The Archive of Biographical Writings in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia (ArchBio) represents an ongoing endeavor to assemble and make accessible a comprehensive digital archive dedicated to the exploration of biographical literature produced in Iberia from the 14th to 16th centuries. ArchBio aims to support and invigorate scholarly community inquiry by facilitating the discovery, consultation, and use and reuse of these historical texts.
ArchBio collates and organizes data about biographical works, permanently in continuous expansion and refinement. ArchBio seeks to revitalize the study of the biography as a literary genre and from a historical perspective, underscoring the intricate social and cultural networks that shaped the Iberian Peninsula. By digitally resurrecting the personal narratives of a diverse array of individuals—including royalty, warriors, clergy, queens, nuns, and conquistadores—ArchBio bridges past and present.
This platform offers a prosopographical database that includes information on authors (biographers), and the biographical subjects (biographees). It also provides details on original works, which can be individual biographies, collections of lives, chronicles, or mémoires, and their data on manuscripts, early modern and contemporary editions. ArchBio is conceived to offer a virtual window to this rich genre and to facilitate data consultation for scholarly research. Currently, the project provides access to texts and is actively expanding its collection.
Rationale and Objectives
ArchBio is a component of a wider initiative to delve into the impact of biographical literature on the shaping of historiographical and literary discourse across the Iberian Peninsula. Life writing encompasses a multitude of forms including individual biographies, certain chronicles, collective biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, epistolary collections, and broader testimonial literature. Spanning from the 14th to the 16th centuries, these biographies, they are not just factual recounts; they are cultural artifacts that need to be situated within a broader framework of historical interpretation and analysis.
Despite their significant historical value, conventional scholarship has often isolated these works for individual study, neglecting the genre’s collective scholarly potential. ArchBio is established to rectify this by generating comprehensive digital datasets that support an enriched understanding and foster new scholarly inquiries.
ArchBio is driven by three fundamental goals: first, to gather all biographical writings from the Iberian Peninsula, written in Spanish, Catalan, and Latin, along with the associated prosopographical information about the authors and subjects; second, to curate and disseminate this extensive body of biographical writings; and third, to become an exploratory space for the publication of digital scholarly editions of these narratives.
To date, ArchBio lays the groundwork for addressing a series of research questions: Who are the authors behind these biographies? What is the extent of preserved biographical texts? Who are the subjects of these works – historical figures or fictional creations? What roles or statuses do they hold – from nobility, monarchs, and clergy to other societal positions? What does the representation of gender look like within this literature? How extensive are the available manuscripts and editions, where can they be found, and what languages do they employ?
Funding
ArchBio, inaugurated in 2020, has been sustained by three UM Arts & Humanities Fellowships. In the first phase (2019-2020), the digital platform was established using the CMS Drupal, resulting in a beta version of the ArchBio database. The subsequent phase (2021-2022) focused on the integration of new functionalities, such as a reading edition of some texts and a section dedicated to the digital reproduction of primary sources. The third phase (2022-2023) allocated resources towards data entry and technical improvements of the database. An additional UM grant, a Provost Research Award (2023-2024), was awarded to keep updating and expanding the digital platform and improving the quality and quantity of its data.
This venture has also enjoyed the support the École Française de Rome through a “Chercheur résident” award (January - March 2020, and subsequently May - June 2022). This accolade facilitated a collaboration with the project Hommes illustres. Métamorphoses et enjeux d'un répertoire multimémoriel, Italie/ Europe, 1300-1700. Additionally, a "François Chevalier" fellowship (2023-2024), awarded by the Madrid Institute of Advanced Studies and Casa de Velazquez in Madrid (Spain), has significantly contributed to broadening the project's research dimensions.
Susanna Allés-Torrent
(Updated January 2024)