Diego Catalán y Menéndez-Pidal (16 September 1928 – 9 April 2008) was a Spanish

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

. He died of

heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, hea ...

on 9 April 2008, at the age of 79.

Biography

Diego Catalán y Menéndez-Pidal was the son of

Miguel Catalán Sañudo --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places *Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands *São Miguel (disambi ...

and

Jimena Menéndez-Pidal Jimena or Ximena is the female version of the given name Jimeno, derived from the Basque ''Semen''. It has come to be viewed as a form of the name Simone, though their origins are distinct. The French rendering of the name is Chimène. It may re ...

, and therefore the grandson of philologist

Ramón Menéndez Pidal Ramón Menéndez Pidal (; 13 March 1869 – 14 November 1968) was a Spanish philologist and historian."Ramon Menendez Pidal", ''Almanac of Famous People'' (2011) ''Biography in Context'', Gale, Detroit He worked extensively on the history of t ...

, and

María Goyri de Menéndez Pidal Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...

. Catalán was primarily a

medievalist The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

, he chaired the Ramón Menéndez Pidal Foundation which aims to continue Pidal's work, especially in the field of Hispanic

Ballads A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

, editing and study of texts and the history of the Spanish language. He coordinated a large project, the pan Hispanic ballads, which aimed to collect and preserve texts. Catalán was the owner of The Ballads Archive which covers materials and work of philological and historical research. The archive is held by the Ramón Menéndez Pidal Foundation and includes works from the late nineteenth century to the present day. It is available to scholars for research purposes. The archive was considered part of the "National Treasure" and, as such, was protected at the headquarters of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

in Geneva during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

References

1928 births 2008 deaths Dialectologists Spanish philologists Spanish medievalists 20th-century philologists {{Spain-linguist-stub