TABLE OF CONTENTS
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
THE   CATALAN   VICTORY OF 1705
DENTAL  TELEPHONY  HAS BEEN DEVISED
THE   BULLFIGHTS
NOW,  CATALONIA
EUROPE   AND   WE
THE CATALAN EXPANSION  IN THE XIIIth,XIVth AND XVth CENTURIES
THE HISTORY OF OUR HISTORY
ANDORRA GETS STRONGER
ABOUT THE LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD
DID  YOU  KNOW  THAT…?

Catalonia Today, Vol 16, No 3

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
           As we have done every now and then, we share today the editorial of the weekly magazine EL TEMPS. This editorial appeared in mid April, and we felt that it was very interesting. Here it is.
            “Last week we lived through several important moments related to the Catalan presence in the world. One of the areas where this presence is now alive is in the significant field of the Internet: it is the website .cat. So, if our hopes are fulfilled and finally the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)  accepts it, people will be able to use, after next November, addresses ending with .cat  to define a cultural website. The success of this initiative is especially due to the Associació PuntCat, which is formed by some seventy cultural entities and institutions of the Catalan linguistic area and most of the large Catalan internet community, which has begun to work towards the same rights that the citizens of the US, China, or the Congo have.
          Unluckily, the Catalan culture does not have the same defenses that other cultures may have. That is why every little victory must be celebrated as if it were very big, since it is, in fact, as hard to make it go on as if it were a great undertaking. In this case it is especially important that the Catalan culture be present in the world. Today, in the era of globalization, the Internet is a necessary field, and we must be there with our own voice if we want our culture to survive. At this moment, according to a survey of Softcatalà, Catalan is number 23rd   in the ranking of languages used in the Internet.
          Catalonia is now living through a process of political rethinking that will culminate in the writing of a new Statute for Catalonia. One of the arguments of the Catalan political class is the need to incorporate in the Statute’s text the means to face problems and challenges that did not exist when the 1979 Statute was written. It is obvious that the birth of the Internet and the use of it have been part of those challenges.
          As in many other cases, society has advanced to be able to exist with its own identity, in this case in the Internet. Maybe this is a good thing, perhaps it is a symptom of social vitality. In any case, now is the moment for the institutions of Catalonia to throw themselves actively into this initiative.  It would be good if the future new Statute of Catalonia could, in some way, guarantee the use and diffusion of the Internet in our country, as well as the Catalan presence in the Internet.
          In our country the administrative divisions have created false cultural and mental separations. Globalization is a process that will bring some problems to us because of the fragility of our political institutions. At the same time, it brings to us resources and opportunities that may paradoxically help us overcome the stiffness of the dynamics generated by the state that tend to conceal the plurality. The website of the Catalan cultural area, .cat – is only an example of it”.

THE   CATALAN   VICTORY OF 1705
CHAPTER  XVII
( continued)

