MENÉNDEZ y PELAYO, MARCELINO. - Spanish scholar and critic, b. at Santander on 3 Nov. 1856, d. there on 19 May 1912. A brilliant interpreter of Spanish literary history and of its place in European civilization, through a very extensive cycle of researches and assessments on writers and historical periods, from Roman times to the present day.
An artist himself, he often recreates the work under examination with mastery. Excessively severe toward Calderón, M. y P. nevertheless generally succeeds, despite certain concessions to his typically Iberian temperament, in achieving balance of design, keenness of vision open to the modern acquisitions of science and to the most recent literary fashions, fairness of judgment, sobriety, and elegance of form. A Christian and patriotic spirit illumines all his work as thinker, critic, historian, and polemicist, arranged by the author himself, with a view to the complete edition, in 19 sections, each comprising several volumes. Especially noteworthy are: La ciencia española, Horacio en España, Historia de los heterodoxos españoles, Historia de las ideas estéticas en España, Ensayos de crítica filosófica, Calderón y su teatro, Antología de poetas líricos castellanos, Antología de poetas hispano-americanos, Orígenes de la novela, etc.