Presentation of the University of Castilla-La Mancha

Miguel Ángel Collado Yurrita
Rector of the University of Castilla-La Mancha

 

Toledo en el siglo XVI. Detalle de un mapa de Joris HoefnagelThe University of Castilla-La Mancha identifies the inheritance of an identity and a past in its modern School of Translators of which today the city of Toledo and the region as a whole are once again proud of, after centuries of silence and oblivion.  The spirit of a city open to knowledge, to the universality of knowledge and to daily and fruitful work in a collaboration that did not distinguish faith, origin or language, was the spirit that between the 11th and 13th centuries encouraged the city of King Taifa Al-Mamun, that of the ArchbishopFrancis Raymond de Sauvetât and that of the king Alfonso X the Wise. That spirit made it possible for scholars attracted by the scientific, philosophical and literary works, which Europe as a whole was unaware of and that Toledo was guarding at the time, to come and be welcomed.

The builders of bridges between the East and the West, the architects of the old Toledo School of Translators, worked together for the same purpose and in pursuit of a common goal. It is not necessary to remember that "all united in pursuit of a common goal" reflects the etymological meaning of the Latin voice universitas. For Sebastian de Covarrubias, in his " Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española(1611), "university" means "community and town council of people and things, and because students from all over the world attend general schools, they were called universities, such as the University of Salamanca, Alcalá, etc. They also call universities certain peoples that have union and friendship with each other.” The spirit, the human composition and the activity of the old School of Translators are therefore, by definition, a response to the medieval concept of "university", whose validity we claim as the heir of whom today form the University of Castilla-La Mancha.

The names of the translators of that "school" tell us about their different origins: Michael Scotus, Hermanus Dalmatus, Gerardo de Cremona, Adelard von Bath, Rodolfo de Brujas, Hugo de Santalla, Gebert von Reims, Álvaro de Oviedo, or Marcos de Toledo. The goal that united them was none other than the search for knowledge, fundamentally scientific knowledge.  It was said that in order to learn Theology one had to travel to Paris; to learn Law, to Bologna; and to learn Natural Sciences, Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics, Astronomy and Astrology, to find this knowledge one had to travel to Toledo.

The University of Castilla-La Mancha is recognised in this universal/university spirit, and in this vocation that centuries ago placed Spain ahead of its time, at the head of Europe. The greatest cultural contribution that Spain has made to Europe throughout its history is the transmission of classical Greek, Persian, Indian and Arabic knowledge, initiated and culminated in Toledo between the 12th and 13th centuries, thanks to a unique translation workshop, never repeated again. The volume of Toledo's translations has to be considered immense," says Márquez Villanueva in his monumental El concepto cultural alfonsí (The Alphonsine Cultural Concept), "because, as far as we know, it meant that every book that was used as a source in Spanish was put into Spanish. No document shows us that there was an organised and structurally established work, a project, a cultural policy of well defined and planned ecclesiastical or royal power. The themes, contents, methods and orientations are extremely diverse and disparate. In fact, every day more and more specialists are claiming that it was the translators, alone or in teams, who constructed the fundamental elements of the history of medieval thought.

If, as medieval sources show us, there was no institution in Toledo in the 12th and 13th centuries that really and physically brought together the work of its translators, today it is a great pleasure for this university to be able to collaborate as an institution in a project aimed at bringing together, digitizing and openly offering the legacy of its activity. The digital edition project of the Virtual Library of the Old Toledo School of Translators will make available to all scholars around the world the known and yet to be discovered fruits of the greatest phenomenon of translation that our Middle Ages knew.

The Virtual Library of the Old School of Translators of Toledo, thanks to DIGIBÍS, will make it possible to compile and access more than 1,500 manuscripts, incunabula first editions scattered in libraries throughout Europe from a single point on the Web, digitised, recatalogued and integrated into the large European database, EUROPEANA (European Commission), with very complete authorities records, linked to all major international bibliographic reference projects, with the facilities that related and open archive technology offers when it comes to locating books and unknown or unforeseen authors. The Virtual Library project of The Old School of Translators of Toledo is added to the projects of the Virtual Library of Menéndez Pelayo, Virtual Library of the School of Salamancaand Virtual Library of Francisco Sánchez, the Skeptic. The latter was recently selected by the large virtual library Europeana as the model with the greatest impact on the virtual or digital library environment.

Thus, the University of Castilla-La Mancha is associated with full vocation and enthusiasm to this project and does so happily for at least three reasons. First of all, because collaborating in a project aimed at recovering, enhancing and disseminating scientific knowledge of our cultural past means investigating the roots of our university and nurturing them with new ingredients and tools. Secondly, because this project will provide the University Library of Castilla-La Mancha with a rich and effective response to the many researchers who, year after year, address their consultations on this period of history. And thirdly, because doing so with the help of the Ignacio Larramendi Foundation - particularly its subsidiary DIGIBIS - and the MAPFRE Foundation, is equivalent to having the best scientific and technological tools at our disposal, which guarantees the achievement of the goal set and makes us stronger as a university.