THE OBEDIENCE TO THE DUCHY OF CARDONA
          The situation of almost-rebellion was well known and there had been many contacts with the Vic people. However, the villages and cities had still not declared their submission, and the castle of Cardona was still commanded by Spanish soldiers.
          On September 6, the prince of Hessen-Darmstadt called together two well-known doctors from Solsona, Dr. Joan Miquel and Dr. Francesc Careny, and gave them powers to receive the obedience of the duchy and even to delegate it. Joan Malaver, a priest, was to go with them. They left to do what they had been told to do with only thirty volunteers from the field around Barcelona.
          They went to Torà and to Solsona, which were mayoralties of the duchy. It was not difficult to officially acknowledge a situation that already existed. From there, they went to Cardona, the capital of the duchy. It was the 11th of September, and the town asked if they could wait a week. Dr.Joan Miquel got the letter, but its courier had already met a big group of people on the way, formed by more than twelve hundred men, commanded by Antoni Bordons, Geroni Pallarès, and Josep Vila. They were going to Cardona. On the other hand, some six hundred vassals of the duke, led by judge Francesc Comes from Calaf and by Josep Gual, governor of Sanahuja, had entered the town. Moreover, since they were vassals, they could not be kept out.
          When most of the men who followed Joan Miquel arrived at Cardona, Father Malaver went officially to see the Council of the Town, which decided to declare their submission and to send their representatives to the Sant Martí camp. In the castle governor Josep Gato, who had only forty men, fired a couple of artillery discharges to save honor but surrendered immediately, asking to be promoted to become a general. This promotion was granted to him.
         When Father Malaver arrived at the Barcelona headquarters with the capitulations, he heard that Prince George had died. Some modification had to be made in his proposals. Cavalry commissar Pere Morras, one of the military men who had fought with the Vic people in the beginning, was appointed governor of the castle of Cardona. Joan Miquel was ordered to ask the submission of Berga and the lands around it. He did it immediately. Francesc Carreras was sent to the Seu d’Urgell.
           Carreras was calling people to arms along his way.  He arrived at the Seu, where he found no opposition, and from there, he went to besiege the castle of Castellciutat. Joan Miquel went to help him after finishing his work in Berga. With him were Miquel Rius, Francesc Montan and many people from Berguedà.
           The governor of the castle surrendered. He only had forty men. The governor went to France on the 23rd of September, together with Pere Marin and Baron de Prullans. The surrender was signed by Dr. Joan Miquel, by Carreus, and by two Canons of the Seu.
          On the 24th, they received the castles of Arisol and Bar. Puigcerdà  and the small towns of Cerdanya submitted. Joan Miquel and Francesc Carreus went to the French Cerdanya hoping to surprise Montlluís, but they had to withdraw because the castle had recently been reinforced with three hundred men.
          The bishop of the Seu, the Castilian Juan Julian Cano, ran away to France.
          Francesc Carreras remained in that frontier zone and did some raids in France. De Quinson was organizing a way to stop him, since Carreus had taken away herds from the Conflent and from Cerdanya. De Quinson mobilized some soldiers to strengthen Montlluis, Vilafranca, and Cotlliure. He was afraid of a Catalan invasion. This invasion took place later, during a period that is out of the objective of our book.
ANTONI GRAU IN THE PYRENEAN MOUNTAINS
          The most spectacular deed of all those months and the deed provoking more disturbing questions is the one that took place in the Conca de Tremp. Antoni Grau, the heart of the enterprise, was even praised by the marquis of San Felipe.
          The traits of a popular uprising are so clear that historian Castellví does his best to blur the personality of Grau himself. It is said that for social reasons Charles III ordered Grau to withdraw from active life once the objective had been achieved. A modern woman writer, Nuria Sales, does not write about him but explains how hard was the reaction of Philip’s troops in the villages that Grau had convinced to go to the pro-Austrian side, when the French troops were back in those mountains.
          According to Castellví, Antoni Grau was neither a nobleman nor a military man, but the son of a clerk from Tremp. It is not clear if he meant a son of a notary or a son of a court clerk Castellví writes that Grau had said that he was in correspondence with Prince George of Hessen-Darmstadt. It is probably true, since that affirmation could be very dangerous under Velasco’s ruling. The fact that he learned that the allied fleet could be seen from Tarragona shows how deeply he was immersed in that affair, since the news could only be received in Tremp with a lot of delay, except when somebody had a very special interest in the case. When Grau learned that, he sent one of his men to the allied camp. This man, called Joan Folís, was received by Prince George, who appointed him captain of the militia. Curiously, he did not give any distinction to Antoni. He gave him, however, the power to bring to Charles III’s obeisance the villages in the Pyrenean mountains.
          With this authorization and helped by the people from the villages of the Conca, he brought to obeisance the two Pallars and the Val d'Aran. Castellví points out that there were neither noblemen nor important men in those Conca villages. Grau did his deed with the help of the mountain people only.
          On October 19, he went to the castle of Benasc and he achieved, without fighting, the surrender of Antoni Sans, and the governor of the castle. Grau assured Sans that he would be honored by Chares III, who would also allow his nephew Jordi Sabastida to stay as governor of the castle. This was promised to him by Grau and confirmed by Charles III on the 18th.
          The men commanded by Dr. Josep Pallarès, the chief magistrate of Pallars, went with Grau’s men to Pont de Montanyana, on the Cinca River. This village was considered the door to Aragó on the mountain side. The first group of the Pallars men came on the 14th. It was a group of sixty men led by a militia captain called Peret. They threatened the people of Pont de Montanyana with the destruction of all their orchard trees. Pallarès arrived at night with three hundred men and Grau arrived on the 16th. He was leading the strong body of the column, with a lot more people. The village surrendered, and Grau appointed as governor Lluis Cortit, who was the master of the Torre d’Amargós.
          The way to Benavarri was open to them when the garrison of the castle of Areny surrendered without any struggle. The people from the villages and towns of Ribagorça joined Grau’s men, so that Grau arrived at the capital of the old county with more than two thousand men. When the population began to indicate that they would not recognize Charles III, Grau ordered that a couple of haystacks be burned and the resistance was ended.
           It is impressive to see how a man, with a cause that evidently had to be popular, was able to convince enough people to organize that kind of movement in those small mountain villages.
           Perhaps he was a violent man, but the complaints presented against him in the general headquarters of Sant Martí were about him being rather annoying asking for food for all those people that came with him, and also asking money to pay something to the militia men. I do not think, however, that those were the real reasons. It seems that we have here a concealed social grudge, since Castellví insists in saying that there were no noblemen in Grau’s movement. They solved it by asking Grau to go to the headquarters and giving the direction of the movement in the Pyrenean mountains to Francesc Areny, baron if Claret, who appointed several commanders. Grau was neither processed nor punished.  I think that his dismissal was a part of prince Anton of Lichtenstein’s tactics to keep all the power in the hands of noblemen.
THE ACTION OF THE WESTERN GROUP
           The action of the pro-Austrians in the Western lands is centered around the men of two families, but especially on the marquis of Poal.
          Antoni de Desvalls i de Vergós, marquis of Poal, was 39 years old and a retired military man. He had retired from the regular army because of his pro-Austrian conviction. His brother Manuel, six years younger, did the same. The marquis was not a rich man. His only possessions were Poal, Giminells, and Sarcenit. Manuel had lived in Barcelona until Velasco decided to get rid of him. He was one of the groups of gentlemen who had not ªfoundª anybody at Pere Careny’s home. In June 1705, when the Plana de Vic was already stirred up, he was exiled.
          Both brothers were important men in the War of Succession in Catalonia and they always fought as heads of guerrilla fighters. The marquis of Poal was the head of the inside people who tried to help the besieged inhabitants of Barcelona. Marches, countermarches, and terrible combats against much more numerous forces. Manuel was the governor of the castle of Cardona, where the Catalan independent flag was lowered for the last time 18 September 1714; a week after the capital had surrendered. Both brothers escaped to foreign lands. Antoni fought against the Turks. Manuel went back to Mallorca, where he tried to resist for a whole year. Finally, he went to Vienna where he was appointed to important positions in the court of the emperor Charles, our Charles III
          The other family I mentioned above was the family of Antoni Sobies, from Tarrega. Antoni and his son Miquel put themselves immediately at the head of the revolted. Miquel had been expelled from Barcelona by Velasco because of his supposed friendship with Manuel Desvalls. According to Castellví, the Sobies family had been treated quite well by viceroy Joan of Austria, and that had made them strong supporters of the pro-Austrian cause.
          The action of the group from Lleida had followed the action of the Vic people. We must mention that Castellví again does not say anything about the first part of the revolt and only writes about the campaign to submit Lleida to Charles III’s obeisance, but we know from the Lleida historians that the city of the Segre river had already taken steps in Augist 13th 1705, to be protected from the misdeeds of the bands directed by the marquis of Poal.
          As it had happened in the Plana de Vic, Desvalls had put people together along the Ribera of the Ció, the Urgell, and the Garrigues before the landing of the allies. He had been writing to prince George of Hessen-Darmstadt, and it is very logical that when the allies had brought to obeisance the towns and villages around Barcelona and in the Pla del Llobregat, the prince would send direct orders to his friends from Lleida.
          A captain from Lleida, Pere Freixes, carried the orders. He was carrying grants of colonel for the Desvalls and for Miquel Sobies, something quite normal for those who had been professional military men.
          On August 28, the day that Freixes arrived at Poal, Antoni was on the lands of Aragó. I have not been able to discover if he was there for political reasons or visiting his own land. Manuel and  Miquel Sobies went to Vallbona de les Monges, a place that had been several times a meeting point for their followers. They went out with fifty men, but as soon as people knew about it, three hundred more men joined them. There, with full ceremony, they made their oath of fidelity to Charles III in front of the Blessed Sacrament. It was like a religious initiation to the next campaign. The first cities to make their act of obeisance were Preixana, Agramunt, Tàrrega, and Greissona. At that moment, the followers were more than two thousand men.
          The immediate objective was the city of Cervera, not only because of the need to get together with the allied forces in the coast, but also because of the need to subdue a city that called itself a pro-Philip city.
          The city had still its old ramparts and was the site of a chief magistrate. It was a very important fact that the city had a strong, but not very big, group of noble pro-Philip families. Since they lived on their own income, they were considered usurers. It is interesting to note that the great families of the neighboring towns were pro-Austrian, as Joan de Copons de la Manresana; Francesc Vega, master of the Oluges; Josep de Peguera i de Cortit, master of Gra, and the Albareda family, masters of Castellblanc.
 (To be continued) 
Antoni  Porta

