Manuel de Montoliu (Barcelona, 1877 - Tarragona, 1961) was a literary critic, essayist and translator.

After studying in Manresa and Barcelona, he obtained a doctoral degree in Madrid, after which he proceeded to further studies in Germany with the linguist and eminent Romanist Karl Vossler. Apart from some early volumes of poetry, he is best known for his literary criticism with a prodigious corpus of work in the form of articles for a range of publications such as El Poble Català, La Veu de Catalunya, Diario de Barcelona and many others, including specialist reviews in Spain and newspapers in other countries. In this terrain, where he appears as a tenacious columnist, he is an outstanding figure.

Notable among his publications are Manual d'Història crítica de la literatura catalana moderna (Manual of Critical History of Modern Catalan Literature, 1922), Goethe en la literatura catalana (Goethe in Catalan Literature, 1935), Aribau i la Catalunya del seu temps (Aribau and the Catalonia of His Times, 1936) and the three volumes of Breviari Crític (Critical Compendium), which bring together the articles he wrote for La Veu de Catalunya. These books were published separately between 1923 and 1936 and were completed after his death thanks to the work of Francesc Xavier Ricomà and Rosa Maria Ricomà in the 1970s and 1980s. Commissioned by Francesc Cambó, he wrote eight volumes of Catalan literary criticism between 1957 and 1961, these being published under the generic title of "Les Grans Personalitats de la Literatura catalana" (Great Personalities of Catalan Literature).

Besides his translations of Greek and Latin classics for the publisher Bernat Metge, he translated other works from German, French and English, wrote prologues, gave lectures and edited books throughout his life, intellectual endeavours that reveal him to be a humanist through and through.

He has been named "fill il·lustre" (illustrious son) of the city of Tarragona.



Web page: Abel Ramon Vidal for AELC.