The Prince of Asturias Foundation
Indro Montanelli
Born in 1930 in Reading (Berks, England), he is professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford -in Oriel College, a chair which carries the title "Regius Professor" as it is filled by the Queen´s appointment-. Educated at Eton College, he is Doctor in History by the University of Cambridge (Trinity College, 1952) and he was, for seventeen years, a lecturer in the Princeton Institute of Advanced Studies (United States). He is held to be one of the most important Hispanists in the world, specialising mainly in the 16th and 17th centuries in Spanish History -especially in the figure of the favourites and, more specifically, that of the Count-duke of Olivares, in the Catalan social conflicts and comparative study of the Spanish and British colonisation of America.
As well as his extensive teaching career, both in England and as a guest lecturer in the most exceptional universities in the world, he is the author of, among many other books, of "Imperial Spain, 1469-1716" (1963), "The Revolution of the Catalans" (1963), "The old world and the new, 1492-1650" (1970), "A study of the decadence of Spain" (1982), "Richelieu and Olivares" (1984), "The Count-duke of Olivares" (1986) and " Spain and her world" (1989).
Corresponding member of the Real Academia de la Historia de Madrid (Royal Academy of History of Madrid), and member of the British Royal Academy of History, he also belongs to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophic Society. He is doctor "honoris causa" by the Universities of Barcelona, Autónoma de Madrid, Portsmouth, Warnick and Brown. Amongst other distinctions he has received the Grand Cross of Alfonso X the Wise, the order of Isabel la Católica, the medal of honour from the Universidad Internacional Menéndez y Pelayo, the gold medal for Fine Arts and prizes such as the Wolfson for History and Biography (1986), the "XVIIe siècle" (1992) and the "Eloy Antonio de Nebrija" (1993).
He died on July 22, 2001.
Julián Marías Aguilera
A prestigious philologist, sociologist and renowned essayist, Julián Marías Aguilera was born in Valladolid in 1914. A disciple and friend of Ortega y Gasset from 1932 and for 23 years, he founded together with the great thinker the Instituto de Humanidades de Madrid, of which he was later the director. In October of 1964 he was elected permanent member of the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy), occupying chair "S". Amongst other relevant institutions, he is also member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando), of the Hispanic Society of America in New York, of the Institut International de Philosophie, of the International Society for the History of Ideas, of the Council Scholars of the Washington Congressional Library and, since 1971, corresponding member of the Academia de Artes y Ciencias de Puerto Rico (Academy of Arts and Sciences of Puerto Rico). Marías is, moreover, the only intellectual of the Castilian language to figure as a member of the International Papal Council for Culture, created by Pope John Paul II in 1982.
He possesses an extensive bibliography, made up of more than fifty books, from which we might single out titles such as "Introducción a la filosofía", "Historia de la filosofía", "Ortega y la razón vital", "Método histórico de las generaciones", "Los españoles", "El oficio del pensamiento" or "La España imposible en tiempos de Carlos III".
Amongst the awards he has received are the Fastenrath prize (1947) for his work "Miguel de Unamuno", the Kennedy prize from the Instituto de Estudios Norteamericanos in Barcelona (1964), the Juan Palomo prize (1971), the Gulbenkian for essays (1972), the Ramón Godó for journalism (1975), the Castille and Leon award for the Arts (1988) and the Bravo award (1988).
Mr. Marías died in Madrid on December 15, 2005.
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