Calle de Montalbán

The Calle de Montalbán was born from the extension of the Los Jerónimos neighbourhood, built on a plot that in the 17th century held outbuildings of the Palace of the Buen Retiro. The council approved the name in 1865, when it decided to fill the new streets around the Prado with Golden Age writers. The one honoured was Juan Pérez de Montalbán, a figure little remembered today who in his day lived close to the workshop of the finest Spanish literature. He had been born in Madrid in 1601, the son of the bookseller Alonso Pérez, none other than Lope de Vega’s publisher. He grew up, then, among the printed sheets of the most famous author of his time. He took holy orders and served as notary of the Holy Office, and as a writer he proved prolific: his miscellany Para todos (1632) ran to some twenty editions. The episode that best captures him came after Lope’s death. Montalbán compiled the Fama póstuma (1636), the master’s first biography, gathering verses from a hundred and fifty-three authors: a collective funeral on paper, written by almost every pen at court.