To the interested  reader: LA VICTÒRIA CATALANA DE 1705, by Dr. Antoni Porta can be ordered from
Clara Prat
Sant Pau 16
08340 Vilassar de Mar. Barcelona. Spain
Price: $ 20, postage and handling included. Send check or money order with your order. Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery.

From EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA

DENTAL  TELEPHONY  HAS BEEN DEVISED

          Cell phones are constantly made smaller and, at the same time, they offer something called more “features”. I do not know how far this will go, but the truth is that a two year-old cell phone, today, seems an extremely old object. Their progress in becoming   smaller and with less weight is spectacular, and one of these days, has to reach a limit.
          For what it might be worth, British researchers have invented a cell phone that is implanted on a back tooth. Of course, we are talking about an extremely small device that has a receptor without wires, with a low frequency, and a module that transforms sound signals into vibrations that go directly from the back tooth to the inner ear.
          This phone has a flaw. Although the receptor in the back tooth can clearly hear who is calling, he cannot answer to the one who calls. In many cases, not to be able to answer could really be a terrible frustration. Nevertheless, it gives to the caller the option of insulting the other person, or of giving him or her an order without any possibility of reaction. Absolute impunity. Because if one has to go on carrying a cell phone to answer, it is not worth the trouble.
          Now, the next stop could be to implant a microphone in another tooth. And a day will come when a back tooth will be talking and having a conversation with another back tooth.
          So, the birth of Dental Telephony is announced. Or perhaps it will be called Odontophony. Is it possible for a hard competition to appear between dentists and telephone networks?  If the receptor back tooth has to be extracted, what will happen?
Can all this work with false teeth?  We will give real life to the expression “chattering teeth” and will be able to say that we are “armed to the teeth”
          We have often seen people that speak into them on the street. Now we will see people making very strange faces without any apparent reason. In fact what is happening is that somebody is whispering something in that person’s ear while being several miles far from there. It is evident that we will have to change a well-known sentence and say: “ What you want to tell me is quite tricky, so tell it to me in the tooth.”
Josep M. Espinàs

THE   BULLFIGHTS

          On Thursday April 6, the town council of Barcelona declared itself to be against the practice of the bullfights. This declaration cannot stop them, since this is a question that depends on the Parliament of Catalonia. However, it recommends that the fights be forbidden. This is an important recommendation, since it comes from the most important Town Hall of the country. This municipal decision brings to my mind several reflexions and reflections.
          In the first place, it brings satisfaction, a great satisfaction. It seems incredible to me that bullfighting be defended at the beginning of the XXI st. century. However, there are people who defend it. And some of them are friends of mine. They know, as well as I do, that it is a cruel show. In addition, we know that the attraction or the rejection we feel do not come only from reason, but from feelings and sensations, too.  That is why debating that question brings up passions and provokes visceral arguments. I will leave   aside the feelings – theirs and mine - and will bring up some of the arguments that people use to defend bullfighting.
          I will do that following the outline proposed many years ago by Josep Ferrater Mora. In three memorable and very critical articles – that brought to him some furious answers - he pointed out the three arguments more frequently used to defend bullfighting: that they are traditional, that they are spectacular, and that they reveal a special relationship between the homo hispanicus and the bull.
          The argument of tradition is probably the most insistent. If we look carefully at it, however, it becomes very weak. And this is so not only because it is not very clear what a tradition is – must it be very old, be constant, and be followed by many, without objections? – But mainly because the fact of being a tradition is not yet a proof of anything, it still does not tell us if what is traditional is or is not good. People have had traditions that now make them shameful: the gladiators’ fights, the slavery, or the racial segregation. Moreover, all of us have had traditions of all kinds, be they pedagogical, religious or social, traditions that we have been leavings aside because we have tired of them, or because we have felt them to be inappropriate.
          In fact the history of human kind, so confused and so mixed up, is also the history that has made us to be sensible towards doings that had been well accepted by our ancestors and that now we consider them to be intolerable. I was amazed when I learned that my maternal grandfather, - a good, sensitive, and artistic man – did like the bullfights. No other member of my family has ever gone to see a bullfight. It seems to me that this is a historical gain that I hope will be irreversible. It is good that some traditions get broken,
          The argument of the fights being a spectacle has a very week basis, too. A spectacle is not good only because it is a spectacle. If this were so, in the present spectacle-society we would have to say that everything is good.  We would have to say that about horrible wars spectacularly televised, or about shows falsely enthusiastic where those participating in them abuse and insult those attending the show and those absent from it. The fact that the spectacle is based on the cruelty performed on a bull (or on six bulls) is not a good recommendation. Cockfights are also a spectacle, and there is a very wide accord about them being hateful.
          The last argument mentioned by Ferrater is that of a supposed “relationship between the Hispanic man and the bull”. This relationship appeared to be very debatable to him, as it does to me. One aspect of it, however, does interest me: some people think that culture – Spanish, Catalan, or world culture_ would suffer if bullfights were forbidden. I cannot see the reason for it. The deeds of Mario Cabré, of Bernadó, or of Chamaco are a part of history and nobody is going to erase them. As nobody erases the rupestrian paintings or burns the books describing atavistic rituals that today are unbearable. History is also growth. Tradition, spectacle, and culture are evolution. And one thing is very clear: our society is cruel. We must fight all forms of useless and avoidable suffering.
          I do not deny that people loving bullfights may be sensible and civilized in the total of their lives. As my grandfather was. I am sure, however, that people who forbid acts of suffering and of cruelty become more sensible and more civilized. Those of us who want to forbid bullfighting do wish precisely that kind of world.
Josep M. Terricabras

