Martín Sarmiento
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Martín Sarmiento or Martiño Sarmiento, also Father Sarmiento (born Pedro José García Balboa; 9 March 1695 in Villafranca del Bierzo, El Bierzo – 7 December 1772 in
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
) was a Spanish scholar, writer and
Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
monk, illustrious representative of the Enlightenment. He wrote on a wide variety of subjects, including
Literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
,
Medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
,
Botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
,
Ethnography Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...
,
History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
,
Theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...
,
Linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
, etc.


His life

When he was four months old, he moved with his family to
Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a city in the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. It is the capital of both the ''Pontevedra (comarca), Comarca'' and Province of Pontevedra, and the capital of the Rías Baixas. It is als ...
, where he spent his childhood and youth. In Pontevedra he studied at the Jesuit College. On 3 May 1710, when he was 15, he moved to
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
to join
Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
order. He was named presbyter in 1720, Sarmiento lived in Asturias until 1725 like a professor in Cebrio and Oviedo. Later he left his mother in Pontevedra. He was definitively settled in Madrid, stay that is interrupted between February 1726 and May 1727, when he moved to Toledo to catalog the books of the cathedral, and also to visit three times Galicia. When he was 35 years old, he became interested in language again. He thought that people ignored the meaning of the words. He was really interested in languages in general, especially Romanesque languages, but above all, Spanish and Galician. Sarmiento thought that Galician should be taught in schools and priests should know it in order to confess people. In 1745 he returned to Galicia. On this trip he writes the names of the places he is going through in a notebook. He liked to investigate the etymology of the Galician words. He wrote a book in Galician called Colloquium of twenty-four rustic Galicians, thanks to which we know the Galician that was spoken at that time. It contains 1,200 songs sung by a group of Galicians returning from Madrid. They tell us about the death of King Philip V was and he described the celebrations of the accession to the throne of Ferdinand VI.


His thought

Sarmiento was not only interested in linguistics, he was interested in other disciplines such as botany and medicine. He had a large knowledge of the names of the plants and their health properties. He was quite concerned about the improvement of the technical and economic level of his country, specially in the Enlightenment ideas. His erudition in many disciplines made him be commissioned the iconographic program that would decorate the Royal Palace of Madrid. Sarmiento designed an ambitious allegory of the history of the Spanish monarchy for the palace, it was so complex that only a part of it was done. He fought, with Feijoo, against superstition and ignorance, proposing to open libraries in the villages. He had one of the most important libraries in Spain at that time. Unlike his teacher Feijoo, Sarmiento understood that it was necessary to know and keep traditions and popular culture. In that he was a great precursor and he contributed to the investigation and recovery of the Galician culture. Sarmiento died at San Martin convent in Madrid, on 7 December 1772, aged 77. He posted two books in Feijoo's memory Demostración crítico-apologética del Theatro Crítico Universal in 1732. He wrote other books but they were not published.


Selected works

*''Memorias para la historia de la poesía y poetas españoles'', (1741-1745), first edition, Madrid, 1775. *''Coplas gallegas y Glosario'', (1746-...), in the
Galician language Galician ( , ), also known as Galego (), is a Iberian Romance languages, Western Ibero-Romance language. Around 2.4 million people have at least some degree of competence in the language, mainly in Galicia (Spain), Galicia, an Autonomo ...
.
Notas al Privilegio de Ordoño y Reflexiones sobre ArchiverosDisertación sobre el animal zebra, nacido, criado, conocido y cazado antiguamente en España


Bibliography

* Pensado Tomé, José Luis, ''Fray Martín Sarmiento, testigo de su siglo'', Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1972.


Related articles

* Sarmiento Street {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarmiento, Martin 1695 births 1772 deaths People from El Bierzo Spanish male writers Writers from Galicia (Spain) Spanish Benedictines Enlightenment philosophers Age of Enlightenment University of Salamanca alumni