Jaume Vicens i Vives and the new history. 1910-1960

Jaume Vicens i Vives and the new history. 1910-1960

From 1 December 2010 to 2 January 2011

Oberta Room - La Nau

From Tuesday to Saturday, from 10 to 14 and from 16 to 20 h.

Sunday, from 10 to 14 h.

Poster [+]

Hoja de mano [+]

Jornadas de Homenaje a Jaume Vicens Vives [+]

Organised by Vicens Vives Pubishing House and SECC, Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales

With cooperation from Universitat de València and Museu d’Història de Catalunya

Curator: Josep M.Muñoz

www.uab.cat/anyvicensvives/es 

EXHIBITION SYNOPSIS

Jaume Vicens i Vives and the new history 

The exhibition Jaume Vicens i Vives and the new history, 1910–1960 on the figure and works of historian Jaume Vicens i Vives (Girona 1910 – Lyon 1960), jointly organised by Vicens Vives Publishing House and Sociedad Estatal de Commemoraciones Culturales with support from Museu d’Història de Catalunya and Universitat de València, seeks to underline the contribution of Vicens as the great promoter of 20^th century Catalan and Spanish historiography. Jaume Vicens is deemed to be a “historian in touch with his time” –a time marked by the renewal boost of the Second Republic, the plight of the Civil War and the post-war period, and by the attempt to get over Franco’s regime via the country's opening to democratic Europe-, and a reference in the creation of a new historiographical conception of the profession. It is in this respect that the exhibition explains Vicens’ works as an expression of this historic moment but also as the outcome of his clear determination to intervene in the present as a result of a political vocation that overlaps with his vocation as a historian. This intervention in the present aimed to “readdress” Catalonia which, in his account, required historiography to be renewed, understanding that no political project could survive without sound historical foundations. The historiographical renewal proposed by Vivens rests on a triple structure: social and economic history at a time still ruled by institutional history; contemporary history, in a university context where medieval history prevailed; and teamwork, which eventually led to his appointment as head of the “l’Escola Històrica de Barcelona”. Calling on “historical authenticity” -shifting away from the dominating “ideologism” of post-war Spain- and a progressive attitude and openness are the additional elements that made up the “new history” advocated by Jaume Vicens i Vives in an intense and difficult period.

EXHIBITION AREAS 

The exhibition has a dual axis: Vicens as the great renewal driver of 20^th century Catalan and Spanish historiography and, at the same time, Vicens as a “historian in touch with his time”. Like so very many 20^th century intellectuals, Jaume Vicens is a historian who responded to his time. His works are the result of both his historical time and his wish to intervene in his context and model the present. For this reason, the exhibition highlights the fact that Vicens’ works cover both his research activity and his action in multiple areas (education, publishing, and politics) to build platforms for the necessary renewal of the historic discipline in Spain after the Civil War.

The exhibition is structured into a number of sections with a narrative discourse, and presents the different periods in the life and work of Jaume Vicens i Vives. 

1. The irruption. These are the booming years of young Vicens: his fight for his life (in a family environment marked by the father’s premature death), the dual mentoring by Bosch Gimpera and de La Torre, his emergence in Catalan historiography (contesting some “official” positions, as can be seen in his controversy with Rovira i Virgili), his participation in education and university (and also his personal social rise). But these are also the years of the rise of the Republic generation and the confidence in culture, more particularly in university as the instrument of modernisation of life in Catalonia and Spain: it is the 1933 generation, the generation of the “creuer per la Mediterrània” (Mediterranean Cruise). 

Jordi Pujol: “When Vicens entered a room, people would stand up... or at least they felt as if they ought to stand up". 

2. The fight for life. The plight of the civil war and Franco’s victory put a tragic end to the rise of the republic generation. Vicens did not exile but he was removed from his teaching activity (in higher and secondary education). His publishing tasks -his way to make a living- (under a pen name for jobs he did not really relate to) and the slow preparations of his return to university coincided with the hardest post-war years. This recreation includes the setting up of the family publishing house, Teide (which played a major role in the renewal of school manuals), his links with CSIC (via La Torre) and the continuation of his studies on the 15^th century. 