From the newspaper AVUI

NOW,  CATALONIA

          In 1704 the city of Barcelona, tired of the high-handedness of viceroy Velasco, rebelled against the Bourbon power and went to the side of the archduke of Austria who, a year later, was to be acknowledged as king of Spain.
          The fight between the two pretenders to the crown, Philip of Bourbon and Charles of Habsburg, was a 16 years war that ended the 11th of September 1714 with the fall of Barcelona. As it is well known, Philip V hurried to destroy, piece by piece, the secular, national, juridical personality of Catalonia and transformed the land into a zone occupied by the military.
          That History page, however, remained open. Catalans have never acknowledged the submission that had been imposed to them. Three centuries are a king time, and Catalonia is still requesting that the blunder be corrected and that the nation gets back its sovereignty. It is a feud that had adopted diverse forms and different appearances, with some periods that were very hard and other periods of relative tranquility. Nevertheless, it is a feud that has never been settled.
          The subject comes to mind because of the results of the last legislative elections in Catalonia and in Spain. Important concordances can be found among the winning political parties. Are we looking at a historical opportunity? At least we are in a moment of serious responsibility. If political promises and affirmations are interpreted in good faith and following the spirit that seems to be in them, one would wish to believe that the question of Catalonia’s sovereignty could come to a solution, be that a total sovereignty or a shared one. However, the efforts could be diluted in the swamp of shameful pacts, as it happened in other occasions.
          In the whole of the State, the consequences of the new situation must be evident in many ways. In everything concerning Catalonia, we must go on being very alert, so that when we are in the middle of the State’s wood we would not lose sight of the trees that are ours. In everything we can we must be in solidarity with the Spaniards, but solidarity cannot debase itself into neglect and, even less, into betrayal of our people. It is not fair for us to postpone again the recuperation of the public freedoms. Now it is the turn of Catalonia.
          All the political parties with the regrettable exception of one of them, as always have already exposed the main lines of national claims. It seems to me that the goal should not be either too high or too low.  The project can be realized by establishing a new Statute, or by modifying the Statute we have, or by modifying the Spanish Constitution, or by none of the above. It does not matter. What does matter is to reach to the core, to the essential non renounceable points.
          I would dare to summarize these points as follows:
•	The national personality of Catalonia must be acknowledged. Or, if it seems better: Spain is a multinational State. Catalonia is a nation.
•	The taxes paid in Catalonia must be managed in and applied to Catalonia. It is possible to reach an agreement with the State as long as the Catalan contribution is quantitatively fair and periodically revisable.
•	The usage of the Catalan language must be protected and substantiated by juridical high-level norms. The language will have the right of a positive discrimination.  It would be good for the Catalan language to be accepted in the whole of the State in order to favor its diffusion and the knowledge of it.
•	The immigration policy must be a competency of the Catalan government through a process of control, help, and social integration. These powers can be coordinated with those of the State in the same matter.
•	The Generalitat must receive the transference of all competencies that still are due to it.
•	All the restrains that do not allow Catalonia to negotiate, to pact, and to have accords with other autonomous communities must be abolished.
•	Parity negotiations with the EU must be immediately organized. (Catalonia-Spain in one side, European Union in the other) The idea is to give to Catalonia its own place inside the European frame. 
•	The juridical frame must be reformed. The Supreme Court of Justice of Catalonia must become the Supreme Court of Appeal. There must be a strong representation of Catalonia in the Spanish Constitutional Court and in the Council of Judicial Power.
•	The parameters of self-government must be reinforced. In basic questions, Catalonia must be able to rule about it without having to accept impositions from outside.

          These propositions do not pretend to be exhaustive. Once they have been reasoned, assumed, and agreed by both governments, they can bring to life an old longing of future that has always been in some way present in the political Catalanism: the idea of one Iberia, so many times proposed and so many times frustrated. An Iberia that could be acceptable to everybody, open and free from the heavy hegemonic myths of Castile.
          The Parliament in Madrid has the responsibility to accept these objectives. If this cannot be done, then it would be the moment to repeat the words used by Maragall, the poet, at the end of his poem: 
“Farewell, Spain”

