PIDAL, pedal, Ramo% Menedez, Spanish philologist, critic and educationalist: b. Coruna, 13 March 1869. Educated at the universities of Madrid and Toulouse he became professor of Roman philology at the former university (1899). His markedly critical mind, his mas tery of the French tongue and his extensive writings soon won for him an international reputation and he was invited to lecture in the universities of various foreign countries, prin cipally those of South America. He has also given courses of lectures in Johns Hopkins University (1909), the Turnbull lectures; and in most of the universities of Spain. He also delivered the Hispanic Society lectures at Columbia University in 1909. Thus he came to be recognized as one of the foremost and most progressive educationalists in Spain. Shortly after the formation of the Junta para Ampli acidn de Estudios (a board created in 190/ for the extension and improvement of uni versity studies throughout Spain), he became a member of the organization and director of its summer and in 1913 Counselor of Public Instruction in Spain. His services in
these and other educational and literary capac ities gained for him membership in practically all the noted literary organizations of his native country, among them being the Royal Academy of History, Madrid, and the Academia Real de la Lengua; and also of the Hispanic Society of America. The Academia Real de la Lengua crowned his
y vocabulareo de poema del Cid,' and the same honor was extended to his
de los infantes de Lara' by the Royal Academy of History. In the field of Spanish philology he occupies a distinguished place which may be said to make him a noted specialist in his line of work. Among his published works are