Majorca > Culture of Majorca > History of Catalan language > The decline (between the centuries XVI and XVIII)
A set of political and social aspects were the cause that in these centuries there were a decline in the use of the Catalan in certain fields. That is why this age is known as the Decline, but, specially, there was a decline in the educated literary production
In 1412, with the agreement of Caspe, the Castillian candidate Fernando de Trastámara was elected successor of the last king of the house of Barcelona, Martín el Humano (he died in 1410). This was the start point of a slow process of Castillianization of the court, that at the XVth century intensified, with the union of Fernando el Católico and Isabel from Castille, and even more at the XVIIIth century with the absolutism and centralism of the Borbons. On the other hand, it took place the explosion of Muslims converted to Christianity in the region of Valencia and there was a repopulation of people from Castille and Aragon. Moreover, the Spanish literature lived at this age a glorious phase (Cervantes, Lope de Vega ...) and a part of the Catalonian writers felt like writing in Spanish.
At the beginning of the XVIIIth century, Felipe the Fifth promulgated the decrees of Nueva Planta: in 1707 at the region of Valencia, in 1715 in Majorca (Menorca was under British domain) and in 1716 in the region of Catalonia. These decrees abolished the autonomous institutions (Catalonian Parliament, Great and General Councils...), the legal regime and forbade the use of the Catalan at the public and official areas.
The region of the Rosselló, absorbed by France with the Treaty of the de Pyrenees (1659), was subdued to the systematic penetration of the French language.
The Spanish was firstly imposed at the Royal High Courts; later on the use of Catalan was forbade at the rest of legal courts and schools (1768).
Nevertheless this unfavourable situation, the Catalan continued being the usual language of the population for the familiar and colloquial uses, in sermons and in the religious and popular literature.
In what regards to literature, we find works directly written in Spanish others with a significant mixture of Catalan and Spanish, and also the introduction of a considerable name of words coming from the Spanish in the Catalan. Saying that the Catalan literature completely disappears is not accurate information, because it was not so.
At the beginning of the XVIIIth century, Felipe the Fifth promulgated the decrees of Nueva Planta: in 1707 at the region of Valencia, in 1715 in Majorca (Menorca was under British domain) and in 1716 in the region of Catalonia. These decrees abolished the autonomous institutions (Catalonian Parliament, Great and General Councils...), the legal regime and forbade the use of the Catalan at the public and official areas.
The region of the Rosselló, absorbed by France with the Treaty of the de Pyrenees (1659), was subdued to the systematic penetration of the French language.
The Spanish was firstly imposed at the Royal High Courts; later on the use of Catalan was forbade at the rest of legal courts and schools (1768).
Nevertheless this unfavourable situation, the Catalan continued being the usual language of the population for the familiar and colloquial uses, in sermons and in the religious and popular literature.
In what regards to literature, we find works directly written in Spanish others with a significant mixture of Catalan and Spanish, and also the introduction of a considerable name of words coming from the Spanish in the Catalan. Saying that the Catalan literature completely disappears is not accurate information, because it was not so.
XVIth century
- Cristòfor Despuig (1510-1574?). Writer and humanist born in Tortosa, knight and member of the nobility of the town. He wrote Los col·loquis de la insigne ciutat de Tortosa, posibly the most interesting Catalan work written in prose of the XVIth century. Told as a dialogue (typical genre of Renaissance) in an alive and direct style, reproduces the chat between the citizen Fàbio, the knight Líbio (who represents the author), both of Tortosa, and the Valencian knight Pere, about the political, religious, historical and social problems of the age of Tortosa and Catalonia in general. It is important the defense that Despuig makes from the Catalan, despite the trend of writing in Spanish that there was at his age.
- Pere Serafí, lo Grec (? 1505/10 - Barcelona, 1567). Poet and painter of the Catalonian Renaissance. As a poet, he inspired in the Latin classics, Petrarca, Ausiàs March..., but also in the popular poetry. He wrote sonnets, madrigals, rhymed octaves, epistle, songs... He published Dos llibres, collection of 170 poems distributed into two parts, a profane one (love affairs, ethics and didactics issues) ans another spiritual one (ethical questions, far from ascetism or mysticism).
