The Congress of History of the Crown of Aragon (1908-)

The Congress and Europe

The Congress of History of the Crown of Aragon which began in 1908, has become the most prestigious international, multi-disciplinary and multilingual academic meeting on historiographical research in the former Crown of Aragon. Until now, a total of 20 editions, held almost uninterruptedly—halted only by political instability in some specific periods of the last century—have brought together specialists from all over the world around a predetermined theme. The talks, along with colloquia, debates and cultural activities cover all fields of history and historiographical sciences and techniques, documented in tens of thousands of pages published in 66 volumes.

The scientific quality of this meeting is evident both in the high number of prestigious scholars and academics from Spain, Italy, France, UK, and the United States who participate, as well as in the number of registered participants (there were 516 accredited conference participants at the XIV Conference, with more than 250 speakers). Relevant entities include the Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres of Barcelona, the Societat Arqueològica of Tarragona, the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, the Institució Alfons el Magnànim of Valencia, the Institución Fernando el Católico of Saragossa, the Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo de Rome, l’Accademia di Scienze de Palermo, and l’Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics.

An organizational structure governs the conference, the Permanent Commission, with representatives of the various regions that made up the Crown of Aragon. Its objective is to ensure the periodicity, scientific rigor, and execution of the resolutions between the succession of conferences. The Archive of the Crown of Aragon is the institutional headquarters of the Permanent Commission, and the Director of the Archive is its secretary.

The origin of the Congress: The seventh centenary of the birth of Jaume I in Montpellier

In 1907, a promotional committee was set up in Barcelona to commemorate the birth of the Conqueror King. Chaired by the mayor of the city, Domènec Sanllehy, along with Felip Bertran de Amat and Francesc de Bofarull i Sans, the director at the time of the Archive of the Crown of Aragon, as vice presidents, and Francesc Carreras Candi and Joaquim Miret i Sans as secretaries. This board announced on February 25, 1908 the call for that June of the first Congress of History of the Crown of Aragon.

The themes proposed later would fluctuate from significant historical protagonists, such as Kings Alfonso II "the Chaste" or Ferdinand II "the Catholic" of Aragon, to royal chroniclers such as Jerónimo Zurita. They also dealt with a region and a time period, such as the Mallorca of the private kingdom or the eastern Mediterranean and Africa. Similarly, the focus was placed on institutional themes such as royal power and the church, analysing commerce and the urban world, both in medieval periods and in modern times, or even circumscribing some meetings to major historical events in the Crown of Aragon: the Compromise of Caspe, the Sicilian Vespers or the Western Schism.

The second Congress was held in Huesca (1920), the third in Valencia (1923) and the fourth was scheduled in Palma de Mallorca, but unfortunately, the lack of a body to ensure the continuity of the conferences and the vicissitudes caused an impasse. As a result of the forming of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, the Congress resumed, continuing with the IV numeral that would have corresponded to the failed meeting in Palma de Mallorca. The V Congress took place in Zaragoza in 1952, with the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Ferdinand II of Aragon. The Congress became entrenched: IV-Mallorca (1955), VI-Cagliari (1957), VII-Barcelona (1962), VIII-Valencia (1967), IX-Naples (1973), X-Zaragoza (1976), XI-Palermo/Erice/Trapani (1982), XII-Montpellier (1985), XIII-Mallorca (1987), XIV-Sardinia (1990), XV-Jaca (1993), XVI-Naples (1997), XVII-Barcelona/Lérida (2000), XVIII-Valencia (2004), XIX-Caspe/Alcañiz/Zaragoza (2012) and XX-Rome/Naples (2017). The XXI is scheduled to be held in Sardinia in 2024.

Salto de línea Link to Permanent Commission

Link to CCBAE

Bibliography Salto de línea