This year only one student has enrolled in Romance Philology

BarcelonaNow it turns out that only one student has enrolled in the Romance Philology program at the University of Barcelona: Roc Àngela Novella. A new and rare angelic vocation, strong as stone. These studies, which flourished especially when directed by her, Martí de Riquer, They have been on the verge of disappearing since the retirement of that great scholar. A movement led by one of his daughters and a whole group of professors from that department, and others, has prevented its disappearance; but the sword of Damocles hangs over the head of this specialty, which, in fact, along with the degree in literary studies (or comparative literature), is the most generalist at this university. Years ago, a certain quídamo presented a report to unify, under the form of a humanities degree, the subjects of philosophy, philology, and history—which is what would have made the most sense at the time. But it did not prosper: it laughs at the taifa kingdoms of the Caliphate of Córdoba.

This lack of students in such fields may be due to a lack of information about the general nature of these programs, which are the only ones that offer courses in Vulgar Latin, Provençal, and Medieval Catalan in the Faculty of Philology at the UB (now called "Philology and Communication," as if everything related to literature wasn't first-person communication). There are many competent professors.

It is also possible that students of literature, although they generally have very meager opportunities, prefer to do a degree that is in line with a prestigious term that is not discussed today: a specialty, Something of a paradox when someone has a vocation as a man or woman of letters. Studies in Romance languages, as we have said, are general; those in Classical, Catalan, English, or Semitic languages are much more specific and less panoramic. However, it is a proven fact that studies in literature humanioras They are either general or unsuitable for providing a complete view of the state of a literate culture in the diachrony of history, especially at a time as significant as the transition from the Roman Empire to the birth of modern nations. They had been so general that it was not unusual to find humanists in the 15th and 16th centuries who were knowledgeable about classical and modern literature, but also about astronomy, physics, mathematics, and medicine. Thus, humanistic knowledge flourished well into the 18th century: see the cases of Bruno, Descartes, and Leibniz, among a host of scholars.

It may be a lost battle, to say the least, a fortiori, that humanities studies are lost for an indefinite period. But we must not forget that the entire comparative philology of Western universities was founded, precisely, by Romanists such as Eric Auerbach, Ernst Robert Curtius, Gilbert Highet, and Hans Robert Jauss.