Société des Archives de la Gironde, the Société d'Archéologie lorraine, and the Société du Gatinais. Still others are limited to an arrondissement.

In certain societies the historical work is only a part of that carried on. The academies of Rheims, of Arras, of Rouen, of Macon, and elsewhere devote themselves also to literature; the societies of agriculture, letters, science, and art are devoted to all branches of learning.

Each of these societies publishes a bulletin, memoirs, and other volumes. Some of these publications are very poor, but others, such as those of the antiquarian societies of Picardy and Normandy, are sumptuous in form and conform to a high standard of scholarship.

To present a table of all these various works would exceed the limits of the present account. An enumeration of them fills several quarto volumes. In 1888 the Comte de Lasteyrie undertook, under the auspices of the ministry of public instruction, the publication of a Bibliographie Générale des Travaux Historiques et Archéologiques publiés par les Sociétés Savantes de la France. M. de Lasteyrie has had successively as collaborators MM. Eugène Lefèvre-Pontalis, Bougenot, and Vidier. Five volumes are filled by the list of publications through 1902. It is an eminently useful work, which permits students to profit from a vast quantity of researches, the results of which are scattered throughout the local publications of all France.

XVIII. THE WORK OF HISTORICAL SOCIETIES IN SPAIN.

By RAFAEL ALTAMIRA,

Professor of the History of Law in the University of Oviedo.

THE WORK OF HISTORICAL SOCIETIES IN SPAIN.

By RAFAEL ALTAMIRA.

The origin of societies and institutions devoted to historical studies in Spain may be traced back, in the majority of cases, to the eighteenth century, an epoch most propitious for this kind of knowledge. The critical spirit prevailing in Europe had already appeared in Spain in the seventeenth century, and owing to its particular character, it showed a decided tendency toward the revision of opinion in questions of all kinds, resulting in numerous series of investigations and works, wherein a number of the national historical traditions were revised. Ancient authors were discussed. Texts were critically edited and methodological doctrines emphasized (for which a precedent had already been established in the sixteenth century), while the so-called auxiliary sciences of history were being perfected. On the other hand, canonical and political questions deeply affected and divided the Spaniards in that century, leading the two parties to the study of the historical bases of their respective controversies, and giving rise, among other things, to the appointment of official commissions to examine the archives, for the purpose of procuring and publishing documentary evidence. The heated discussions provoked at the time, especially in Italy and France, between the elements friendly and unfriendly to Spain, obtained the same result, forcing the former to make an arduous search in the pages of history to refute the statements made by prejudiced parties involving a denial of national culture and life. Finally, the favorable movement toward the study of national law, developing at the time, attracted attention to the original thereof and consequently toward the study of the history of Spanish law. Such were the four great causes which prompted an intense interest in the study of historical doctrines and a great development of them all, and to such an extent that this was perhaps the field where intellectual Spain attained the greatest splendor and made the most lasting and abundant conquests. Proof of this preference, and nucleus of the merging of the efforts made along these lines, were the various societies created in that century, almost all under the name of "academies." The first of

all these in chronological order was the Royal Academy of Belles Lettres of Barcelona, established in 1729, which still exists, and which, from its beginning, demanded special attention to archæological and literary studies in the essays which the members of the academy, at the time of their reception, were called upon to read (which custom still prevails), as well as in the papers which were presented and discussed at its meetings. As an example of this requirement at the time the contribution entitled "Observations on the Elementary Principles of History," prepared by the Marquis of Llió (1756), which constitutes an interesting work on methodology, can be mentioned.

The academy had the custom, and still observes it, of collecting in volumes of memoirs these essays, which constitute a varied series of writings of special interest to Catalan history, to which naturally it gave preference, and it has published, during these last years, a learned review which contains documents and abundant work of research.

The second in time, and the most important one for various reasons, is the Royal Academy of History, founded in 1738 at Madrid, which belongs to the group of royal academies established under Philip V by the intellectual men of that period. The ablest and most competent men and those most interested in the progress of historical research, from Campomanes and Flórez to Martínez y Marina and Llorente, congregated in Madrid as a natural consequence, and they enlightened it with their work. From the beginning it was the cradle of great intellectual achievements and still greater aspirations. Besides the presentation of essays which, as in the Academy of Barcelona, constituted an unavoidable duty on the part of the aspirants to membership in the academy, and which have been collectively published in volumes, and the preparation of the papers and debates which were read and held in the meetings (and which have also been partly published in the form of minutes), the academy engaged in two forms of labor, the one consisting in the publishing of papers and historical works, and the other in the formation of an archive and a library greatly enriched by the constant acquisitions from the Jesuits (after their expulsion), from the suppressed convents at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and by the labors of the many members of the academy. The academy has not published a catalogue of its papers, but for some time past it has issued semiannual lists covering the new works and reviews that it receives, although not with all the desirable bibliographical notes, nor in any systematic order. The publications of the Academy are important from the start and comprise three groups-original documents; new editions of old historical works, such as those of Gines de Sepúlveda; and general or monographic