The Forgotten Poet
In my town, in Bisbal d’Empordà, all the young people knew of the existence of Mossèn Cinto and remembered some fragment of his poems. However, nowadays, I rarely hear about the poet among young people, not even the old stories that grandmothers used to tell around the fire. This lack of knowledge is lamented by Roser Carol and Àlvar Valls, who, probably motivated by this ignorance among the younger generations about who was the most relevant poet in 19th century Catalan literature, have written and recently published the General Bibliography of Jacint Verdaguer (1864-2023) (Verdaguer Editions, 2024).
The Most Outstanding Biographer of All Time
Carol and Valls have dedicated a significant part of their lives to studying the life and work of Mossèn Cinto. This colossal task has led them to compile all the material related to the Renaissance poet, which they have now embodied in the General Bibliography of Jacint Verdaguer (1864-2023). This volume includes everything from Verdaguer’s works to articles dedicated to him. In addition, there are also references to the musical recently created by the composer Arnau Tordera, translations of his works into other languages and curiosities such as the asteroid that the Tortoise astronomer Jaume Nomen discovered in 2000 and which received the name of Verdaguer, coinciding with the centenary of his death.
A Monumental Tasca
In this bibliography, the authors present more than 9,000 bibliographic files structured in 32 thematic sections, grouped into two large parts: Works by Verdaguer and Works on Verdaguer. Despite the monumentality of the project, Carol and Valls consider their work as ‘incomplete’. After twenty years of work on this project, aware of their limitations as a small team, they recognize that there are many publications about Verdaguer that they have not been able to know about or to which they have not had access.
Presentation at the Verdaguer Festival
The presentation of the book on Jacint Verdaguer’s bibliography in Folgueroles, the poet’s hometown, will mark the beginning of the 2024 edition of the Verdaguer Festival. This event will be accompanied by a parallel exhibition entitled ‘Biographies and biographies of Verdaguer’, which highlights how Verdaguer is the most biographed Catalan of all time and exhibits the most relevant works on the poet.