The Catalan Language in an “Age of Decadence”

This chapter examines Catalan in Jaume Caresmar’s time in light of what seems to be a paradox that a scholar so devoted to Catalonia’s past should write voluminously in Castilian, in Latin secondarily, and in Catalan seldomly. Antoni de Capmany regarded the intimate importance of the Catalan language and its public irrelevance with neither satisfaction nor regret. His deprecation of Catalan was not because of political or aesthetic preferences but because of practical reasons; Castilian was the language of commerce and public discourse. Capmany and Caresmar’s choice of language reflects the gradual disappearance of Catalan from administrative and learned discourse. However, the term “decadència” is misleading as applied to the eighteenth century, because the actual use of Catalan was not endangered. In addition, the nadir of its use in government and publications came later, in the early nineteenth century. As opposed to its precipitous literary marginalization, Catalan as an institutional language experienced only a gradual falling off in use and reduced prestige. Catalan officials were careful to preserve the ceremonial use of their language in government acts, especially when addressing officers of the Spanish crown. The chapter then looks at the revival of Catalan and its flowering as a normal written language and as a national identity marker.