Jovellanos - Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos

A writer and politician who represents the Spanish Enlightenment. After holding legal positions in Seville and Madrid, he became Minister of Justice. However, his progressive ideas caused him to be arrested on the island of Mallorca, which displeased his favorite, Godoy. When Napoleon's army invaded, he was released and offered the position of Minister of the Interior, but he refused. Instead, he became a member of the anti-French Central Council and convened the National Assembly, and died while fleeing from the French army. He made more concrete proposals than the earlier Fayjo, such as the Report on the Agrarian Law (1795) and the General Plan of Civic Education (1809), which called for Spain to break away from its backwardness. He also wrote the play The Honest Sinner (1774) and the elegantly lyrical Letters from Fabio to Anfriso, but his three-volume Diary (published in 1915) is what has made him a witness to his times.

[Takashi Sasaki]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

スペイン啓蒙(けいもう)主義を代表する作家、政治家。セビーリャとマドリードで司法畑の役職を経験したのち司法大臣となる。しかしその進歩主義思想が災いして、寵臣(ちょうしん)ゴドイの不興を買ってマジョルカ島に軟禁される。ナポレオン軍侵入の際、釈放されて内務大臣の椅子(いす)を提供されるが断り、反フランス的な中央評議会の一員となって国民議会を招集、フランス軍に追われて逃げる途中没する。彼は一時代前のフェイホーよりもさらに具体的な提案、たとえば『農地法に関する報告書』（1795）や『公民教育の一般計画』（1809）などをもって、当時のスペインの後進性からの脱却を主張した。彼はまた戯曲『誠実な罪人』（1774）、高雅な叙情の『ファビオよりアンフリソへの書簡』を書いたが、結局は三巻に及ぶ『日記』（公刊は1915）により時代の証言者として歴史に名をとどめている。

［佐々木孝］

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