Xavier Renau

EUROPE   AND   WE

          Yesterday was the First of May, and it was a historic day for Catalonia, even though many people did not notice it. Following that old saying of Catalanism according to which “our world is the world”, the enlargement of UE up to 25 members should naturally be very important to us. However, what happened yesterday was almost a domestic policy affair.
          The territory where we may circulate without needing papers, where we can work without asking a permit to do it, and where we can buy and sell without having to pay any duty has suddenly become much larger. This implies many more and new opportunities in the social, cultural, and economic fields, and some threats that we have already felt. Among the latter, for instance, the fact that some industries have been moved to those countries, or the creation of a new center of competition and of new frontiers with the East of Europe that is still out of the EU, frontiers through which more immigrants may illegally come, mixed with all kind of mafias. However, if things are well done the final balance will be globally positive. Spain will lose some aids, but Catalonia never was one of the main beneficiaries.
          In fact, for a country like ours it means that, besides having the same general advantages of the other territories we could also have other possibilities that at the moment are more psychological that purely political. For instance in the subject of the language. Less than a decade ago, if one would have dared to mention the possibility of having Catalan as an official language in the EU many people would have begun making fun of it, with that provincial cosmopolitism that the most tenacious  “espanyolistes” show off in Catalonia. We were told that the problem was not the fact that we were not a State, but the fact that we had a low number of Catalan speakers. Now it seems that Catalan could very well be an official language in the EU, specially when not all the official languages will be working languages and will not represent the claimed obstacle that could have appeared with the increase of the number of translations.
          All has happened because it has been shown that the problem was not of numbers, but of condition. It means that the three hundred thousand speakers of Maltese have seen their language acknowledged without any problem or discussion. Perhaps  in Madrid some people will begin to think that it would be good to give us the official of our language, just to avoid us wanting to be a State in order to acquire that official state.
          However, there are more psychological changes besides the language. Now it is clear that in Europe the size is not important either. To be a part of the EU depends on the internal political organization of the States. Now there is more diversity, more national realities that, in order to exist, need something more than to stay under the umbrella of a strong member of the political union of the continent. Here we can get something we have not been able to obtain up to now: European reports from peoples who share our own problems without falling into exoticism.
          And we can also have new allies, even among the rightful members, who because of a need to solve their own problems may force the big ones in the EU to adopt a political formula more sensible towards the peoples and less towards the state structure.
          Aznar’s bet for a new Europe formed only by the stronger States almost finished the traditional Europeanism of the Catalan society.  Now that Rodríguez Zapatero goes back to the French-German axis perhaps, we would go back to optimism. But now we could do it in a more mature way  than how we did it in the decade of the eighties. Now we know that Europe will not free us from Spain by elevation, as we do know that democracy in the State does not  automatically guarantee us our rights. Both are necessary conditions, but they are not enough.
           We have however a new playing field and we should make good use of it. For instance, businessmen should dare to invest more in the enlarged Europe not only to look for those who would work for lower salaries, but also in order to strengthen the competivity of our business, and to create a real international mentality of the production and marketing of products and services.
          The same thing could be done by our universities and cultural enterprises, always feeling a complex because of the strength of the Spanish interior market.  We were able to make good use of the opportunities we had before Spain became a member of the EU, and now we have to identify the present opportunities that are not the same ones, but that may be difficult too.
          The enlarged Europe will not redeem us from Spain, but it may help us to negotiate in better conditions since our power to pressure could be higher. Most of all if we are able to find new allies that may help us to place the Catalan problem in the European political agenda, so that we do not have to spend the time explaining our history just to be told later that we do love our past. What we really love is our future, This, Mr. Zapatero, is our utopia, as valid as those you so passionately defended in the investiture speech, while you were quoting your grandfather’s ideology.
Albert Sáez

