Pablo de Olavide
Pablo de Olavide y Jáuregui (
.Biography
He was born in a rich and influential
Council of the Indies in 1750. He was imprisoned briefly in 1754, but he was finally condemned in 1757 just to temporary disqualification for public offices. In 1755 he married a rich widow and traveled through Italy and France. He met the most outstanding European enlightened philosophers and writers, like Voltaire (who he said was "A Spaniard who thinks") and his Madrid
house was one of the most notable meeting points of the Spanish enlightened elites.
Thanks to his influential friends and to the new political climate after the
physiocrat
writings.
His alleged reformist policies provoked the opposition of the most conservative opinion. This resulted from his refusal to allow a German monk, Father Romauld, to build a monastery in one of the Andalusian settlements "to help the (wealthy) German settlers get to heaven". The envious Fr Romauld let it be known that Olavide was part of an indiscrete transgression concerning the Spanish clergy; accusing him of reading prohibited books and speaking disrespectfully of the Catholic religion. And the Spanish
Valencia in 1797: El Evangelio en Triunfo, o historia de un filósofo desengañado (The Gospel of Triumph, or the story of a disenchanted philosopher). The success of this book in the anti-revolutionary Spain was great and he could return to his country in 1798. He was publicly rehabilitated and gained an annuity. He retired to Baeza
.
Pablo de Olavide University
, in Seville, founded in 1997, is named after him.
Bibliography
- Alcázar Molina, C. Las colonias alemanas de Sierra Morena, Universidad de Murcia, 1930.
- Defourneaux, Marcelin: Pablo de Olavide ou l'afrancesado (1725–1803), Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1959 (Spanish translation: Pablo de Olavide, el afrancesado, Seville: Padilla Libros, 1990)
- García de León, María Encarnación: Pablo de Olavide: su obra narrativa, Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1989
- Perdices, Luis: Pablo de Olavide (1725–1803): el ilustrado, Madrid: Complutense, 1993
- Fernández Sanz, Amable-Ángel: Utopía y realidad en la Ilustración española. Pablo de Olavide y las «Nuevas Poblaciones», Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid
- Marchena, Juan: El tiempo ilustrado de Pablo de Olavide. Vida, obra y sueños de un americano en la España del s. XVIII, Seville: Alfar, 2001
- Biografía Real Academia de la Historia:[1]https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/7218/pablo-antonio-de-olavide-y-jauregui
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pablo de Olavide.
- (in Spanish) Biography by Alfonso Pozo
