Arjona, Manuel María de

ARJONA, MANUEL MARÍA de. - Spanish poet b. in Osuna, near Seville, on 12 June 1771, d. 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 held Horace especially dear; from our poets he translated several things from Verri, from Filicaia and from Guarino; Rome inspired one of his most praised compositions in the classical taste, entitled precisely Las ruinas de Roma (1808). With other poems of his, such as those A la Natividad de Nuestra Señora, A la Immaculada Concepción, A Jesús, Al pueblo hebreo, we are in the field of religious sentiment, which he possessed vividly and sincerely, and with which he informed not only his verses but also his life, a singularly troubled life which, from canon of the chapel of St. Ferdinand and then of the cathedral of Cordova, caused him to find himself involved in accusations of siding with the French invasion, even though, on the contrary, he always strove to perform his duty with zeal and a patriotic spirit.

Ruggero M. Ruggieri