Érase una vez España: relatos de un pasado remoto
Once Upon a Time in Spain: Stories from Time Immemorial

Summary/Abstract: Since the second half of the 17th century and throughout the 18thcentury, a handful of Spanish scholars attempted to absorb and apply the intellectual tools the new European critical consciousness made available to them. The purpose was to provide a new interpretation of the remote history of Spain which would concur with the modern patterns, based on scientific rigour and accuracy, and to rewrite all those chapters of the Spanish past that were in need of it. Among other things, those scholars opened the path leading to our actual knowledge of the Iberian Peninsula in ancient times. But what exactly had to be reinterpreted and rewritten, and why, according to them? Christianity was at the core of the issue: for centuries its Holy Scriptures –the supreme authority on divine and human knowledge–, the writings derived from the biblical canonical knowledge, and the sacred relics, which offered material proof for the truth of it all, would be the only way to establish the origin of the Spaniards, of their rulers and of the territory they historically inhabited, and to determine the moment and circumstance of their conversion to Christianity. However, the task of writing the Ancient history of Spain was not free of interpretative abuses and distortions –which were not always made in good faith.

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