Juan Nicasio Gallego was a Spanish priest and poet. He was born in Zamora, Spain, 14 December 1777, and died in Madrid, 9 January 1853. He received his training at Salamanca; entering into Holy orders, he soon went to Madrid, where he was given a post in the royal palace, being made director of the royal pages. His feelings as a patriot and his love for pseudo-classicism led him to associate himself with the coterie about the poet Manuel José Quintana, and to imitate the latter's metres. It is by virtue of only seven odes and elegies that Gallego is known. Of these the first was the ode, A la defensa de Buenos Ayres (1807), directed against the British invasions of the Río de la Plata. Another was his elegy on the death of the Duchess of Frias.