Scholars from Spain, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States discuss historical writings of the past and how our understanding of the colonial era has been influenced by the expectations of the day.

El presente texto ofrece una descripci¢n de los sucesivos escritos de materia ling ¡stica hechos por Ram¢n Men‚ndez Pidal (1869-1968), el primero de los fil¢logos espa¤oles y creador entre los a¤os 1910 y 1936 de una escuela de investigaci¢n ling ¡stica y literaria de resonancia internacional. Algunas de las p ginas pidalinas que aqu¡ se registran resultan conocidas; otras han pasado m s inadvertidas. Se trata de ofrecer -en particular a las nuevas generaciones- una s¡ntesis primera de una labor que ha resultado capital en las ciencias humanas en Espa¤a durante el siglo XX, y que incluso se prolonga en los primeros a¤os del siglo XXI, con la publicaci¢n de originales in‚ditos.

El presente volumen recoge parte de las Actas del VI Congreso Internacional de la Sociedad Española de Historiografía Lingüística; encuentro que tuvo lugar en Cádiz entre el 6 y el 9 de noviembre de 2007.

The German and Spanish-speaking worlds have, over the centuries, developed an intrinsic relationship, one which predates the Habsburg dynasty and the Renaissance and baroque periods. The cross-fertilization and challenges have been both fruitful and complex with novel inventions surfacing in one culture often achieving their greatest prosperity in the other: Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation stimulated a response in Spain that was to define the European Counter Reformation; Spanish Baroque writers were seminal in the development of German Romanticism; Carl Christian Friedrich Krause and other nineteenth-century liberals provided the foundation for Spanish reformist efforts on the one hand, while German conservatives like Novalis and Adam Müller inspired conservatvies on the other; the music of Richard Wagner transformed Spanish music and the Spanish stage at the turn of the twentieth century; Pablo Picasso and other artists of the Spanish avant-garde sparkled the enthusiasm of the Germans before the Nazi era. Today, German and Spanish intellectuals and writers share a similar commitment to the creation of a European culture in the face of resistance from other members of the European Union. Viewed from a variety of disciplines this volume explores the relentlessly consistent, albeit often forgotten connections between the two linguistic and cultural groups revealing the myriad of ways in which they have shared and transformed literature, art, culture, politics, and history.

In this volume seventeen scholars from Great Britain, Ireland, Spain and the US pay tribute to the memory of Roger M Walker, Professor of Spanish at Birkbeck College, London. His publications were chiefly in the field of Old Spanish narrative epic, romance, hagiography and the Libro de buen amor and the editors have sought to assemble contributions on these topics. Versions of some of the papers were presented at the symposium held in Professor Walkers memory at Birkbeck College in October 1999.