XVIIth century
- Francesc Vicenç Garcia, Rector de Vallfogona (Tortosa, ~ 1582 - Vallfogona de Riucorb, 1623). Priest, he was the rector of Vallfogona de Riucorb, although he spent long stays in other places and usually we find him at the episcopal palaces of Vic, Gerona, Barcelona and Tarragona. He took part in different poetic contests and was a regular of the litrary gathering organized by the bishop Joan de Montcada in his palace of Barcelona.
He is author of a vast production that includes prose, theatre and poetry, of varied styles and themes. A part of his poetry is pompous and elegant, as the sonnet A una hermosa dama de cabell negre que se pentinava en un terrat ab una pinta de marfil, but he also wrote violent satires and obscene and crude compositions. Other poems are religious ones, as it also is the theatre piece Comèdia de Santa Bàrbara, written to celebrate the inauguration of the chepel dedicated to this saint built in Vallfogona.
- Francesc Fontanella (Barcelona, 1622 - Perpiñán, 1681/85). Poet and playwright. He got his PhD in Law, took active part in the defense of Barcelona during the siege of 1652 and that is why he had to emigrate to Perpignan. Already being a widower he was ordained priest and exerted as lecturer of canonical law at the University of Perpignan. As an author, his work is closely related to the Baroque and the models of Góngora and Garcilaso de la Vega, and teh language he uses has many elements from Spanish. The most important part of his poetry deals with love and bucolic issues, but he also worked with other generations and typical Baroque, as the satire, the ballads, the recreation of popular songs..., and, occasionally, obscenes and eschatological subjects.
He is author of two theatre plays: the Tragicomèdia pastoral d’amor, firmesa i porfia, in which he combines lyirc scenes and comic scenes (he makes an interesting defense of the language and expounds the aim of contributing to his «illustration»), and Lo desengaño, a work about the love problems with mythological and allegorical characters.
XVIIIth century
- Joan Ramis i Ramis (Ladrillo, 1746-1819). He was born in Menorca at the age of the British domain, a period of economical prosperity at the island, where the neoclassicism was lived with intensity. Ramis has a refined education, travelled and studied rethoric and poetry in Majorca, and civil and canonical law in Avinyó. All those circumstances are the reason why it is possibel to talk about Ramis as the most important figure of the Catalan neoclassicism.
He wrote his first poetries in Catalan, Spanish and Latin. From his work are remarkable the theater pieces in verse Lucrècia (about a tragic episody of the history of Rome, the violation of Lucrècia per part of who has the power of the empireand her suicide) and Rosaura or el més constant amor. It is remarkable the psychological treatment of the characters, full of notes. The influence of the Greek and Latin classics, of the French writers of the XVIIth and of the XVIIIth centuries (Boileau, Racine, Voltaire ...), the British classics and contemporary (Shakespeare, Thomson, Young ...) and also the Italians (Petrarca).
From 1784 he just wrote in Spanish, but his work of this age has not much quality. He is also author of important works about the history of Menorca.
- Lluís Galiana (Ontinyent, 1740-1771). Monk of a well-off family, he dedicated his life to study and work. He was an illustrated man worried by the survival of his language. The most known work by Lluís Galiana is the Rondalla de Rondalles, first book in prose, and in Valencian, that was discovered in Valencia after almost two hundred years. It deals with the story of a young woman forced to marry the man her parents want to. The language is full of popular expressions, idioms and that make it really rich.
- Cristòfor Despuig (1510-1574?). Writer and humanist born in Tortosa, knight and member of the nobility of the town. He wrote Los col·loquis de la insigne ciutat de Tortosa, posibly the most interesting Catalan work written in prose of the XVIth century. Told as a dialogue (typical genre of Renaissance) in an alive and direct style, reproduces the chat between the citizen Fàbio, the knight Líbio (who represents the author), both of Tortosa, and the Valencian knight Pere, about the political, religious, historical and social problems of the age of Tortosa and Catalonia in general. It is important the defense that Despuig makes from the Catalan, despite the trend of writing in Spanish that there was at his age.
