Armando Cotarelo Valledor Biography

Armando Cotarelo Valledor

(Vega de Ribadeo, 1880-Madrid, 1950) Spanish writer and scholar.He studied Philosophy and Letters in Madrid, where he received his doctorate.In 1904 he obtained by opposition the Chair of Spanish Language and Literature at the University of Santiago, where he was also professor of theory of the arts.The arrival of Cotarelo to Compostela's classrooms thoroughly renewed the dull university life of Santiago and represented an important revitalization of Galician studies.

In 1920 he was elected member of the Royal Galician Academy and in 1923 he was appointed first president of the Institute of Galician Studies; in 1929 he was elected a permanent member of the Royal Spanish Academy in representation of Galician letters.In 1939 he was appointed professor of Galician-Portuguese Philology at the Central University of Madrid.He entered the Royal Academy of History in 1942.When the Institute of Spain was founded, its Perpetual General Secretary was nominated.In 1949 he was Procurator in the Courts by academic representation.

The encyclopedic culture of Armando Cotarelo Valledor seemed more like a man of the Renaissance than of one of his time.He dedicated himself to the most diverse activities, and in all of them he left the mark of his genius.He was a poet, playwright and novelist in Galician and Spanish, philologist, scholar, historian, art critic, archaeologist, astronomer, stage director, folklore compiler, lecturer of great brilliance and profound knowledge of Latin.

Armando Cotarelo was an important promoter of Galician theater in the 1920s, especially in university settings: several of his works were premiered by students from Compostela classrooms; In them, Cotarelo himself participated as stage director and set designer.The Cotarelo theater continues the realistic path of the scene of its time, but with many touches of poetic drama.Even a work unpublished until 1992, "Erase una vez un rey" (the only one written entirely in Spanish) is fully inserted in modernism.His dramatic works show great technical skill, perhaps born of his mastery of Spanish classical theater, undoubtedly far superior to that of his contemporaries on the Galician scene.The careful psychological portrayal of the characters and the enormous linguistic richness are also very prominent.

Among his theatrical pieces are Trebón (1922), with a peasant atmosphere; Sinxebra (1923), in Galician and Spanish, a sentimental comedy, whose action takes place in a pazo; Lubicán (1924), in which he gives an account of the persecution of village women by city men; Host (1926), on the torture of Prisciliano; Beiramar (1931), drama of strong passions, with a maritime atmosphere; and Mourenza (1931), with a marine atmosphere. Ultreya , a work written in Spanish and Galician, is an opera libretto, with music by Rodríguez Losada, premiered in 1935, although it still remains unpublished.

Its narrative includes some Memoirs of a schoolboy of yesteryear comprising two novels, both written in Spanish: Palladys Tyrones and La Ensemble Rad .The action takes place in Galicia during the War of Independence against Napoleonic troops. El Pazo (1923) is a bilingual, Castilian and Galician work; Contos de Nadal, colleitos de pobo (1927) is a collection of short stories written in Galician.

Armando Cotarelo Valledor had a great desire to cultivate knowledge far removed from his own, like astronomy, archeology and heraldry, on which he wrote various works.As an art critic and historian, he published his fundamental Critical and documented history of the life and actions of Alfonso III the Great, the last king of Asturias , awarded by the Royal Academy of the History in 1916, but not published until 1933.Other historiographic works are Fray Diego de Deza, biographical essay (1905), Marriages of Ramiro I of Asturias (1922), Profile of Marco Fabio Quintiliano (1942) and A model academic: Don Martín Fernández de Navarrete at the Royal Spanish Academy (1945).

In his work Philological, Armando Cotarelo dedicated himself to both Galician and Castilian letters; stood out especially with his studies on the life and work of Miguel de Cervantes. El Teatro de Cervantes , published in 1915, Berwick and Alba award from the Royal Spanish Academy, is a magnificent 770-page work that is still essential for those who study today.the Cervantes theater.Also of great merit are Literary Register of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1948), Cervantes reader (interesting study on Cervantes readings), The female beauty in the works of Cervantes (1905) and Lost works of Cervantes that have not been lost (1947).In his study El teatro de Quevedo (1945), Cotarelo helped to banish various false attributions of hors d'oeuvres to Don Francisco de Quevedo.His doctoral thesis was devoted to Galician letters: A famous cantiga del Rey Sabio.Sources and development of the legend of Sor Beatriz, mainly in Spanish literature .