On 27 December, Antonio Rey González, one of the great cultivators and leading figures in the history of psychiatry in our country, passed away in Valencia. A man of great culture and keen intelligence, Antonio was part of the medical staff at the former Bétera Psychiatric Hospital and began his career in the field of historical-medical studies under the guidance of José María López Piñero, who supervised his doctoral thesis on The Introduction of Modern Psychiatric Knowledge in 19th-Century Spain (1981). This important work (which preceded other milestones in historiography that appeared in that decade) and the series of biobibliographical studies he published in the following years remain invaluable for understanding the circulation of knowledge and the role of pioneers and early schools in the beginnings of mental medicine in Spain. Other reference works, such as the dictionary of eponyms La psiquiatría y sus nombres (Psychiatry and its names) (2000) and the bibliographic repertoire Tres siglos de psiquiatría en España (1736-1975) (Three centuries of psychiatry in Spain) (2006), which Antonio promoted and later completed in collaboration with colleagues such as Lorenzo Livianos and Enric Jordà, are also still invaluable tools. A collaborator with the former Chair of the History of Medicine (where he coordinated a permanent seminar on the history of psychiatry), his teaching led to the completion of several doctoral theses and the writing of numerous articles and essays, always very well written and documented on the major players, discourses, scenarios and controversies in Spanish psychiatry. Linked to the Spanish Association of Neuropsychiatry throughout his professional career, he was the first president of its History Section, which expressed its gratitude to him in a moving ceremony held on 26 May 2022 at the Palau de Cerveró, the Valencian headquarters of the López Piñero Interuniversity Institute.

Enric Novella, Researcher at López Piñero Inter-university Institute.