Medrano Academy
| Latin: Academia Medranensis | |
| Other name | Poetic Academy of Madrid |
|---|---|
| Founder | Dr. Sebastian Francisco de Medrano |
| Established | 1616 |
| Mission | To promote literary and artistic expression during the Spanish Golden Age |
| Focus | Literature and arts |
| President | Dr. Sebastian Francisco de Medrano (1616–1622) |
| Key people | Lope de Vega, Francisco de Quevedo, Luis de Góngora, Tirso de Molina, and others |
| Address | Leganitos Street, Madrid, Spain |
| Location | , |
| Dissolved | c. 1622 |
| Renowned for its influence on Spain's Golden Age of literature and arts. | |
The Medrano Academy (Spanish: Academia Medrano) also known as the Poetic Academy of Madrid, was a famous academia literaria of the Spanish Golden Age founded by Dr. Sebastián Francisco de Medrano. Established (1616–1622) on Leganitos street in Madrid, the Medrano Academy's members consisted of the greatest poets and writers of the Baroque period: Lope de Vega, Quevedo, Góngora, Tirso, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Luis Vélez de Guevara, Alonso de Castillo Solórzano, and many others.[1]
Establishment
[edit]The Medrano Academy was among the most significant academias literarias ('literary academies'), a type of literary tertulia that flourished during Spain's Golden Age of literature and the arts during the reign of the Spanish Habsburgs.[2] By the seventeenth century, these literary academies had become one of the most prominent features of literary life in Spain.[3]
A group of young poets had been gathering since 1615 in a Jesuit house. When the poets could no longer gather at this house, Dr. Sebastian Francisco de Medrano established the Medrano Academy on Leganitos street in 1616, became its president, and dedicated space in his home to the poets until he was ordained a priest in 1622.[4] The street of Leganitos, which runs from the Plazuela de Santo Domingo to the outskirts of the town between the North and West, is a long avenue of regular buildings, it is mainly used for private residences.[5]
Many of the most illustrious names in the Spanish Golden Age aspired to share their voices at the literary gatherings hosted by the Medrano Academy. These meetings often attracted nobles, with Medrano himself serving as the Academy's president, while a prominent literary figure fulfilled the role of "secretary."[6] From 1623 onward, the Poetic Academy of Madrid was directed by Francisco de Mendoza, and meetings were held at his residence.[7]
José Sánchez suggests that it likely started around 1607 under the leadership of Félix Arias Girón, son of the Count of Puñonrostro, though details about this early phase are obscure. The Academy was more definitively active at Dr. Sebastian Francisco de Medrano’s residence from 1616 to 1622, coinciding with Alonso de Castillo Solórzano’s arrival at court and leading up to the publication of his first work, Donaires.[6]
President
[edit]According to Solórzano, the founder and president Sebastián Francisco de Medrano had been born in Madrid, into the illustrious Medrano family at the end of the 16th century.[8] The influential House of Medrano are well known patrons and participants of literature and the arts during the Spanish Golden Age; in 1622 Medrano became a priest and commissioner of the Spanish Inquisition, acting as the official censor of comedias.[8] Alonso de Castillo Solórzano writes:
To an academy which was founded in Leganitos, I came to become a poet, although by novice layman.[9] Medrano was a teenager when he founded the Academy...[10] the most famous Academy of Madrid, where he was Most deserving President.[11]
Members
[edit]The most illustrious names in the Spanish Golden Age were part of the Medrano Academy; an incomplete list by Dr. Sebastian Francisco de Medrano exists consisting of the participants and in many cases coinciding with the Saldaña Academy.[12] Among them were:
Lope de Vega, Francisco de Quevedo, Luis de Góngora, Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Luis Vélez de Guevara, Antonio Mira de Amescua, Juan Pérez de Montalbán, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Alonso de Castillo Solórzano, and others less known, such as Jerónimo de Villaizán, José Pellicer de Tovar, Gabriel Bocángel, Guillén de Castro, Jiménez de Enciso, Gaspar del Ávila, Diego de Villegas, López de Zárate, the Prince of Esquilache, Valdivieso, Salas Barbadillo, Cristóbal de Mesa, Gabriel del Corral, and Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza.[13] In 1620, Tirso de Molina is also noted for participating at the gatherings of Medrano's Poetic Academy in Madrid.[14]