THE CATALAN EXPANSION  IN THE XIIIth,XIVth AND XVth CENTURIES

THE KINGDOM OF MALLORCA
           Once Jaume I had all his peninsular lands on hand he prepared the conquest of Mallorca.Several interests coincided in this enterprise: the Catalan commercial bourgeoisie wished to have a safe stop in the way to the Orient and stop the pirate attacks that create obstacles for the Catalan commerce from the Balearic Islands; the nobility saw in it an opportunity to increase their domains and their wealth; and the monarchy saw a way to increase its power and to direct out of the country the warlike energy of the nobility.
          The king called the Parliament to the Palau Reial Major of Barcelona on December of 1228 and said to them:
                     “On nós vos pregam molt carament que ens donets consell e ajuda en est viatge que volem fer sobre el regne de Mallorques e les altres illes que pertanyen a aquella” (Llibre dels feits. Jaume I)
            After having agreed about how each of the ranks would help the Mallorcan enterprise and how the profits would be distributed, the men in the expedition, who were almost exclusively Catalan, sailed from the harbors of Salou, Cambrils, and Tarragona
           “I fou pres sagrament de tots els nobles que el primer dia de maig fossin a Salou, tots amb tot llur aparellament per passar a Mallorques i que no hi fallissin…I moguem el dimecres matí de Salou, amb coratge de la terra…i feia-ho bell veure a aquells que romanien en terra i a nós, que tota la mar semblava blanca de les veles, tan gran era l’estol” (Llibre dels feits. Jaume I)
          The first triumphs came very soon. The Majorcan Moslems did not receive any help from the Moslems in Spain or from those in North Africa. They fought back the siege during three months, and the city was conquered on December 31, 1229. Very few Moslems surrendered in good conditions. Most of them got to know exile, slavery, or death in the fight. The conquerors distributed among themselves the goods of the defeated. The king took half of the land and distributed it among the Templars, the royal family, several civil servants, and the cities that had participated in the expedition.
          Four great barons took the other half of the land and distributed it among their subjects, since they had obtained jurisdiction with the lands. The island was repopulated mainly with peasants from the Empordà and from Rosselló. These peasants settled there with a long lease contracts and a reasonable payment.
          The conquest was completed with the vassalage of Menorca, that was no taken until 1287, the king then being Alfons el Liberal, and with the conquest of Eivissa and Formentera, achieved by Guillem de Montgrí, archbishop of Tarragona.
          Jaume I created the basic institutional infrastructure of Mallorca. With the Balearic Islands, the earldoms of Rosselló and Cerdanya, the viscountcy of Carladés and the barony of Montpellier, he formed the kingdom of Mallorca (1262) which he left to his second son Jaume II de Mallorca (1276). His first son Pere el Gran did not accept willingly the distribution of the kingdom made by his father, and requested vassalage from his brother, made him attend the Catalan Courts, and did not allow him to mint money of his own. When the French invaded Catalonia, Jaime II of Mallorca not only did not help his brother against the French, but he also gave open way through the Rosselló to the invading troops. This decision provoked a hard answer from Pere el Gran and from his successor Alfons el Liberal, who took Mallorca and kept it under his power until Jaume II de Catalunya-Aragó gave it back to Jaume II of Mallorca in 1295, after the Anagni Peace.
THE KINGDOM OF  VALENCIA
          Catalan and Aragonese people did the conquest of the Valencia Land together. The political treaties with Castile (Tudillén, 1151, and Cazola, 1179) had established that the peninsular East was an area of expansion of the Catalan-Aragonese Crown. However, Castilians made several incursions on the territory when the Almohade Empire was disintegrated. Therefore, it was necessary to make the possession real.
          The Aragonese men were strong in the beginning of the fight, but the Catalan presence was necessary because of their greater number of population and their naval forces, given the maritime character of the kingdom they were to conquer. Noblemen and prelates from Aragó and Catalonia, the military orders of the Templars and the Hospital, and the militia from the cities and villages of Aragó and Catalonia participated in the military operation.
           The conquest was developed in three phases, between 1229 and 1245. The Aragonese initiated the attack and the king joined the operations that had been planned after the Corts de Montsó (1232). The city of Valencia was taken on September 1238, after a siege of five months. The king says:
“València era nostra…i quan vièrem nostra senyera dalt en la torre, descavalgàrem del cavall, ens endreçàrem  vers Orient, ploràrem de nostres ulls i besàrem la terra per la gran mercè que Déu ens havia feta” ( Llibre dels feits. Jaume I)
          Fixing the southern limit of the conquests generated trouble with Castile, solved with the treaty of Almirra (1244), accorded between Jaume I and prince Alfons of Castile.This pact reserved the lands of Alacant to the Castilian expansion. Following these agreements, when years later the Moslems of Andalusia and Murcia-Alacant revolted, Jaume I subdued the area of Alacant, Elx, Oriola, and Murcia, established there Catalan settlers, and gave the lands back to Castile (1265-66)
          The military orders and the Aragonese barons obtained big dominions in the northern part of the kingdom, a zone that was massively abandoned by the Moslems. In the central zone, the Moslem population stayed on in great numbers. The Christian demographic weakness propitiated Moslem revolts and expulsion decrees. The settling of that zone was quite split up, with many small and medium sized estates, and was done by Catalans in the littoral lands and by Aragonese in the inlands. In the southern lands the Moslems did not leave, they pacted an agreement: the Crown got rich and almost undamaged urban places in exchange for respecting the life, the laws, and the usages and religion of the defeated.
          In order to solve the problems between the Aragonese nobility – who wonted more dominions and more power – and the cities, with their commercial interests, and wishing not to have his authority so limited by the ranks, Jaume I did not add the conquered lands either to Catalonia or to Aragó. He created a new kingdom, the kingdom of Valencia, which became the third state of the Catalan-Aragonese Crown. A kingdom with its own Parliament, with laws, institutions and authority, with a more balanced sociopolitical structure, and a greater strength in the villages and cities. In 1261, something new appeared: the Furs of Valencia, a Valencian law code.
          The interest of the Crown in the Mediterranean strip and the presence of Catalan merchants in North African cities did not stop growing. This fact revalued the strategic role of the lands near the peninsular Southeast. This may explain the fact that between 1295 and 1309 Jaume II put aside the treaty of Almirra (1244) and directed his diplomatic and military efforts toward the incorporation of these lands, to the detriment of Castile.
          When Sancho IV of Castile died in 1295, Jaume II unleashed the hostilities with Castile and occupied Alacant, Elx, Oriola, Murcia, and Lorca. After this, things became more stable and diplomacy took the guns place. According to the arbitral sentence of Torrellas (1304), Alacant, Elx, Oriola, and Crevillent were finally incorporated to the Valencian Land, and Molina, Murcia, and Cartagena were assigned to Castile.
 
