FÉLIX MARÍA SAMANIEGO: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

Félix María Samaniego (1745-1801) was a Spanish (Basque) writer famous during the literary period known as the Enlightenment for his contribution to the fabular genre. He is considered one of the best Spanish fabulists. According to critics, his work was extremely graceful and simple.

His poems had the distinction of being among the first that Spanish children learned to recite at school during their time. On the other hand, Samaniego dedicated his life, selflessly to the welfare of his native province. He was one of the earliest and most active members of the so-called public betterment societies.

These societies were in charge of exerting an important influence on education and the public economy of the kingdom. They also worked to rescue the arts from the degraded condition they had fallen into during previous reigns. In addition, Félix María Samaniego was a musician, essayist and playwright.

However, his masterpiece focuses on his fables, which became a medium for the transmission of reformist ideas of morals, politics and society.

Biography

Félix María Serafín Sánchez de Samaniego was born into a wealthy family in Laguardia (an autonomous community of the Basque Country), on October 12, 1745. His parents were Juana María Teresa Zabala y Arteaga, and Félix Ignacio Sánchez de Samaniego y Munibe.

Félix María Samaniego was the fifth of nine siblings. Before he was born, there were already María Lorenza (1742), Juana María (1740), Antonio Eusebio (1739) and María Josefa (1738).

After Félix María, Isabel was born in 1747; Santiago, in the year 1749; Francisco Javier, in 1752; and, finally, Francisca Javiera, in the year 1753.

Studies

His first studies were carried out from his home with a private teacher appointed by his family: Manuel Hurtado de Mendoza. This tutor instructed the young Samaniego in Latin, spelling, Spanish grammar, and prosody.

Then he began his higher studies at the University of Valladolid. However, two years passed without showing any sign of wanting to finish a degree. Motivated by that, his father decided to send him to study in France.

After completing his studies, he spent some time traveling through French territory. During this time he had the opportunity to meet and make friends with encyclopedists of the time, who contributed to his humanistic training.

Personal and literary development

Félix María Samaniego returned to Spain in 1763. Later, in 1767, he married Manuela de Salcedo, daughter of a prominent Bilbao family, and settled in Laguardia.

Then, Samaniego began to get involved with the Basque Society. Among other activities, this society founded the Royal Basque Patriotic Seminary, dedicated to the education of the children of noble families.

From the beginning of this seminar, Samaniego was fully involved. He was in charge of both administrative and educational tasks; he even managed it twice.

In 1775 he was elected mayor of the town of Tolosa, a position he held intermittently due to his father's delicate state of health. His constant trips to his father's village forced him to absent himself from his duties frequently.

The following year, seeking to improve the quality of seminary education, he published his first fable which he entitled La mona corrida. This publication was well received but its dissemination was limited to the educational premises where she worked. However, it was the beginning of a successful career as a fabulist.

By 1777 Félix María Samaniego had composed the fables that would make up the first volume. He sent them to the poet Tomas de Iriarte for his approval; their opinion was favorable and they were published in November of that year.

Enmity with Tomás de Iriarte

In 1782 Tomás de Iriarte published his literary Fables in Castilian verse. Its prologue read "(…) this is the first collection of entirely original fables that has been published in Spanish." This enraged Samaniego.

In June 1784 the second volume of his fables was printed. After this, Samaniego became an authority in the field of letters.

Along with all this, Samaniego published satirical brochures and parodies mocking de Iriarte's works. This made the already tense situation worse. De Iriarte accused Samaniego before the Inquisition, which caused him serious problems.

Death

Tired of political activity and trying to lower the tension of his friction with the authorities of the Inquisition, Félix María Samaniego retired to his hometown, Laguardia, in 1972. He died there on August 11, 1801.

Plays

Fabular

The masterpiece of Félix María Samaniego was entitled Fables in Castilian verse for the use of the Royal Basque Seminary.

These fables were collected and published in Madrid in two volumes between 1781 and 1784, and were collected in 9 books with 157 stories.

Now, most of the fables were translations and adaptations of works by other authors such as Aesop (-VI BC) and La Fontaine (1621-1695). These were initially aimed at his students.

However, in his adaptations Félix María Samaniego dispensed with the naive tone that the original fabularios had, taking a critical stance.

Through his creations, he attacked the actions of some main characters in his environment. Likewise, he criticized the social and political attitudes of the time.

Other works

In the twilight of his artistic life, Félix María Samaniego wrote various articles, poems, parodies and criticisms. These last two were directed towards other contemporary Spanish poets and playwrights.

From this period, the work Continuation of critical memories by Cosme Damian stands out. With this he began a long controversy with García de la Huerta.

Other works are: Guzmán el Bueno (parody of against Nicolás Fernández de Moratín), El bat alevoso (criticism of the work of Father Diego González) and Poema de la Música (parody of the work of Tomás de Iriarte).

He also wrote a collection of erotic-satirical stories in the work entitled The Garden of Venus. These were written in the year 1780, but their publication date was in 1921.

In this collection he is totally humorous and irreverent, in keeping with one of the fundamental ideas of the Enlightenment era: the liberation of the human spirit.

References

1. Encyclopædia Britannica. (1998, July 20). Felix Maria Samaniego. Taken from britannica.com.
2. Castilian corner. (s / f). Félix María de Samaniego: Life and Work. Taken from rinconcastellano.com.
3. Ticknor, G. (1849). History of Spanish literature,. London: John Murray.
4. Fernández Palacios, E. (s / f). Life and work of Samaniego. Taken from library.org.ar.
5. Spainisculture. (s / f). Neoclassicism and the 19th century. Fables. Taken from spainisculture.com.
6. Bleiberg, G.; Maureen, I. and Pérez, J. (1993). Dictionary of the Literature of the Iberian Peninsula. London: Greenwood Publishing Group.