Medieval Spanish Studies

According to George Bernard Shaw, who can, does. He who cannot, teaches (Maxims for Revolutionists). Much to our academic chagrin this witticism is presumed to reflect quite aptly the realities of pedagogical endeavor. Now, in these recent years of economic dilemma for the teaching profession, Shaw's maxim has come to assume rather grim connotations, especially for those who outside of classroom hours try to live up to the unbusinesslike reputation of our profession by devoting themselves to scholarly research rather than to practical pursuits. No matter how vitally important philology may be to the relatively few interested, the fact remains that substantial publications in the Spanish field, at least, have become both rare and almost prohibitively expensive, because the researcher has to double as his own publisher lest the fruits of his labors die on the vine. No American research foundation is willing to support large-scale Medieval Spanish studies. Commercial publishing houses are no longer interested in printing unprofitable tomes, which they used to designate euphemistically as prestige books, for the good of the cause. Even with some university presses the profit criterion has become paramount. And professors, by very definition not being financiers, are somewhat loath to spend what they haven't got. Some such considerations as these, although they do not necessarily explain the inadequate progress of Old Spanish studies in the past, do help to rationalize what I conceive as three major problems of pre ent-day Medieval Spanish research: Firstly, we do not have enough capable young workers in the field, perhaps because only a few modern mortals can afford to devote themselves to such impractical endeavors. Secondly, of these precious few only a handful are devoting their talents to real substantial contributions, because substantial contributions are time-consuming and are often left unpublished or are published at great personal sacrifice in unsatisfactory format. Thirdly, the field presents all-but-insurmountable obstacles to the individual worker because of the dearth of adequately edited texts and published lexicographical studies of appreciable

Linguistics · Early Modern Spanish Literature · History · Libraries, Manuscripts, and Books · Medieval Iberian Studies · Philosophy