THE FIGHT FOR SICILIA
          The addition of Sicilia to the domains of the Casal de Barcelona is atypical in the context of the expansion.. It was not the outcome of a conquest, but of a marriage, and it was not a project of the estates but a vindication of dynastic interests. Pere el Gran, the son of Jaume I, married Constança Hohenstaufen, a Sicilian princess who was a member of the imperial German family that ruled Sicilia. The marriage was one part of the alliances among the sovereigns of the Mediterranean lands in order to help each other against the enemies and to reinforce their political status.
          Catalans and Sicilians had a joint menace in the French hegemony, concentrated in two sides. One of these sides was the 1265 pact between the Pope, enemy of the Hohenstaufen, and Charles d’Anjou who, following the Pope’s will, began the conquest of Naples and Sicilia. The other side was the crusade of Louis IX of France to Tunis (1270), a sultanate with excellent political and commercial relations with the Catalan – Aragonese Crown. 
          The defeat and death of the last Hohenstaufen kings of Sicilia by Angevin hands made Constança an heir of the rights of the family to the Sicilian Crown, with her husband as her defender. The change of powers and the partial substitution of the German-Sicilian nobility by the French-Provençal one created in Sicilia an inner opposition that culminated on a popular uprising  (1282) out of which came the expulsion of the Angevines.
          Fearing a counter-offensive of Charles I d’Anjou, the Sicilians placed themselves under the protection of king Pere el Gran, who took possession of the island in September. Of 1282.
          “ Tantost com ho saberen a Palerm trameteren al senyor rei la major part dels rics homes amb gran tresor i amb gran moneda per donar-los a les seves gents. I el senyor rei no en volgué  gens prendre, que digué que encara que ho hagués  menester no en volia gens, que ell portava tresor i moneda a bastament, pero que fossin certs que ell venia per rebre’ls com a vassalls i per defensar-los contra totes les persones del món” (Crònica. Ramón Muntaner )
           The union with Sicilia was favorable to the Catalan commercial interests because of the strategic situation of the island in the commercial routes of the time. In addition, even more: the important Sicilian production of wheat would solve the chronic shortages of Catalan agriculture.
          Pope Martin IV, who was French, came to the Angevine side and excommunicated Pere el Gran, dispossessed him of his kingdom, granted the investiture of the Catalan-Aragonese Crown to Charles of Valois, son of the king of France Philip III, and decreed a crusade against Catalonia. As explained by the chronicler Bernat Desclot, while the Catalan-Aragonese troops were winning in Sicilia, Philip III pretended to achieve the investiture of the Crown of Aragó, but he was met with a strong opposition and had to retreat, defeated and with an army destroyed by the plague.
          In spite of the early success, the anti-Catalan coalition was too strong for a Catalan peace or a Catalan victory to be reached. To open the way for a political end of the conflict, Pere el Gran divided his kingdoms between his sons. He left Catalonia, Aragó, and València to the elder son, Alfons el Liberal, and Sicilia to the second son Jaume. But Alfons el Liberal died early (1291) and without sons, and therefore Jaume II of Catalonia-Aragó kept all the paternal dominions.          Finally, after a meeting between Jaume II and Charles II 
d’Anjou, a multilateral negotiation in Anagni (1295) gave the final solution. In that treaty it was decided:
1)	The marriage of Jaume II with Blanca, the daughter of Charles II d’Anjou
2)	The peace between France and the Crown of Aragó
3)	The restitution of Mallorca to its king
4)	The donation of Sicilia to the Pope
5)	The lifting of the excomunication, and the probably secret agreement of the concession of Sardinia to the Crown of Aragó.
          The Sicilians did not accept the agreement. They proclaimed Frederic, the younger brother of James II, as their king, and successfully resisted the attacks of the Angevines until the peace of Caltabellotta (1302) between Frederic and Charles II of Naples stabilized the situation.
Eduard Juncosa

From EL TEMPS
THE HISTORY OF OUR HISTORY
          Up until a relatively short time ago the history of Catalan historiography, that is to  
Say the history of our history, was a scarcely cultivated field. Now it has been admitted that it is a necessary aspect of the historical scene. As there is a history of Catalan literature, there is too a history of historiography.
          Historian Enric Pujol has worked very well in this new field. He published in 1995 “Ferran Soldevila: els fonaments de la historiographia catalana contemporània”.  The publication of the Diccionari d’historiografia catalana   in 2003 gives more evidence of the importance of this field. Together with Antoni Simon and Jordi Casassas, Enric Pujol forms the executive group of this ambitious and excellent enterprise that is much more advanced than the rest of the State, since there is nothing like it in the Spanish area. Now Enric Pujol has brought up a first approach to a synthesis of the Catalan historiography from the end of the Sixth century until the sixties of the Twentieth in another book called “Historia i reconstrucció nacional. La historiografia catalana en l’època de Ferran Soldevila. (1894-1971).
          This new book by Pujol is not a repetition of the subject he studied in the book of 1995. The author has taken out most of the new biographical data that appeared in his doctor’s thesis, presented in 2002. He has kept, however, all the references and relations of Soldevila with other historians. He has used new sources of documents. The long active trajectory of Ferran Soldevila makes him to be the most representative historian of his time, that is to say of the greater part of the Twentieth century. To be the most representative does not mean being the most original.
          In his years of study he received the last influences of positivism through Rubiò i Lluch, his professor. At the same time he integrated in his work the contributions of historians he knew, among them Ferran Valls i Taberner, Nicolau d’ Olwer, Ramon d’Abadal, Antoni Rovira i Virgili and Jordi Rubió i Balaguer up to Vicens Vives, Pierre Vilar and Joan Fuster.
          In this way Enric Pujol is able to offer a first hand exposition of the Catalan historiography’s evolution during Ferran Soldevila’s life, with the added interest of reaching all the places where Catalan is spoken, a rather difficult enterprise that few people dare to try. Enric Pujol classifies and puts together a lot of authors that up to now had been dispersed and unconnected. We can really say that we have here the first proposal of a history of the Catalan historiography during the first seventy years of the Twentieth century and that, as all the pioneer works, it allowed to begin several future monographic studies.
          The book we are considering is not an apology of historian Ferran Soldevila but a very interesting contextual exposition. The reader discovers that, considering what the Catalan Lands have done, we have had in historiography an evolution and a group of currents that could be considered homogeneous to their European coetaneous, from the positivism of the end of the Sixth century to the historiographic Marxism   in the 70’s of the Twentieth century, passing through those in the early years of that century, the left wing republican historians, and the influence of the school of the Annales through Vicens. All these currents are analyzed and put successively together, always in the frame of the political and cultural evolution of each period,
           Enric Pujol did not want to establish a canon to determine the names and works considered classical between 1893 and 1971 looking at them from the present time, but considering the importance of their contribution in their time, without forgetting the limitation imposed by the vision of history existing in each period.
          The breaking point with cultural continuity coincided with the loss of a minimal autochthonous power during the long Francoist era, and with Vicens Vives’ disavowal in the fifties of the earlier tradition, which was said to be romantic and therefore branded as lacking in scientific quality.
          The last decade of the Twentieth century has been characterized by the understanding of the richness of the Catalan historical tradition and the need to record the historiography itself as an intellectual activity, sharing Pierre Vilar’s idea that the history of history is perhaps the best work that any historian may plan to do. The history of the historiography is a new field in which the same thing that Soldevila represented in the past is evident: an example of lack of complexes and of localism and capacity to
reach the dimension of a European intellectual.
          Soldevila is the more representative historian of his time because of his capacity to solve the permanent conflict between tradition and innovation.As interesting as this demonstration, or even more so, is the panoramic view of the history of the history in the Catalan Lands offered by Enric Pujol, from the positivists of the end of the Twentieth century up to Joan Fuster.
Albert Balcells

