Antoni Rubió i Lluch

Antoni Rubió i Lluch (Valladolid 1856 – Barcelona 1937) was a Spanish-Catalan historian and intellectual who published in both Catalan and Spanish. A Hellenist and a medievalist, he left his mark on the study of the Catalan period in Greece, 1313–1381.

Son of the poet Joaquim Rubió i Ors, Rubió i Lluch studied philosophy and literature at the University of Barcelona under Manuel Milà i Fontanals and Francesc Xavier Llorens i Barba and in the company of Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, who was a longtime friend and colleague. The two are icons of Catalan positivism. In 1880 he became a tutor in the literature faculty there and in 1885 a full professor of general literature at the University of Oviedo, from which he was transferred to Barcelona. In 1889 he became a member of the Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona. In 1904 he taught Catalan literature at the Estudis Universitaris Catalans and in 1906 he was vice-president of the First International Congress of the Catalan Language. The next year (1907) he was named both a member and the first president of the Institute for Catalan Studies. He later presided over the Jocs Florals in Barcelona.

Politically, Rubió i Lluch defended Greek aspirations for Crete and, in 1897, inspired by Prat de la Riba, he wrote a manifesto of the Greek cause in the name of the institutions of Catalan civil life. He was recognised as honorary Greek consul at Barcelona for eight years and received the decoration of "Cavaller de l'Ordre del Salvador" (Knight of the Order of the Saviour). He was made an honorary member of the Philological Society of Parnassos.

As well, he was a member of the Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi, a correspondent of the Academia de la Historia de Madrid and the Academia Española (1930). He also served as president of the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya.

Among his students stands out Ángel Valbuena Prat. Among his famous teachings were that Catalan did not exist as an independent language prior to 1326. Rubió i Lluch edited documents for Historia de la cultura Catalana Mitgeval or Documentos para la historia de la cultura catalana medieval (1908). He also edited Curial y Guelfa: Novela catalana del quinzen segle for the Reial Academia and translated Novelas griegas por Demetrio Bikelas, Jorge Drosinis, Argyros Eftaliotis et al. (Barcelona: Durán y Ca., 1893), a collection of Byzantine novels.

Chronological list of works

References