The major literary prosperity of Castilian took place in a period comprised between the XVIth and the XVIIth centuries with very important writers, specially Garcilaso de la Vega, in the XVIth century. In that century Castilian was declared official language. Immediately after that came Miguel de Cervantes, author of “Don Quijote de la Mancha”, the most edited and translated work in universal literature, except the bible.
Palacio del marqués de Villena, Royal Spanish Academy in 1713.
It is important to cite the maximum exponents of the Spanish baroque theatre: Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina and Calderón de la Barca, with his work corresponding to the XVIIth century and going with lyrics and novels achieved to accentuate the identification and the popularity of the Castilian together with many authors. The period defined from the publication of the Castilian Grammar of Nebrija, in 1942, until the death of Calderón de la Barca, in 1681, was called the Golden century, embarking several cultural movements comprised in the Baroque and Renaissance.
In 1713 the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) was founded under the initiative of Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco, marquis of Villena. Its constitution was approved by Felipe V the year after that, securing “Amparo y Real Protección” (Shelter and Royal Protection). The Academy pretended to establish voices and words of Castilian in its most pure form, making famous the legend that qualified the language as “Limpia, fija, y con esplendor” (Clean, fixed and with splendour). The intention was to fight any intent to alter the elegance and purity of this language.
The organisation of the education system in the XVIIIth century permitted the teaching of Castilian to be authorised in universities. Until then the academic language was Latin, and many vernacular languages were excluded from the university halls. In 1780, the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) published the first edition of the Castilian language dictionary.
Image: Palacio del Marqués de Villena, by Macalla http://goo.gl/BvuVy
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Dosal Proyectos. Spain.
