Pancracio Celdrán

Pancracio Celdrán Gomáriz (1942 – 24 March 2019) was a Spanish professor, intellectual and journalist whose specialties were the history and literature of antiquity and the medieval period.

Early life and education
Born in Murcia, Celdrán received a degree in Hispanic literature and a doctorate in philosophy and letters from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid; a master's degree in comparative history; and has also received degrees in middle eastern history, English literature, comparative literature, and Hebrew language and culture.

Career
Celdrán's academic activities took him to various universities in the United States (notably the University of California, Berkeley), in Europe, and in Israel (namely at the University of Haifa, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev). He was also a guest professor at the International Lebanese University in Beirut. Lebanon.

Though Celdrán worked occasionally in print and on television, his journalistic activities were chiefly in the medium of radio, where he has worked as a writer, executive producer, and special correspondent. He has also participated in radio tertulias (in effect, panel discussions). He was a contributor to No es un día cualquiera ("It's Not Just Another Day"), a weekend news magazine broadcast by Radio Nacional de España, and the resident linguistic consultant of El Semanal, the Sunday supplement published by the Grupo Vocento. However the prestige that this tribunes could provide him, Celdrán was critically reviewed as denigratory to non-standard speakers and other political, religious and sexual positions different from his.

In addition to many books, Celdrán contributed material to Raíces ("Roots"), a cultural review of the Jewish community in Spain.

Death
Celdrán died on 24 March 2019 in Madrid, at the age of 77.

Relevance
His Diccionario de topónimos españoles y sus gentilicios [Dictionary of Spanish Toponyms and Demonyms] (2002) has been chosen by the Spanish Wikipedia as a final source of authority on Spanish toponyms, both for terms still in use and for traditional names which have already fallen out of use.