Juan Bautista Muñoz Ferrandis (1745-1799), un espiritu universal

The Analysis of the work of Juan Bautista Munoz, both his historical work on America (1785, 1793) and that of a historical-literary nature (more varied and extensive), with the aim of reexamining his contribution in both disciplines (historiography and literary criticism). An attempt is made to evaluate the component of modern cultural history and self-criticism among the Americanists of the first Columbian period (1793) versus the general appreciation in terms of the collecting of documentary materials represented by the constitution of the General Archive of the Indies (1785). Regarding its literary component, which is highly worthy because it meant the recovery of representative authors of the Golden Age (Fray Luis de Gra - nada, Luis Vives, Nebrija), an attempt is also made to highlight the exceptionality of the literary quality of Munoz’s Historia del Nuevo Mundo, utilizing Marcelino Menendez Pelayo’s praise. This interdisciplinary tension entailed a political struggle, where family and regional factions unfold at the national and international level, giving final meaning to the lives of the best men that existed in the known universe.