The Royal Academy adds to its ranks—some five years late—a figure of rare distinction and extraordinary worth. Pedro Manuel Cátedra is one of the first philologists in this country, an extraordinary cultivator of literary history, a bibliographer and book historian with few equals and, in short, among other things, a bibliophile of rare prominence. Our knowledge of medieval and Renaissance literature, of the history of books in Spain—and in Italy—and of Hispanic cultures from the Middle Ages to the present day would be different, and worse, without his work and contributions.
Andalusian by nation, formed in a golden age of Hispanic studies in Catalonia at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, with the much-missed Alberto Blecua and, above all, Francisco Rico—his late teacher—as references (and always Eugenio Asensio in the background) , Pedro Manuel Cátedra, from his first erudite and critical contributions, distinguished himself with the mark of the best in our field: his ability to see, understand and explain things that others did not see and, consequently, could not explain well. Since his first contributions – at the end of the seventies – on the history and practice of medieval sermonism in Aragon and Castile, he has plowed with a firm and wise hand lands that remained uncultivated, or has known how to extract more and more pomegranate fruits from plots that used to be give them more diminished. Thus, his studies on the figure and work of Enrique de Villena, to whom he dedicated his enormous — in every sense — doctoral thesis, and to whom he dedicated his — equally enormous — entrance speech at the Academy; his work on the Castilian preaching of Vicente Ferrer (who would achieve his acme with his Sermon, society and literature (San Vicente Ferrer in Castile, 1411-1412)1994), or his edition of Pedro Marín’s sermons (1990), his early publications and editions in the field of loose sheets and his editions of texts (always with frequent contributions of bibliographical pieces of distinguished rarity and stature), or his explorations in the intellectual history of the 19th century – see his article on the library of the Marquis of Santillana, clearly inappropriate for a twenty-year-old – constitute the foundation of an outstanding scientific work on which the main lines of an incipient career were laid. , but already incontestable and essential, before its author reached thirty.
His incorporation as a professor at the University of Salamanca, of which he is now an emeritus professor, was greeted with two capital books: his Love and pedagogy in medieval Spainwith the illuminating subtitle (after the Unamunian wink) of Studies in love doctrine and literary practicebeautifully interweaves, and with the intellectual complexity that the subject requested, the ideas about love that circulated in the intellectual and university environments—Salamanca in the center—of the 15th century with the various literary embodiments of them in a wide series of works. , generically diverse, and all of them raised on that doctrinal foundation. The other is Historiography in verse in the Spain of the Catholic Monarchs. The “Consolation of Castile” by Juan Barbawhere the edition of that text is accompanied by a study where the territory of a hitherto practically unknown literary genre is mapped, with extreme precision and finesse.
His contributions on the history of books in Spain flourished especially towards the nineties, and from then on: his works and editorial initiatives in this field, alone or in the company of his cordial María Luisa López-Vidriero, mark lasting milestones: Thus, the coordination of the groups The old Spanish book (1988-2002), or monographs such as Printing and readings in Baeza in the 16th century (2001) y Nobility and reading in the times of Philip II: the library of Don Alonso Osorio, Marquis of Astorga (2002). His articles also date from this period that, simply, redrawn the historical-literary map of medieval Hispanic letters: thus, his articles on consolatory literature, on the practice of self-translation, on the presence of lyrical traditions in narrative texts, and other related topics. Between the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 19th century, Pedro Cátedra addressed two other major lines of research: an innovative look at chivalric literature in Spain, from the Ballad of the Wise Merlin which he called “paper cavalry” alive in the years in which Miguel de Cervantes conceived Alonso Quijano and his ravings, and a prospection as profound as it was illuminating in the bygone field of the practice of reading and writing in feminine spheres, especially conventual. The first of them culminates with his The chivalric dream. From paper chivalry to the real dream of Don Quixote (2007), and the second with a brilliant collaboration with the late Anastasio Rojo, Libraries and women’s readings (16th century) (2004), and with the overwhelming Liturgy, poetry and theater in the Middle Ages (2005).
A look at the scientific work of Pedro Manuel Cátedra in the 21st century takes us in multiple directions: the exploration of popular printed literature, the Riojan printing press, the beginnings of theater in Spain, and others; but above all, it leads us, starting in 2010, to the study of the figure of the printer Giambattista Bodoni, the books he printed and the relationships he maintained with various figures of the Spanish crown. In a Jesus stood in the Bodonian world at the level of the best, such as Franco Maria Ricci, with whom he maintained a deep friendship. And the production of Cátedra sobre Bodoni takes us to a fundamental aspect of its activity: the production of books. Very important books for their content, but especially of unusual beauty and impeccable workmanship, cared for down to the last stationary and typographical detail. The books of which he has been midwife from the Society of Medieval and Renaissance Studies or from the Institute of the History of Books and Reading are a paragon of typographical knowledge and elegance. everything short; as were those born from that beautiful youthful madness, in partnership with the longed-for Víctor Infantes, the goodcalled El Crotalón. This facet of the Cátedra’s activity that necessarily leads us to that of its bibliophilia. Possessor of a library that is never quite enviable enough – through which, consistently, he walks, as his newly named friend wrote, like Pedro walks around his house -, he has made it the subject of some of his most secret editorial endeavors, such as the exquisite Bibliographic and bibliophile discards (2001-2013).
A very long piece of art, a page —even electronic— abbreviate. I cannot close these words without referring to the decades-long teaching exercised by Cátedra from hers in Salamanca, from her platforms in Bellaterra and Girona, or from those of universities and institutions such as Oxford – where she was Visiting Fellow at Magdalen College—, Indiana, Berkeley, Columbia, the College of Francethe ENS from Lyon, the Sorbonne, Münster, Parma, Bologna, Rome or Cagliari, teaching that has crystallized in a cohort of disciples too numerous to be mentioned in these narrow journalistic confines. Not to mention the awards received, the research projects directed, or the activity centers devised and conducted by him (the aforementioned Society of Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the Institute of History of Books and Reading, the Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies and Digital Humanities, all in Salamanca). Not to mention – and this is truly the fundamental thing – that Professor Cátedra is an eminently funny, elegant, distinguished and intelligent individual, and that he has demonstrated a singular mastery in the preparation of dry martinis and margaritas in your Thermomix.
Yes, the Royal Spanish Academy should feel very lucky to finally add him to the number of its academics.