The Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona (in Spanish ''Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona'', Royal Academy of the Good Writings of Barcelona) is a Catalan literary society, based in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. It was founded in 1729 and it has its headquarters since 1902 in the ''Palau Requesens'' in Barcelona's Gothic Quarter.

History

The ''Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres'' was founded in 1729 by a group of intellectuals from Barcelona. This institution should continue the tradition of the ''Acadèmia dels Desconfiats'' (Academy of the Distrustful). This institution was abolished in 1714 by

Philip V of Spain Philip V (; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was List of Spanish monarchs, King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724 and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign (45 years and 16 days) is the longest in the ...

. The aim of this society was the study of Catalan history, language and poetry. The founders were afraid of the negative impact of the displacement of the Catalan universities towards

Cervera Cervera () is the capital of the '' comarca'' of Segarra, in the province of Lleida, Autonomous Community of Catalonia, Spain. The title Comte de Cervera is a courtesy title, formerly part of the Crown of Aragon, that has been revived for Leonor ...

, which already lasted around 15 years by that year. The

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona (official name in ; UB), formerly also known as Central University of Barcelona (), is a public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. With 76,000 students, ...

was closed in 1715, together with the rest of Catalan universities (Tarragona, Girona, Solsona, Vic and Lleida) as a result of the

Nueva Planta Decrees The Nueva Planta decrees (, , ) were a number of decrees signed between 1707 and 1716 by Philip V of Spain, Philip V, the first House of Bourbon, Bourbon Monarchy of Spain, King of Spain, during and shortly after the end of the War of the Spani ...

. As an acknowledgement for the support that the city of

had given him during the

Spanish War of Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish ...

, Philip V concentrated all Catalan universities in one. And it lasted for the following 150 years in Catalonia. In 1752 the ''Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres'' got the title of ''royal academy'', which was bestowed by Ferdinand VI. As in other royal academies, the work of the ''Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres'' was limited to a specific field, in this case language and literature. One of the first tasks of this academy was the compilation of a Catalan dictionary. During the three years of the ''

Trienio Liberal The , () or Three Liberal Years, was a period of three years in Spain between 1820 and 1823 when a liberal government ruled Spain after a military uprising in January 1820 by the lieutenant-colonel Rafael del Riego against the absolutist rule ...

'', when there was a higher degree of political freedom, which lasted from 1820 until 1823 with the

French invasion of Spain The "Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis" was the popular name for a French army mobilized in 1823 by the House of Bourbon, Bourbon King of France, Louis XVIII, to help the Spanish Bourbon royalists restore King Ferdinand VII of Spain to the ...

, new members with new ideas came to the Academy, such as

Bonaventura Carles Aribau Buenaventura Carlos Aribau y Farriols (1798–1862) was a Catalan economist, stenographer, writer and politician who wrote in Spanish, Catalan, Latin, and Italian.''Diccionari d'Història de Catalunya''. Barcelona: Edicions 62, 1998. , p. 58, e ...

. Since the 1850s the ''Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres'' became one of the most dynamic cultural institutions of Catalonia. So it got five professorships, and it helped to make possible in 1837 the return of the University to Barcelona. Many of the most important personalities of the

Renaixença The ''Renaixença'' (; also written ''Renaixensa'' before spelling standardisation), or Catalan Renaissance, was a romantic revivalist movement in Catalan language and culture through the mid 19th century, akin to the Galician '' Rexurdimento ...

were amongst its members, such as for instance

Jacint Verdaguer Jacint Verdaguer i Santaló (; 17 May 1845 – 10 June 1902) was a Catalan writer, regarded as one of the greatest poets of Catalan literature and a prominent literary figure of the Renaixença, a cultural revival movement of the late Rom ...

. During the whole 19th century the Academy practised

multilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

, even though the main language was Castilian. Nonetheless in 1841 and 1857 it held two poetry contests, that are usually considered as the first steps towards the beginning of the

Floral Games Floral Games were any of a series of historically related poetry contests with floral prizes. In Occitan, their original language, and Catalan they are known as (, ; modern or ). In French, they became the (), and in Basque (). The origina ...

in Catalan in 1859. Since 1901 it publishes a yearly bulletin.It can be rea
on line

External links

Website of the ''Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Academia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona Catalan language Culture in Barcelona Academies of arts Educational institutions established in 1729 1729 establishments in Spain Ferdinand VI