Juan Meléndez (1754 - 1817)

He was born at Ribera del Fresno, in what is now the province of Badajoz. Destined by his parents for the priesthood, he graduated in law at Salamanca, where he became indoctrinated with the ideas of the French philosophical school. In 1780 with Batilo, a pastoral in the manner of Garcilaso de la Vega, he won a prize offered by the Spanish academy; next year he was introduced to Jovellanos, through whose influence he was appointed to a professorship at Salamanca in 1783.