John Elliott: “A fine-looking, charismatic man... and one of great expression skills. He knew well how to find his bearings as a historian”. 

3. The redefinition of a university project. Upon his return to university (1947-48) and once the durability of Franco's regime confirmed (in spite of the Allies’ triumph in World War II), Vicens had to redefine his project, framing it -at least in part- into the Catalanist tradition and now focusing his criticism on the irrealism (ensayismo filosofante) that presided over Spanish culture in the Francoist system of rule. At the University of Barcelona Vicens created a suitable infrastructure for receiving the new historiographical realism: the International Centre of Historic Studies, set up in 1949, and its publications (“Estudios de Historia Moderna” and ”Indice Histórico Español”). The modernising efforts demanded by Vicens were not particularly welcomed by a Spanish university that was reluctant to update things. Consequently, Vicens had to go against the flow all by himself, trying to take the lead of Catalan historiography. This period drew to a close when he attended the International Congress of Historical Sciences (Paris, 1950), where he came in contact again with European historiography. 

Raymond Carr: “The only Hispanic historian wrote history in the style of the other European [historians]".

4. The defence of recent history. Vicens' concerns as an intellectual of his time caused him -almost ineluctably- to find an explanation of the civil war in contemporary history and, above all, and the models that enabled to overcome the present (though avoiding the revolutionary way-out to which Catalan society seemed to be inevitably destined). As from 1954, Vicens gradually dropped the study of the 15^th century, moving on to the 19^th. It was the time of Industrials i polítics (1958) and his theorisation on the “1901 generation" and his critique of the “non-authenticity” of the Spanish State (where the denouncing of Francoism can be easily grasped). And the vindication of economic history is also his, a newly born discipline at the time in Spain, of which he wrote the first university manual (with cooperation from Jordi Nadal). He was determined to consolidate a “social and economic history of Spain” (shifting towards the modern and contemporary era). 

Miquel Batllori: Vicens’ job was to "open up new avenues to his successors [rather than] stabilise perfect constructions.” 

5. The synthesis. Presided –as always- by tension between Empirism and synthesis, Vicens' late production turns towards synthesis in a dual direction: personal essays –of an interpretative nature (Notícia de Catalunya, which answers the question “qui hem estat i qui som els catalans?” and Aproximación a la historia de España, on the articulation of Spain and the ongoing tension between centre and periphery), and Historia social y económica, but also teamwork projects (Biografies catalanes de España y America). In this regard, Vicens’ works must be perceived as preparatory work for the opening which –despite the regime- was to take place in the 1960s in Spanish society and, more particularly, in Catalonia. The willingness to reach an audience beyond university is patent in his collaboration with the weekly Destino. 

Ernest Lluch: “For a start, understanding Vicens’ contribution is synonymous with explaining the political consequences of his work (...) but also with assimilating his strictly political activity as the origin of historiographical work hypothesis". 

6. Political activism. From his home at 130 Santaló Street, Vicens laid bridges between Madrid's official world (where he had complex relationships running parallel to the discussion about the possible "opening" of Franco's system) and the spheres of Anti-Franco Catalanism. As of 1957, his work concentrated again on “making politics”, with an agenda that included growing networks of contacts and relations and with a focus on contributing to the country’s “recovery”. In this respect, Vicens argued about the need to build a new leading elite in line with Europe’s democratic context, and headed a group of young people that eventually became the Economics Circle. His rapprochement to Catalanism, started up by Josep Bonet, came to an end in the months before his premature death, with his contacts with the president of Catalonia’s government in exile, Josep Tarradellas, who at the time was thinking of appointing him his “delegate” of domestic affairs. 

Josep Pla: Vicens was “a post-war man, possibly the intellectual with the most comprehensive and direct view of this country”. 

7. The legacy. In the international congress of historical sciences held in Stockholm in 1960 -which he could not attend- European historians acknowledged the impact of Vincens’ scientific work, particularly in areas like the structure of the modern State. The undeniably deep impact of his contribution to Catalan and Spanish historiography had to integrate a dual approach, in line with the explanations given in the previous exhibition sections: the legacy left to his disciples (and the subsequent difficulties in opening up avenues in a university reluctant to modernisation), but also the civic aspect and the durability of some of concepts (particularly, those applied to Catalan reality: demographic barrier, “tool and work”, “pactism”, etc.). In sum, it meant measuring Vicens’ dual inheritance: his intellectual and civic legacy. 

