MIQUEL COSTA I LLOBERA

In the previous news we informed about the creation of a web space dedicated to the writer Miquel Costa i Llobera. In today's article we will talk in more detail about this Majorcan author and his importance in Catalan letters..

MIQUEL COSTA I LLOBERA: a little tour of his life

Miquel Costa and Llobera nation in Pollença in 1854 within a family of Majorcan landowners. He was orphaned when he was only eleven years old and was greatly influenced by his uncle.. He aroused her interest in the classics and the local landscape.

Costa i Llobera studied at the Balearic Institute and was a member of the Mariana de Montesión Congregation. He began studying Law in Barcelona in 1872, although three years later he would continue in Madrid. Nevertheless, He dropped out of school when he realized what his true vocation was: the poetry.

en 1880 began his ecclesiastical career and five years later moved to Rome, where he received his doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He returned to his homeland in 1890.

en 1919 He was appointed member of the 'Institut d'Estudis Catalans' (IEC).

Miquel Costa i Llobera died in 1922 A los 68 years old in Palma de Mallorca.

The literature of Miquel Costa i Llobera

The author was a prolific writer, cultivating in particular the genre of poetry. This is classic, regional and religious. Nevertheless, he also reflected in his works the landscape, the history and popular culture of Majorca, becoming a benchmark of Majorcan letters.

During his youth he already showed interest in literature. He was trained in the literary classics and in 1874, with only 20 years, won a prize at the Floral Games. Initially he cultivated romantic poetry. of this lid is The Formentor pine, an ode in Alexandrian verse published 10 years later in his volume Poetry (1885).

After his studies in Rome he published lyrical (1899), his only book in Spanish. In it he collected poems written from his stay in Italy, Madrid and his return to Mallorca. He received a good reception from friends and benefactors.. Menendez and Pelayo, specific, considered that the work of Costa i Llobera was on a par with the best contemporary poets.

For the year 1902 he had already won three Floral Games throughout his career. This earned him the title of Mestre in Gai Saber. Además, that same year he was elected correspondent of the RAE.

The poet's most successful work was Horatians (1906), a collection of poems in catalan 16 poems u odas. in essence, It is a collection of poems dedicated to the Latin poet Horace, although there are also others to Virgil and Cabanyes. How could it be otherwise, the poems attempt to replicate the Greek and Roman meters. Overcame the difficulty caused by the difference between Latin and Catalan making metric innovations.

en 1908 Public Visions of Palestine, a travel diary in which he expressed in prose the sensations caused by his pilgrimage through the Middle East to Palestine and the Holy Land.

Later, after the events of the Tragic Week, his literary production slowed down. At that time, he devoted himself mainly to the translation of classical texts..

Miquel Costa i Llobera and the Majorcan School

Costa i Llobera was one of the pioneers, with Joan Alcover, of the literary movement of the Mallorcan School. He is one of the most important Mallorcan authors and made an enormous contribution to literature in the Catalan language..

 

By Maite Vallejo Muñoz

 

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