Constructing Historiography after the Spanish Civil War: the Case of the Instituto Jerónimo de Zurita (1939-1951)

Abstract

The end of the Civil War led to the disbanding of the Spanish scientific system. Some institutions as the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios were destroyed, while others, as the University, were submitted to a strong purging. In this context, the Spanish historiography had to establish new bases in order to adapt to the new precepts from the nacionalcatolicismo. This study tries to analyze the administrative construction of the Instituto Jerónimo Zurita, part of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (the Spanish Research Council), one of the institutions driving this process. An approach to the type of organization, the people working there, the material legacy and the intellectual appropriation, or the planned projects, will provide some keys that will help to understand the development of the new postwar historiography.