José de Viera y Clavijo

José Viera y Clavijo (* 1731 in Realejo Alto, Tenerife, † February 21, 1813 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest, polymath (in particular in the areas of general history, natural history and botany of the Canary Islands) and a major poet of the Spanish Enlightenment.

Life

José Viera y Clavijo studied in the Dominican Convent of Santo Domingo de Guzman in La Orotava the most diverse branches of science, with an emphasis on scholastic philosophy, which he, however, soon turned away. He early developed a taste for literature, especially poetry. The speeches of Benito Feijoo Hieronymite exerted a great influence on him and encouraged him in a positive attitude towards the rationalism of the Enlightenment. In 1750, he received minor orders in La Laguna, later higher orders in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Six years later, in 1756, he moved with his family to La Laguna in Tenerife and was from 1757 to 1770 as a parish priest worked. In Tenerife, he frequented the most respected circles of society, especially in Tomás de Nava Grimón, Marqués de Villanueva del Prado, in whose house Cristóbal del Hoyo Solorzano, Fernando de la Guerra and Lope de la Guerra, Juan Antonio de Urtusáustegui Others met. . From this circle a confidential Gazette, the first " newspaper" in the Canary Islands was issued. Viera y Clavijo had access to a large library of Tomás de Nava Grimón, where he led the French classics, as well as philosophers and moralists such as Jean -Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d' Argens, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, Voltaire, Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu and Jean -Jacques Rousseau met.

In 1763 he began a Historia de Canarias ( "History of the Canary Islands " ) compose the first volume appeared in 1772, a year later the second. In 1770 he left the Canaries and went to Madrid as a teacher of the daughter of the president of the Royal Academy of Spain. When traveling with her in the countryside of La Mancha resulted later be posted to a travel diary Viaje a la Mancha de 1774 ( "Journey to the Mancha in 1774 "). A few years later he was admitted in 1777 on the recommendation of the Director of the Historic Academy as its member. Thus he made ​​the acquaintance of Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos ( politician, lawyer and writer ), Juan Meléndez Valdés ( 1754-1817; politician and poet ) and corresponded with the famous botanist Antonio José Cavanilles, also a clergyman.

José Viera y Clavijo 1780 accompanied the Marqués de Santa Cruz on a trip to Europe after Paris, Turin, Rome, Naples, Venice and Vienna, 1781 on to Germany and the Netherlands. Also on this trip, he wrote a diary ( itinerary ). In Vienna he took in November 1780 his quarters in the Spanish Embassy, the Embassy Secretary Domingo Iriarte. In the diary to find, among other remarks about concerts of Mozart, the elephants at the zoo and sleigh rides with Pietro Metastasio. In Rome, he got hold of important documents for his Historia and not least the church permission to read forbidden books. In Paris he remained nearly a year, attended scientific conferences and courses in chemistry and physics, assisted in the Academy of Sciences, met Voltaire, Condorcet and d' Alembert know. This time in Paris was the cause of his re- awakened interest and future intensive study of the natural sciences.

In 1782, José Viera y Clavijo was consecrated in the Cathedral of Las Palmas archdeacon of Fuerteventura. In 1784 he finally left Madrid and moved to the Canary Islands, where he remained until his death. He shifted the focus of his work is now primarily on his role as a member of the Royal Academy of Economy, as a teacher at the school San Marcial, as well as to his own literary work and translations of other writings.

A few years later (25 July 1797) he experienced as Admiral Nelson when trying to Santa Cruz to conquer the old port of Tenerife, was defeated by General Antonio Gutiérrez (Santa Cruz was subsequently declared to be free and invincible city, the first step on the way to the capital of Tenerife ). In 1799 he wrote his Diccionario de historia natural de las islas Canarias ( "Encyclopedia of Natural History of the Canary Islands "), a year later, El nuevo Can Mayor o constelación canaria, a thirteen -volume paean to the Canaries.

On February 21, 1813 José Viera y Clavijo, died in Las Palmas. In 1860 his remains were reburied in the cathedral.

Works

Poetry

In addition to some satirical poems by which he got into some trouble, he wrote in particular to his young students looking didactic poems to illustrate scientific experiments, for example,

• Al globo aerostático ( The Balloon )
• Las cuatro partes del día ( The four parts of the day)
• Las bodas de las plantas ( " Marriage of Plants", = fertilization ), and other botanical subjects
• Los aires fijos ( Six Songs on the "airs", = Meteorology )

Prose

• Noticias del cielo para niños o Astronomía ( Notes from the sky or astronomy for kids)
• Los Vasconautas, an epic ( narrative poem ), written 1766, first published in 1983 ( ). It consists of four ironic chants content composed of mythical and fantastic and historical elements, yet enlightening, with various allusions to the " Divina Comoedia " by Dante Alighieri.
• Also in 1766 he wrote the Diccionario de Historia Natural
• His major work in the field of history are the Noticias de la Historia General de las Islas Canarias ( published 1772-1773 ).
• La vida de Santa Genoveva ( Life of St Genevieve ), a neo-classical tragedy
• La vida del noticioso Jorge Sargo, already arisen ( The life of the famous Jorge Sargo ), his only narrative, one influenced by German Mateo picaresque novel in his youth.

Translations

He has translated plays of the Baroque period, several forgotten works of Jean Racine and La Harpe.