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Royal College of Spain
The Royal College of Spain, whose full name is Real Colegio Mayor de San Clemente de los Españoles (Royal Major College of Saint Clement of the Spaniards), is a university college where Spanish students go to further their university education in the various faculties (Law, Letters and Philosophy, Music, etc.) of the University of Bologna.
It is the most famous of the twenty-four colleges founded in the city of Bologna between the 13th and 17th centuries, and it still receives collegians from all over Spain to pursue doctoral studies of the European Common Space ("Tesi di Ricerca") in all the disciplines offered by the Alma Mater Bononiensis.
The College was known for having admitted only male students, a criterion that was changed in July 2020 after 656 years of being applied.[1]
History
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The Royal College of Spain was founded by Cardinal Gil de Albornoz (1310–1367) through a testamentary disposition executed in Ancona on 29 September 1364. The cardinal thereby established the college, to whose construction he himself had contributed, and named his own students as his universal heirs. Its purpose was to facilitate the studies of young clerics and laymen from the Iberian Peninsula (Spaniards and Portuguese) who stood out as good intellectuals, and who therefore went to Bologna, which by then was already a consolidated center of learning in Europe.
From the time it began receiving collegians in 1369, the college served as a model for others that would later arise in Spain, such as that of the University of Salamanca (the Old College, of 1401), the Real Colegio Mayor de San Bartolomé y Santiago of Granada, as well as those founded at other Spanish universities in the 15th and 16th centuries,[2] and in Colombia the Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario, of 1653.
Among the most renowned collegians who have lodged at the Royal College of Spain, or the scholars who have been linked to the Albornoz house at some point, are Elio Antonio de Nebrija, a collegian in 1465, who began there the first Castilian Grammar (1492); also Antonio Agustín, a collegian in 1539; Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, a collegian in 1515 and surely one of the greatest scholars of Aristotle; and Álvaro Figueroa y Torres, better known as the Count of Romanones. In 1793, Leandro Fernández de Moratín also frequented the College, and his admiration for the Albornoz house is confirmed by the references in his Diario and by his Oda a los colegiales de San Clemente de Bolonia (Ode to the Collegians of Saint Clement of Bologna). During his stay in Bologna, Fernández de Moratín was able to make contact with the Italian theatrical elites and even jokingly wished that the then Rector, Simón Rodríguez Laso, be appointed Archbishop in Mexico, so that he himself could remain at the college. Ignatius of Loyola also visited the college in 1535, Benito Pérez Galdós in 1888, and Miguel de Cervantes himself, as can be inferred from the work La señora Cornelia, whose true source of inspiration surely remains a mystery.[3] It should also be borne in mind that on 24 February 1530 the Imperial Coronation of Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire took place in Bologna. The Emperor stayed at the college for four months, and from there the procession set out toward the Basilica of San Petronio, where the ceremony was held.
Antonio Pérez Martín's work Proles Aegidiana (Publicaciones del Real Colegio de España, 1979, «Studia Albornotiana») gives a detailed account of many other collegians.
The College and Bologna
The Royal College of Spain has been closely linked to the City of Bologna from the very moment of its founding. Among the most relevant historical events linking the College and its founder with Bologna, some episodes even prior to its construction and opening should be highlighted. As early as 1361, Gil de Albornoz fought alongside citizens of Bologna to liberate the city. This complicity and shared sacrifice are reflected in the College's own Statutes, which entrust it to the perpetual protection of «the Rectors, Authorities and Elders of the city of Bologna», also recalling «its Justice and laudable Government, and the generous favor with which the students always find themselves paternally welcomed». Gil de Albornoz trusts that his college «will grow from good to better» over time and that the authorities and the people will protect it out of love for the one «who freed them from tyrannical servitude and heroically defended their city», shedding his own blood alongside the citizens of Bologna.
Despite the successive and constant attempts at usurpation, maneuvers and intrigues that the College has suffered throughout its history, it is true that it never lacked someone to defend it, its independence and autonomy being the unequivocal cause of its longevity, now close to seven centuries of history. It is almost poetic that Gil de Albornoz set out for Italy in the 14th century to fight against the tyrants and thus reconquer the Papal States, and that his work has withstood numerous attempts at appropriation for centuries. Among all these attempts, that of Napoleon during the 19th century certainly stands out. On that occasion it was the city of Bologna itself and the people of Bologna who came to its aid and defense, even facilitating the return of the property confiscated during this period and making clear how deeply rooted the institution is in the city. It is evident that Gil de Albornoz and his memory deserved no other response.
National and international figures frequently take an interest in the institution and visit it, as is the case of H.M. King Felipe VI of Spain,[4] the Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry Kary Mullis, the former United States Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Antonio Garrigues Walker, or more recently Zhou Qiang, President of the Supreme Court of the People's Republic of China.
Royal Protection
This college, a forerunner of the renowned university, stood out and still stands out for enjoying the protection of the Kings of Spain. Some authors state that the protection began with the Catholic Monarchs under the authorization of Pope Innocent VIII in 1488. The so-called «royal protection» invoked the protection of the Kings of Spain and was intended to further ennoble the college's original constitutions. Nevertheless, the royal protection should be dated to 1530, thanks to Charles I, as is recorded in the inscription in the college chapel. That protection was continued by Philip II and the other Spanish monarchs.
