Page:A Handbook for Travellers in Spain - Vol 1.djvu/73

Rh who accompanied Philip V., and the efforts of Charles III. to favour classical studies, produced the same pretentious and classical reaction as in the rest of Europe. The Palace and Convent of Salesas (Madrid) are specimens of the first movement. The Museo and Observatory of Madrid belong to the end of the last and beginning of the present century.

The history of Spanish literature commences at the end of the 11th or beginning of the 12th century, when the dialect emerged from the corrupted Latin, and became an independent language capable of producing literary works.

The origin of the language may be traced to the writers of the 6th, 7th, to the 11th century. They wrote in the more or less barbarous Latin of the period. The most important authors of this time were San Isidoro and his pupils, St. Eugenio, St. Ildefonso, St. Eulogio, Alvaro, Sansom, Pero Alonso, and Oliva. The writers of the Roman period, Porcio Latro, Seneca, Lucan, Martial, Pomponius Mela, Columela, Silius Italicus, and Quintillian, though born in Spain, must be numbered among classical authors. The Spanish language is derived in a direct manner from the Latin, though it has been enriched by a great number of words belonging to the different nations which have occupied the whole or part of the Peninsula. Iberian, Punic, Greek, Visigothic, Hebrew, and Arabic words are met with in large numbers. The abundance of these last has induced some critics to infer that the origin of the language is Semitic, but its grammatical structure is undoubtedly Latin. The abundance of Oriental words does not influence its organisation, or produce any further result than to add nouns to the language.

Spanish literature is generally divided into three groups—12th century to end of 15th; 16th to 17th; 18th to the present day.

It is highly probable that Spanish poetry began by commemorating the heroic deeds of Pelayo and other heroes who fought against the Moors; but we can trace nothing to that period. The earliest compositions which have reached us are, a Charter of Oviedo, 1145 (the Charter of Aviles, 1155, has been proved to be a forgery), and two poems on the Cid, the favourite hero of popular Spanish poetry, 1040–