Enric Prat de la Riba i Sarrà (; 29 November 1870 – 1 August 1917) was a

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

politician, lawyer and writer. He was a member of the , where one of the earliest definitions of Catalan nationalism was formulated. He became the first President of the

Commonwealth of Catalonia The Commonwealth of Catalonia ( ca, Mancomunitat de Catalunya, ) was a deliberative assembly made up of the councillors of the four provinces of Catalonia. Promoted in its final stages of gestation by the Regionalist League of Catalonia, it w ...

on 6 April 1914 and retained this office until his death. He wrote the book and political manifesto '' La nacionalitat catalana'' in which greater autonomy to Catalonia was advocated. He died in 1917 and is interred in the

Montjuïc Cemetery Montjuïc Cemetery, known in Catalan as Cementiri del Sud-oest or Cementiri de Montjuïc, is located on one of the rocky slopes of Montjuïc hill in Barcelona. History It was opened on 17 March 1883 by the city of Barcelona as its main cemetery ...

in Barcelona.

Early life

Enric Prat de la Riba i Sarrà was born on 29 November 1870 in Castellterçol, to an affluent Roman Catholic conservative family. He started his

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

studies at the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat de Barcelona, UB; ; es, link=no, Universidad de Barcelona) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, in Spain. With 63,000 students, it is one of the biggest universities i ...

and finished and received his degree at the

Central University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

Political career

Prat de la Riba was attracted towards Catalan nationalism when he was still in college. In 1887, he became a member of Centre Escolar Catalanista. He became an important member of the cultural and political organization , in which he wrote some of its most relevant manifestos, among them is the famous ' in 1897. In 1891, he was elected the secretary of Unió. He penned Catalan nationalist writings such as ''Compendi de la doctrina catalanista'' and ''Compendi de la història de Catalunya''. He also wrote for the periodical '. Since 1899, he promoted Catalan nationalism in politics, at first as a member of the and later in the Regionalist League of Catalonia. The Regionalist League was a right-wing Catalan political party established in 1901 by Prat de la Riba. The party demanded greater administrative autonomy to Catalonia. Prat de la Riba served as a secretary of the assembly in charge of writing the draft for a regional

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

known as ' in 1892, the first step towards the development of the

Catalan Statute of Autonomy The Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006 ( ca, Estatut d’Autonomia de Catalunya) provides Catalonia's basic institutional regulations under the Spanish Constitution of 1978. It defines the rights and obligations of the citizens of Cataloni ...

. He is also known as the author of the Noucentista Catalan nationalist manifesto '' La nacionalitat catalana'' in 1906. Later on, in 1907 he became the first president of the

Institut d'Estudis Catalans The Institute for Catalan Studies ( ca, Institut d'Estudis Catalans, ), also known by the acronym IEC, is an academic institution which seeks to undertake research and study into "all elements of Catalan culture". It is based in Barcelona, Catalon ...

, president of the Diputació de Barcelona and a proponent of the

, which he led until his death on 6 April 1914, having served as its first President of the Commonwealth.

References

External links

Biography of Prat de la Riba on ''Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana''
(Great Catalan Encyclopaedia) {{DEFAULTSORT:Prat de la Riba, Enric 1870 births 1917 deaths People from Vallès Oriental Politicians from Catalonia