President Medrano gathered the most prominent literary figures of his time, some of whom remain unnamed. This is evident in his Favores de las Musas, where he directly addresses Solórzano:
...I summoned so many flourishing minds to the academies, [thanks to] the glory of my house and the honor of my modest wealth... [these] individuals are famous in all poems and celebrated in all sciences, subjects, and faculties, and are supreme objects of admiration. Seeing them, as I said, recognizing them, as I confess, and reverencing them, as I should, they have clipped the wings of my aspirations, and I have been cowed and hidden in the shadow of theirs. I praise them while studying them and remain silent while imitating them. Therefore, I implore Your Grace, since you have honoured me by presenting these works of mine to the public, to show these to those I acknowledge as my superiors, and ask forgiveness from those whom I have not named.[15]
Royal attendance
[edit]Speaking about the attendance of King Philip IV at one of Medrano's academy sessions, Luis Velez de Guevara wrote:
On that beautiful spring night in the year 1622... the Academy of that night came to an end.[16][17]
Regarding Prince Francisco de Borja y Aragón, Medrano writes:
I turned my attention to Francisco de Borja y Aragón, prince of Squillace, for whom heaven not only made him illustrious in blood but also equaled his genius, which was outstanding in all sciences and faculties.[18]
References
[edit]- ^ King, 1963: 51; Romera-Navarro, 1941: 494, n. 5
- ^ "Golden Age". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
- ^ Robbins, Jeremy (1997). Love Poetry of the Literary Academies in the Reigns of Philip IV and Charles II, pp. 1, 10–11. Tamesis. Google Books. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
- ^ King, 1963: 49-50
- ^ Mesonero Romanos (1861). Historical and Anecdotal Walks Through the Streets and Houses of This Town (Old Madrid)
- ^ a b (in Spanish). Jauralde Pou, Pablo (1979). "Alonso de Castillo Solorzano, "Donaires del Parnaso" y "La fábula de Polifemo". Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos. LXXXII, no. 4, Madrid, October–December 1979, pp. 740 (footnote 35), 742. Biblioteca Nacional de España. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
- ^ Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos. LXXXII, no. 4, Madrid, October–December 1979. Rev. Arch. Bibl. Mus. Madrid, LXXXII (1979), no. 4, Oct.–Dec. https://hemerotecadigital.bne.es/hd/ca/pdf?id=3cc1dfe1-03be-4ba5-aa81-03a46656afd8&attachment=Revista+de+archivos%2C+bibliotecas+y+museos.+10-12%2F1979.pdf
- ^ a b Urzáiz, Héctor. Catalog of theatrical authors of the 17th century. Madrid, FUE, 2002.
- ^ Barrera y Leirado, Cayetano Alberto de la. Catálogo bibliográfico del teatro antiguo español, desde sus orígenes hasta mediados del siglo xviii. Madrid, Rivadeneyra, 1860.
- ^ Urzáiz, Héctor. Catalog of theatrical authors of the 17th century... Madrid, FUE, 2002.
- ^ Medrano, Sebastian Francisco de (1631). Favores de las musas ; En varias rimas y comedias, que compusa en la mas celebre Academia de Madrid ... Recoqilados por Alonso de Castillo Solorzano intimo amigo del Auctor (etc.) (in Spanish). Malatesta.
- ^ Campana, Patrizia. "Hacia una edición anotada de La Filomena de Lope de Vega: Epístola a Don Juan de Arguijo. Edición y anotación de textos". Actas del Primer Congreso de Jóvenes Filólogos, A Coruña, Universidade da Coruña, 1998, p. 139.
- ^ Cañas Murillo, Jesús. "Court and literary academies in the Spain of Philip IV". Yearbook of Philological Studies, 35, 2012, p. 15.
- ^ "A History of Spanish Golden Age Drama. University of Georgia, p. 89" (PDF). core.ac.uk.
- ^ Medrano, Sebastián Francisco de (1631). Favores de las Musas hechos a Don Sebastian Francisco de Medrano: en varias Rimas, y Comedias, que compuso en la mas celebre Academia de Madrid ... (in Spanish). Iuan Baptista Malatesta.
- ^ Fernández-Guerra, cited work, p. 367.
- ^ Vélez de Guevara, Luis. El Diablo Cojuelo, ed. Vigo, 1902, p. 101.
- ^ Medrano, Sebastián Francisco de (1631). Favores de las Musas hechos a Don Sebastian Francisco de Medrano: en varias Rimas, y Comedias, que compuso en la mas celebre Academia de Madrid ... (in Spanish). Iuan Baptista Malatesta.