Scholarships
The Royal College of Spain in Bologna is a private institution which, through its Board of Trustees, chaired by the head of the Albornoz lineage and perpetual patron, annually offers scholarships to the best Spanish students, including Portuguese students, in a rigorous national competition of merit, so that they may pursue doctoral studies at the University of Bologna and thus give continuity to the work instituted by Cardinal Gil de Albornoz in the 14th century.
Present day
Complaint
In 2010 a professor of Labor Law at the University of Seville filed a complaint alleging discrimination[5][6] because the requirements for receiving a scholarship from the institution were: «to be male, Spanish (Portuguese included), Catholic, of irreproachable conduct, under thirty years of age, a graduate in Spain with very good grades, not to suffer from any illness or physical or mental defect incompatible with the performance of the corresponding functions, and not to be a civil servant».[7]
Europa Nostra Award 2012
In 2012, the Royal College of Spain in Bologna received the European Union's Europa Nostra Award in its first category, relating to heritage conservation. The effort made by the College in its restoration and consolidation works was also highlighted, especially during the period 1978–2010 under the direction of its Rector José Guillermo García-Valdecasas. One of the main results of this effort was the discovery of important frescoes in several rooms of the building, now completely restored.[8]
Change in the gender criterion
In July 2020 it was announced that the Royal College of Spain would accept women for the first time in its 656 years of existence, creating scholarships intended for female students and funded with private funds from the Albornoz Foundation.[1]
Architecture
Designed by its founder, Gil Álvarez de Albornoz, who entrusted Matteo Giovannelli (known as il Gattapone) with supervising the works, the college is laid out on two floors with a central arcaded courtyard around which the rooms are distributed and which leads to the Gothic church. The students' rooms look out onto the exterior side, which has a fortified and crenellated structure; the outer façade was later remodeled in the Renaissance style.
This defensive structure of the complex reveals the college's aim of enjoying relative self-sufficiency with respect to the city. The students even followed some courses within the college itself «where the Chairs are read, one of Theology, another of Canons, another of Laws».[9]
The building has a highly regarded portal from 1525, the work of Formigine. In the portico there is a fresco by Annibale Carracci, which is, however, in very poor condition. There are also two frescoes by Bartolomeo Bagnacavallo, while the one by Camillo Procaccini, in the apse of the Chapel of Saint Clement, was destroyed in 1914.[10] The chapel also houses a valuable polyptych by Marco Zoppo.
The structure and facilities of the college have changed over time. Thus, as can be gathered from the descriptions of Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, it can be deduced that food was plentiful (bread, wine, 450 g of veal), although—it seems—often served cold, since the kitchens were far from the dining hall.[11] Today the kitchen is not far from the dining hall, although it is on a different floor, and the food is served at the right moment.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "El Real Colegio de España en Bolonia aceptará mujeres tras 656 años de exclusión". abc (in español). 24 July 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
- ↑ A. Gieysztor, Management and resources, p. 119; H. de Ridder-Symoens, "Mobility", p. 297. (in English)
- ↑ The Times, "The Spanish College At Bologna. Historic Memories", November 26, 1923; p. 13; issue 43508; col D. (in English)
- ↑ ABC: «SAR el Príncipe de Asturias recibe la máxima condecoración de la Universidad de Bolonia» (in Spanish)
- ↑ El Mundo: «El rector de la Universidad de Sevilla avala las becas machistas de Bolonia» (in Spanish)
- ↑ El Mundo: «Universidad machista» (in Spanish)
- ↑ Concurso de méritos para proveer las becas vacantes (in Spanish)
- ↑ Premios Europa Nostra 2012: The Royal Spanish College in Bologna
- ↑ M. de Briones, Descripción al illustrissimo y reberendissimo Príncipe y Señor Don Gil Albornoz, Bologna, 1630 (in Spanish)
- ↑ Nancy Ward Neilson, Camillo Procaccini, in Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press (in English)
- ↑ Juan Guinés de Sepúlveda, Historia de bello administrato in Italia, Bologna, 1520 (in Latin)
Bibliography
- PÉREZ MARTÍN, Antonio. Proles Aegidiana, Bologna, Publicaciones del Real Colegio de España, 1979 («Studia Albornotiana», XXXI)
External links
- Website of the Royal College of Spain. (in Spanish)
- Rinaldo Froldi, El Colegio de España de Bolonia y la literatura española. (in Spanish)
- De Bolonia a las Indias. (in Spanish)
- La nación de las Indias en la Universidad de Bolonia. (in Spanish)
- España y Bolonia. Siete siglos de relaciones artísticas y culturales. (in Spanish)
- A presentation and explanation of the Royal College of Spain. (in Spanish)
- I Congreso Internacional de Historia del Arte y Arqueología en el Real Colegio de España en Bolonia. El Imperio y las Hispanias de Trajano a Carlos V: clasicismo y poder en el arte español. (in Spanish)
