King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain carried out a joint engagement on Tuesday, 28 February, when they hosted the Royal Academy of History (RAH) at the Royal Palace in Madrid.
Their Majesties welcomed the RAH to the palace for the presentation of the academy’s new project, the Digital Portal of Hispanic History (known as Historia Hispanica in Spanish). The portal covers more than 20,000 events in Spanish history from 1200 BCE through to the present, referencing over 150,000 different geographic locations and over 50,000 different people.
RAH technical director Jaime Olmedo demonstrated the portal and introduced the royal couple to the database. Afterwards, King Felipe noted that it is “a grandiose and fascinating project that displays its extensive content and capabilities without shifting its centre of gravity: our historical and current identity. Browsing through its pages, we see our culture projected through time and in a global geographic scope.“
This project is particularly notable, as it is the first national history to be gathered with georeferencing. The interactive map allows visitors to search by location, person, and by date. It incorporates information from the Spanish Biographical Dictionary, another online project the RAH launched in 2018.
The RAH consulted widely through the development of Historia Hispanica. Over 5,000 historians have contributed to the project, as well over 500 different scientific organisations from around the world.
The King was proud to highlight the importance of the project, explaining: “All this makes our history a global history, without which many realities that make up the world today cannot be understood. It is important not only that we know it but that we feel proud of a past that has transcended our borders.“
The project is available in Spanish and can be accessed through this site: https://historia-hispanica.rah.es/.