Pierre Vilar: “If I were to choose something from his legacy, it would indeed be his disciples".

BIOGRAPHY OF JAUME VICENS I VIVES 

(Girona, 6 June 1910 – Lyon, 28 June 1960)

He was born in 1910 in Girona, where he started his studies. The early death of his father in 1922 and his mother's second marriage took him to Barcelona, where he completed his secondary education. In 1927 he started a history degree in the Humanities College of Barcelona University, where he was awarded the degree’s extraordinary prize in 1930. 

His lecturers were Pere Bosch Gimpera and, especially, Antonio de la Torre, who guided him towards his first great research topic, the actions of King Ferdinand II the Catholic in Catalonia, and also the subject matter of his dissertation, presented in February1936 and published in the following months under the title Ferran II i la ciutat de Barcelona, 1479-1516. This publication includes Vicens’ openly critical view as regards the historiographical tradition of Catalanism, which resulted in controversy with Antoni Rovira i Virgili in the summer of 1935. Vicens reproached Renaissance-derived historiography for its amateur nature and nationalist view, though he respected the university nature of Ferran Soldevila’s work. 

In the years of the Second Republic and after a period in Girona where he was called to do his military service, Vicens entered the education scene, both at secondary and higher education levels. In 1932 he was employed as a teacher at Institut-Escola, and in 1933 he was in charge of the academic year at Barcelona University. That same year, after going on the Mediterranean cruise, he reached the first position in the competitions held by the government with a view to covering teaching vacancies in secondary schools. In 1935, also in a competition, he won a professorship in high education school but he remained in the service commission of Institut-Escola. In May 1936 he promoted the creation of Seminar of History of Catalonia in Barcelona University, which he joined as a lecturer. In summer 1937 he married Roser Rahola i d’Espona and, shortly after, he was mobilised into the Health Corps. At the end of the war, the Republican army started retreating towards the French border but in the end Vicens decided not go on exile.

Following Franco’s victory and a period of uncertainty, he was relieved of his duties in university and purged as a high school teacher: he was left without a job and salary for two years to subsequently be professionally transferred outside Catalonia. He then made a living giving lessons in private institutions and working in publishing houses, which contributed to his remarkable synthesis skills. Apart from working for Gallach Publishers (in books such as Mil figuras de la historia), in 1942 he supported the creation of the family publishing house, Teide, which was to play a major role in the renewal of textbooks in Spain. 

In 1943 he was transferred to Baeza Secondary School but he soon returned to Barcelona, where he prepared his return to university. He earned a professorship in Saragossa University in 1947. The following year, and by competition again, he won a professorship in Universal Modern and Contemporary History by Barcelona University. In 1950, he joined the official Spanish delegation to the International Congress of Historical Sciences, held in Paris, where he personally saw the rise of the Annales School. His agreement with the postulates of Lucien Febvre and Fernand Braudel supported his leading role in the international projection of Spanish historiography, through the International Centre of Historic Studies, set up in 1949 within the framework of the professorship and its journals, Estudios de Historia Moderna (1951-1959) and Índice Histórico Español (1953-). It was at this point that he underlined the importance of the economy and his own faith in the statistical method. At the same time, he tried out a new synthesis based on geopolitics and Arnold Toynbee’s works.

Stimulated by his extraordinary ability to work, his fight for the renewal of Spanish historiography (not always welcomed by a university that was reluctant to change) caused him to gradually drop his erudition in favour of synthesis, the following essays being particularly relevant in this respect: Aproximación a la historia de España (1952), conceived as a response to the dominant “ideologism”, where he talks about the antagonism between centre and periphery inherent to peninsular history; and Notícia de Catalunya (1954), where he ponders about the constituting elements of the Catalan differentiated personality. At the same time, he got Teide to undertake large collective projects: a history of Catalonia (entitled Biografies catalanes, for censorship reasons), of which he himself wrote the volumes corresponding to the 15^th to the 19^th century, and Historia social y económica de España y América (1957-1959); his team of collaborators participated in both (L. Pericot, E. Bagué, S. Sobrequés, J. Reglà, J. Mercader, J. Nadal).