- Pere Serafí, lo Grec (? 1505/10 - Barcelona, 1567). Poet and painter of the Catalonian Renaissance. As a poet, he inspired in the Latin classics, Petrarca, Ausiàs March..., but also in the popular poetry. He wrote sonnets, madrigals, rhymed octaves, epistle, songs... He published Dos llibres, collection of 170 poems distributed into two parts, a profane one (love affairs, ethics and didactics issues) ans another spiritual one (ethical questions, far from ascetism or mysticism).
XVIIth century
- Francesc Vicenç Garcia, Rector de Vallfogona (Tortosa, ~ 1582 - Vallfogona de Riucorb, 1623). Priest, he was the rector of Vallfogona de Riucorb, although he spent long stays in other places and usually we find him at the episcopal palaces of Vic, Gerona, Barcelona and Tarragona. He took part in different poetic contests and was a regular of the litrary gathering organized by the bishop Joan de Montcada in his palace of Barcelona.
He is author of a vast production that includes prose, theatre and poetry, of varied styles and themes. A part of his poetry is pompous and elegant, as the sonnet A una hermosa dama de cabell negre que se pentinava en un terrat ab una pinta de marfil, but he also wrote violent satires and obscene and crude compositions. Other poems are religious ones, as it also is the theatre piece Comèdia de Santa Bàrbara, written to celebrate the inauguration of the chepel dedicated to this saint built in Vallfogona.
- Francesc Fontanella (Barcelona, 1622 - Perpiñán, 1681/85). Poet and playwright. He got his PhD in Law, took active part in the defense of Barcelona during the siege of 1652 and that is why he had to emigrate to Perpignan. Already being a widower he was ordained priest and exerted as lecturer of canonical law at the University of Perpignan. As an author, his work is closely related to the Baroque and the models of Góngora and Garcilaso de la Vega, and teh language he uses has many elements from Spanish. The most important part of his poetry deals with love and bucolic issues, but he also worked with other generations and typical Baroque, as the satire, the ballads, the recreation of popular songs..., and, occasionally, obscenes and eschatological subjects.
He is author of two theatre plays: the Tragicomèdia pastoral d’amor, firmesa i porfia, in which he combines lyirc scenes and comic scenes (he makes an interesting defense of the language and expounds the aim of contributing to his «illustration»), and Lo desengaño, a work about the love problems with mythological and allegorical characters.
XVIIIth century
- Joan Ramis i Ramis (Ladrillo, 1746-1819). He was born in Menorca at the age of the British domain, a period of economical prosperity at the island, where the neoclassicism was lived with intensity. Ramis has a refined education, travelled and studied rethoric and poetry in Majorca, and civil and canonical law in Avinyó. All those circumstances are the reason why it is possibel to talk about Ramis as the most important figure of the Catalan neoclassicism.
He wrote his first poetries in Catalan, Spanish and Latin. From his work are remarkable the theater pieces in verse Lucrècia (about a tragic episody of the history of Rome, the violation of Lucrècia per part of who has the power of the empireand her suicide) and Rosaura or el més constant amor. It is remarkable the psychological treatment of the characters, full of notes. The influence of the Greek and Latin classics, of the French writers of the XVIIth and of the XVIIIth centuries (Boileau, Racine, Voltaire ...), the British classics and contemporary (Shakespeare, Thomson, Young ...) and also the Italians (Petrarca).
From 1784 he just wrote in Spanish, but his work of this age has not much quality. He is also author of important works about the history of Menorca.
- Lluís Galiana (Ontinyent, 1740-1771). Monk of a well-off family, he dedicated his life to study and work. He was an illustrated man worried by the survival of his language. The most known work by Lluís Galiana is the Rondalla de Rondalles, first book in prose, and in Valencian, that was discovered in Valencia after almost two hundred years. It deals with the story of a young woman forced to marry the man her parents want to. The language is full of popular expressions, idioms and that make it really rich.