FEIJÓO Y MONTENEGRO, Benito Jerónimo. — Benedictine and Spanish writer, b. 18 Oct. 1676 in Casdermero (Orense), d. 26 Dec. 1764 in Oviedo, where he had taught theology.
A free citizen of the republic of letters, as he liked to call himself, he subjected the philosophical ideas of his time to sound criticism while remaining strongly attached to the doctrine of the Church. In his eight-volume work *El Teatro crítico* (Madrid 1726–40; 2nd ed. 1914; 3rd ed. 1919), he reviews contemporary medical, physical, political, philosophical, theological, historical, and literary ideas. To his opponents he replied in six volumes of *Cartas eruditas* (ibid. 1741–60), which reveal his constructive talent.
BIBL.: M. Menéndez y Peñayo, *Historia de las ideas estéticas en España*, IV, Madrid 1904, pp. 379 ff.; M. Moravia, *El Fray de obras*, Valencia 1912; G. Delpy, *Bibliographie des sources francoises de F.*, Paris 1936; G. Marañón, *Las ideas biológicas del F. F.*, Madrid 1941; Anon., s.V. in *Enc. Eur. Am.*, XXIII, pp. 1159–62.