Mercedes Agulló facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mercedes Agulló
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| Born |
Mercedes Agulló y Cobo
October 23, 1925 |
| Died | January 4, 2019 (aged 93) El Puerto de Santa María, Spain
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| Alma mater | Complutense University of Madrid |
Mercedes Agulló y Cobo (born October 23, 1925, in Madrid, Spain – died January 4, 2019, in El Puerto de Santa María, Spain) was a very important Spanish historian. She was especially known for her amazing research on two famous Spanish books: Lazarillo de Tormes and Don Quixote. Her discoveries about these books were shared with the public in 2010.
Discovering the Past
Mercedes Agulló was an expert in historiography. This is the study of how history is written and understood. She also specialized in palaeography, which is the study of old handwriting. This skill helped her read and understand very old documents.
Her work focused on the history of books, paintings, sculptures, and even theatre. She spent a lot of time looking through old national and church archives. These are places where historical documents are kept. Because of her hard work, many of her publications are now collected in the Mercedes Agulló and Cobo Digital Library. This library is at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. It helps people around the world learn from her research.
The Mystery of Lazarillo de Tormes
In March 2010, Mercedes Agulló published a book called "A vueltas con el autor del Lazarillo". In this book, she shared an exciting new idea about who wrote Lazarillo de Tormes. This book is a very famous Spanish novel, but for a long time, no one knew for sure who wrote it.
Mercedes Agulló found some old papers belonging to Diego Hurtado de Mendoza. On these papers, there was a note that mentioned "corrections made for the printing of Lazarillo". This discovery made her think that Diego Hurtado de Mendoza might have been the author.
This idea wasn't completely new. Back in 1607, a writer named Valerio Andrés Taxandro had also suggested that Diego Hurtado de Mendoza wrote Lazarillo de Tormes. Other writers in the 17th century and even the Royal Spanish Academy in the 1700s mentioned this idea too. Mercedes Agulló's research helped bring this old theory back into the spotlight with new evidence.
See also
In Spanish: Mercedes Agulló para niños
