled precisely Las ruinas de Roma (1808). In other poems, such as those A la Natividad de Nuestra Señora, A la Inmaculada Concepción, A Jesús, Al pueblo hebreo, we are in the realm of religious sentiment, which he possessed vivid and sincere, and which informed not only his verses but also his life—a life singularly troubled, which, as canon of the chapel of St Ferdinand and later of the cathedral of Córdoba, led him to be involved in accusations of complicity with the French invasion, despite the fact that he always strove to fulfill his duty with zeal and patriotic spirit.