Background
Juan Meléndez Valdés was born on March 11, 1754, at Ribera del Fresno, Spain.
Juan Meléndez Valdés was born on March 11, 1754, at Ribera del Fresno, Spain.
Meléndez Valdés graduated in law at Salamanca.
Then he was appointed a professor at the university in 1778 through the auspices of a statesman and author, Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos. In Salamanca, Meléndez Valdés belonged to a circle of literati who formed what came to be described as the second Salmantine school of literature. He entered the judiciary, again with the aid of Jovellanos.
Meléndez Valdés wrote very eclectic poetry, much influenced by French, Italian, and classical models. He had a genuine feeling for nature and, at his best, displayed a considerable gift. A precursor of Romanticism in bringing the cult of the sentimental to Spain, he also kept alive the tradition of the romance—the dramatic, narrative ballad that once again flourished in the succeeding generation. In his later years, under the influence of the Philosophes and his mentor Jovellanos, he wrote philosophical odes that reflect the sentiments of the Enlightenment.
When France invaded Spain in 1808, he barely escaped execution as a traitor by the Spanish forces but survived to become director of public instruction in the Napoleonic government. Forced to flee Spain when the French withdrew, he died on May 24, 1817, in France, in poverty.