Rufino José Cuervo undertook in 1872 the work of a lifetime: a historical dictionary that would describe, not the meaning of Spanish words, but the way they fit together, resting on thousands of quotations drawn from every period. Settled in Paris in 1882, he led there an almost monastic life of study. He died without getting beyond the letter D.
The story
Born in Bogotá on 19 September 1844 into a family of scholars and politicians, Rufino José Cuervo took an early passion for grammar and the history of Spanish. His Apuntaciones críticas sobre el lenguaje bogotano — critical notes on the Spanish spoken in Bogotá — published in 1867, made his name well beyond Colombia.
In 1872 he began the work of a lifetime: a historical dictionary of the construction and syntax of Spanish, built on thousands of quotations gathered from the literature of every period — not what words mean, but how they fit together.
In 1882 he settled in Paris with his brother Ángel, a poet, and led an almost monastic life of study there. The European academies counted him among their correspondents; he never went home.
Two volumes appeared in his lifetime. He died in Paris on 17 July 1911 without having got past the letter D, leaving tens of thousands of handwritten slips.
He lies in Division 90. The Instituto Caro y Cuervo, founded in Bogotá in his memory, took the work up again and carried the dictionary to its end at the close of the twentieth century: nearly a hundred and twenty years after the first slip.
On site, do not miss
Look for Division 90, high up in the cemetery, and a Colombian name among Parisian graves.
Visitors' questions
Where is Rufino José Cuervo's grave?
In Division 90 of Père-Lachaise, in the upper, more recent part of the cemetery. The Colombian philologist (1844-1911) has rested there since July 1911, after twenty-nine years of a Parisian life given over almost entirely to his dictionary.
Émile WaldteufelWho was Rufino José Cuervo?
Colombia's greatest philologist, a specialist in the Spanish language, known from 1867 for his Apuntaciones críticas sobre el lenguaje bogotano. He lived in Paris from 1882 until his death in 1911 and rests in Division 90 of Père-Lachaise.
Miguel Ángel AsturiasWas Cuervo's dictionary ever finished?
Not in his lifetime: he died in 1911 without getting past the letter D, two volumes having been published. The Caro y Cuervo Institute, founded in Bogotá in his memory, carried the project through to completion at the end of the twentieth century.
Alain ReyWhich other Latin American figures rest at Père-Lachaise?
The Guatemalan Miguel Ángel Asturias, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the writer Enrique Gómez Carrillo are buried here. Since the nineteenth century, many foreigners on long stays in Paris have chosen it as their final resting place.
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