José Antonio Conde

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José Antonio Conde y García (1766-1820), Spanish Orientalist, was born at La Peraleja (Cuenca) on 28 October 1766, and was educated at the university of Alcalá. His translation of Anacreon (1791) obtained him a post in the royal library in 1795, and in 1796-1797 he published paraphrases from Theocritus, Bion, Moschus, Sappho and Meleager. These were followed by a mediocre edition, dated 1799, of the Arabic text of Edrisi's Description of Spain, with notes and a translation.

Conde became a member of the Spanish Academy in 1802 ,as a succesor in the G seat of the notorious ecclesiastic and Royal Librarian Tomás Antonio Sánchez de Uribe, (Ruiseñada, Cantabria, 1723 - Madrid, 1802), the first editor of fundamental texts of Spanish Medieval Literature, including the Cantar del Mio Cid , (Academician 1768-1802],

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%C3%A1s_Antonio_S%C3%A1nchez

He was also a member of the Academy of History in 1804, but his appointment as interpreter to Joseph Bonaparte led to his expulsion from both bodies in 1814. He escaped to France in February 1813, and returned to Spain in 1814, but was not allowed to reside at Madrid until 1816. He was a member also of The Academy of Sciences and Letters of Berlin, (Prussia).

Two years later he was re-elected by both academies, dying in poverty on the 12th of June 1820. His burial was then paid for by American Hispanist at Harvard University, George Ticknor, (Boston, Massachusetts, 1791 – 1871) and his Spanish friends Leandro Fernández de Moratín, (Madrid 1760 - Paris, France, 1828), Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, (Granada 1789 - Madrid, 1862) and Agustín Argüelles, (Ribadesella, Asturias, 1776 - Madrid, 1844) .

One cousin of Leandro Fernández de Moratin, 20 year old "Mariquita", had married 48 years old José Antonio Conde in August 1816, but she died out of childbirth one year later, in September 1817.

His Historia de la Dominación de los Árabes en España was published in 1820-1821. Only the first volume was corrected by the author, the other two being compiled from his manuscript by Juan Tineo. This work was translated into German (1824-1825), French (1825) and English (1854). Conde's pretensions to scholarship have been severely criticized by Dozy, and his history is now somewhat discredited. It had, however, the merit of stimulating abler workers in the same field, and in the context of the times that was a valuable work.

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain..

• MANZANARES DE CIRRE, Manuela, Arabistas españoles del siglo XIX, Instituto Hispano-

Arabe de Cultura, Madrid, 1 vol in 8º, 221 pp. (1972).

This exceptional Arabist Studies exiled antifascist woman from Granada, (Spain), in the U.S.A., can be evaluated, while she was in her nineties, (December of the year 2003), consulting:

http://www.mediterraneas.org/article.php3?id_article=324

• CORDOBA, J. Mª , PÉREZ DIE, Mª C. (Eds.), La aventura española en Oriente (1166-2006). Viajeros, museos y estudiosos en la historia del redescubrimiento del Oriente Próximo Antiguo, Madrid, Dirección General de Bellas Artes y Bienes Culturales, (2006).