Pedro Montengon's Frioleras Eruditas Y Curiosas Para La Publica Instruccion

Purporting to chronicle historical, literary, political and interdisciplinary cultural manifestations, and discussing briefly the work of Ancient and XVIII Century European philosophers, artists and scientists, and the ways in which the labor of these historical figures was disseminated, Pedro Montengón's Frioleras Eruditas reveals more about the changing roles of the Spanish and European societies at the dawn of the Industrial Age than it does about establishing once again the literary importance of a generation of Italian-bound Jesuit exiles during the XVIII Century Spanish Enlightenment.

Based on the princeps edition (1801) and preceded by a lengthy introductory study, this critical annonated edition documents key aspects of Spain's controversial Age of Reason, particularly the uncertain shifts in ideas, and the peculiarities of Montengón's idiosyncratic philosophical system. Ramos-García's extensive archival research convincingly provides an expanded corpus of hundreds of endnotes - depicting historical and literary allusions - as well as identifying, correcting and translating numerous Latin epigraphs into the Spanish language. This is one of the most comprehensive assessments of a lesser-known Montengon work. In Spanish.