As far as his activities as a researcher are concerned, the completion of his synthesis of the 15^th century took longer than he thought, having to extend this historical period in spite of his dedication at that moment –as from the Paris Conference- to contemporary history, an option which cannot be detached from his growing political interests. Influenced by Toynbee and his belief in the role of leading minorities, in a programmatic article published in Destino in 1954, he defined the “bourgeois minority” as an agent for Spain’s future political change. It was precisely for the instruction of this “responsible elite” that Vicens (appointed professor of economic history of the new Economics College in 1954) rebuilt the process of economic development carried out by the 19^th century bourgeoisie in his book Industrials i polítics (1958), where he combines situational study –as in Annales- with a systematisation of super-structural elements through Ortega's generations theory. 

In parallel and despite the strong constraints imposed by Franco’s regime, politics started playing a major role in Vicens’ activity. From his return to Barcelona University and supported by Josep Benet i Maurici Serrahima, he got closer to Catholic, anti-Francoist Catalanist groups, trying to make them contact the “progressive” sectors in the system, more potentially sensitive to the Catalan Question. In particular, Vicens cultivated his friendship with Opus Dei followers Rafael Calvo Serer and Florentino Pérez Embid, who was responsible for governmental censorship. In 1958 he joined the almost clandestine Institut d’Estudis Catalans, making friends with the Abbot of Montserrat, Aureli M. Escarré. He even makes contact with the president of Generalitat in exile, Josep Tarradellas (though this relationship came to an end soon when Vicens dies). 

He died at the age of 50 as a result of lung cancer. Vicens spent his last months preparing the reissue of Aproximación a la historia de España and Notícia de Catalunya, his most influential and lasting essays. He added new chapters to Notícia about the dialectics between Castile and Catalonia and about the relationship of the Catalan people with the Spanish State, confirming that the study of power is indeed the great theme throughout his works.

Main works:

_ Ferran II i la ciutat de Barcelona, 3 vols., Barcelona, Universitat de Catalunya, 1936- 1937.

_ Tratado general de geopolítica, Barcelona, CEHI-Teide, 1950.

_ Aproximación a la historia de España, Barcelona, CEHI, 1952.

_ Notícia de Catalunya, Barcelona, Àncora, 1954.

_ El gran sindicato remensa (1488-1508), Madrid, CSIC, 1954.

_ El segle XV. Els Trastàmares, Barcelona, Teide, 1956.

_ Industrials i polítics del segle XIX, Barcelona, Teide, 1958 (en col·laboració amb M. Llorens).

_ Obra dispersa, Barcelona, Vicens Vives, 1967, 2 vols. 

Refererences: 

_ M. BATLLORI, “La doble lección de Jaime Vicens y Vives”, Razón y fe, no. 162 (1960), p. 261-272.

_ J. PLA, “Jaume Vicens i Vives (1910-1960)” a Obra completa, vol. XVI, p. 87-125.

_ R. GRAU, “Vicens i Vives, Jaume”, a Diccionari d’història de Catalunya, Barcelona: Edicions 62, 1992, p. 1111-1112.

_ JOSEP M. MUÑOZ I LLORET, Jaume Vicens i Vives. Una biografia intel·lectual, Barcelona, Edicions 62, 1996.

_ AA.DD., Epistolari de Jaume Vicens, 2 vols., Girona, Cercle d’Estudis Històrics i Socials, 1994 i 1998.

_ J. SOBREQUÉS I CALLICÓ, Història d’una amistat. Epistolari de Jaume Vicens i Vives i Santiago Sobrequés i Vidal (1929-1960), Barcelona, Ajuntament de Girona i Edicions Vicens Vives, 2000.

_ R. GRAU – J. M. MUÑOZ, “Notícia de Catalunya. Una reflexió entre les runes”, L’Avenç, no. 305 (setembre 2005), p. 29-35.