Manuel Codorniu

Biography

Manuel Codorniu y Ferreras was born in Esparreguera, a small town in the Province of Barcelona, Catalonia, on 1 June 1788. Both his father and grandfather were physicians, and his father, Manuel Codorniu Vidal, served as a military physician as well.

He enlisted at the royal army when the Peninsular War broke out between Spanish monarchists and French imperial forces commanded by Napoléon Bonaparte. Carlos Nagués assigned him to the Sant Ferran Castle, where he was taken prisoner on 3 May 1811. After the conflict came to and end, he received military awards and a royal pension from King Ferdinand VII. In Mexico City, he founded El Sol, an influential newspaper that opposed Emperor Agustín de Iturbide and cofounded the to implement innovative education practices popularized by Joseph Lancaster through the British and Foreign School Society.

Spain's persistent refusal to recognize the Mexican independence sparked a nationalist revolt in 1827, and Mexican President Guadalupe Victoria ordered the deportation of most Spanish-born citizens. Codorniu's political enemies took advantage of the situation, sent him to a refugees' colony and made sure he abandoned the country. He was grandfather of the notorious forester Ricardo Codorníu y Stárico, who led exemplary reforestations in the 19th century in southeastern Spain.

He died in Madrid on 18 July 1857, at the age of 69.

Books (1820) (1825) (1826) (1838) (1838) (1845) (1849) (1850) (1854)

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