Jaime Olmedo (Talavera de la Reina, 1971) joined the Real Academia de la Historia this Sunday. Philologist and university rector Camilo José Cela was elected on June 27, 2025, on the proposal of historian Luis Ribot García, poet and philologist Luis Alberto de Cuenca, and professor of philology Amparo Alba Cecilia.
A new academic he began his speech with thoughtful words of thanks to the supporters of his candidacy, following a quote from Antonio Machado in Juan de Mairena to address the problem of “meditation of the incommensurable” in the process of appreciating the institution’s generosity.
Articulated around the phrase “the lyrical hour of Spain”, Olmedo’s speech is, like the reconsideration of 1526, a decisive moment for Spanish poetry, starting with the meeting between Juan Boscán and Andrea Navager in Granada, when the Venetian humanist approached the poet -y, with him, Garcilas de la endesecasa – to think about Italian verse.
Through a combination of literary analysis and political history, the new academic presents this episode as the beginning of a great transformation of Spanish poetry and examines how it counts in the history of literature from the 16th century to the 20th century, written in the genre of the European Union marked by the Cognac League and the strengthening of power of Carlos V.
It was a review of the main aspects of the history of Spanish literature and the form in which the introduction of Italian forms was interpreted in each cultural period, so that the discourse itself functioned as the recognition of different generations of literary historianssome of them are affiliated to the Royal Academy of History.
Jaime Olmedo during his speech on joining the Real Academy of History.
During this course, Olmedo placed the hechos in the European political scenario in which they were produced. 1526 is recorded to have been marked by the formation of the League of Cognac, in which various powers—whether in France, the Holy See, Venice, or Florence—grouped against Carlos V, alarmed by the Emperor’s accumulation of power with the victory of Pavia in 1525.
To address this context, I returned to the first-hand documentation of Andrea Navager and Baltasar de Castiglione —a hundred years of diplomatic messages from the former to the Venetian Senate and more than two documents from the latter to Rome—, which have now been used fragmentarily.
This combination of information and documents allowed us to follow the development of accounts and accounting in parallel the climate of uncertainty surrounding the figure of Carlos Vso the Granada scene begins to appear as an episode in the history of letters and is understood in a context marked by fluctuating and recurring elements between states.
In this case Marco, Olmedo stated, the dialogue between Boscán, Garcilas and the Italian humanists showed how, including moments of maximum tension, the circulation of ideas and literary models could open up common ground.
Olmedo concluded the ceremonial act of his entrance with the words of Ortega and Gasset to insist that literature cannot be understood on the margins of its historical time, nor can politics be understood without following the forms by which society is thus narrated. “Man needs, from intelligence and beauty, to count stories that on one occasion explain, supplement, celebrate or highlight his existence; and others that testify to him, condemn him, contradict him, accuse him, compensate him or alienate him,” assured the new academician. With this appeal for a broader view of the Spanish tradition, I will strive for a speech that would again be a reminder of the years 1526 and a defense of the old alliance between history and literature.
Jaime Olmedo, during the act of joining the Royal Academy of History.
He studied Spanish philology at the Complutense University in Madrid, where he received the Extraordinario Prize for Licensing, Jaime Olmedo was also educated at the University of Bologna, where he studied Italian philology with praise and if he was a doctor summa cum laude in philosophy and literature, completed his work at the Royal College of Spain, of which he was dean.
Tras una etapa en la Academic Director of the Instituto Cervanteswhere he contributed to the yearbook Spanish in the world and in Spanish adaptation Marco Common European Reference for Languageswhich is coordinated by Cervantes el Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Questions and technically managed it from 2002 to 2024 Biographical dictionary Español and portal Historia Hispánica from the Royal Academy of History, both recognized for their innovation and contribution to the dissemination of Hispanic heritage.
Rector of Camilo José Cela University from 2024 and academic correspondent of various corporations, he carried out intensive teaching activities at the Complutense University, received various institutional recognitions — within the Cruz de Oficial del Merito Civil — and is the author of an extensive essayistic and critical production on the history of Spanish literature, as well as occupying costs in patronages and councils linked to the cultural sphere.
Leave a Reply