ANDORRA GETS STRONGER

          In front of Andorra, the European Union has adopted the commitment of contributing “to preserve, to assess, and to divulge the Catalan language”, according to the article 3 of the cooperation agreement between the EU and the Pyrenean State and that before the end of this year the EU Council and the government of Andorra. will sign. It is the first time that there is, in an official EU text and in an explicit way, a commitment to the Catalan language.  Andorra will have an open door to formulate and negotiate proposals to materialize the agreement.
          The document is the outcome of two years of negotiations, and it was closed on the 30th of last April in Brussels by the Andorran Minister of Foreign Affairs, Juli Minoves, and by Matthias Brinkmann, the man in charge of the relations between the EU and Andorra. The document establishes the basis of a wide cooperation to develop the European relations with Andorra in the capacity of third country, a juridical tool that has been inexistent up to now. However, Andorra and the EU had already been joined up together for some years by an agreement in the matter of customs.
        Now the text of the agreement, before being officially signed, is being translated into all the official languages of the community besides Catalan. This agreement is opening ways of cooperation between the EU and Andorra in six areas: culture, education, environment, regional policy, work and health, communications and energy. It also leaves an open door to extend it to other sectors by mutual accord.
         In cultural matters, besides, their compromise about Catalan, Andorra will be able to participate in European cultural programs, and there will be joint actions to protect the historic and artistic heritage and to apply programs of promotion and research across the border.
          In the area of education, the Pyrenean State will be able to rightfully enter in the Erasmus, lingua, and Minerva programs, as long as it brings some funds to these programs as the other European States do. It will also be able to use the UE’s database and to participate in specific programs of professional and youth formation.
          The bases of cooperation in environment matters are centered in Andorra’s adoption of a set of laws in that matter, laws that are equivalent to the laws of the EU, so that a continued economic development may be guaranteed if in exchange the Pyrenean country is able to establish some protocols of collaboration with the European Agency of the Environment. In this same area, the existing cooperation in the matter of residuum will be reinforced, and the Government has already announced that it will soon ratify the Kyoto agreements.
           The regional policy is one of the strong points of the agreement. In this area is foreseen the creation of a “Pyrenean Space” in which Andorra and its neighboring French and Spanish States will participate designing joint policies in all the areas. As the Andorran minister of Foreign Relations has pointed out, this could be a good outcome for the Spanish State, which would be able to receive community funds to defray its share of the project for the future airport of Seu d’Urgell, a project of joint management between the two neighboring States.  Besides that, Andorra will be able to participate in the Interreg  programs with the same conditions shared by the States that are members of the Union.
          The area related to work and health is centered in the mutual commitment to rule out any discrimination due to nationality that might affect the communal workers residing in Andorra or the Andorran workers residing in one of the States of the community. This point of the agreement foresees too the cooperation in social and sanitary programs and projects.
         Finally, in the area of communications, the agreement stresses the common interest in developing the communicating roads that unite Andorra with the neighboring States in a very wide sense, and which include transportation, energy, and telecommunications networks. Perhaps a long-time wish of the Andorran Government could become a fact: that the future route E-9 from Paris to Barcelona through Tolosa de Llenguadoc have a first class connection with the Pyrenean princedom.
          The agreement has permanent validity unless one of the parties informs against it, implicating the EU Council and not meaning to be a treaty.  Therefore, as soon as both parties sign it in the coming months it will be immediately valid with a simple ratification, without having to wait for the agreement of the Parliaments of all the States members of the Union, which would slow down the process.
         The first step after signing the agreement will be the creation of the Andorra-EU Committee of Cooperation. It will have parity in representation and a rotational presidency. It will be an administrative medium to bring the agreement into operation, and with it all actions and programs that may come from the agreement.
         This accord to cooperate is, therefore, the first consequence of the process of negotiations between Andorra and the EU that began in 2002. There are still three more agreements that are being negotiated.
         According to the Andorran Government the agreement about savings control which will result in a “soft” tax on the interest of the bank deposits of the non-residents, will be ready in a few weeks, and will be the way for Andorra to get out of the list of fiscal paradises of the OCDE, which has been badly affecting the country’s economy for years.
          There is also an agreement according to which Andorra will be able to issue a number of Euros with Andorra’s seal, as other non-community small States have done, like Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican. This agreement is waiting for the ratification of the EU Council.
                                                                    Àlvar Valls

ABOUT THE LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD

          As all the people know the Bible is always right, and the day that Jahve finished the creation he saw that all was good, even the man he had made at the last moment, and before going to rest he made the woman, too. We think that the first couple, since they were two people and not one, has to communicate with each other in some way, besides using the sense of touch and the eyes.  Therefore they spoke, and they spoke in the same language that the devil used to tempt them with the apple, the same that Jahve used with an angry voice to scold them and to expel them from the paradise: the original language of all the myths that Ursprache the German ethnologists of the Sixth century were searching for so long without ever finding it.
Time went by, but the good sense of men did not
progress very much. They wanted to reach heaven by building an extremely high tower, and the owner of heaven destroyed their abominable project. From then on, the confusion of the languages was going to be humanity’s own fate. That is to say that, after Babel, diversity began to be possible, and with it the cultures and civilizations.
          The original myth had ended, as did the one unique language, and the human beings must have felt a deep confusion and a deep happiness: they would not reach heaven in their mortal life, (perhaps they would do so in the other life, who knows), but they would speak and occupy the whole earth.
          They had lost the divine language, Adam’s language, the first language, but they could now invent all the languages of the world. They were able; therefore, to give a name to all the things and movements and to every phenomenon of nature that they were discovering, so many things that did not exist in Eden, and because of that, there were no names to speak about them.
          They gave a name to the diverse appearances of the snow and the ice, to the colors of the desert, to the earthquakes, to the pains of the soul and of the body, to the disappointment and to the longing, to the hates and the loves. And all that in very diverse ways, infinite ways that had been unthinkable before being thought, and most of all before being thought with words, which surely is the only way to think that we humans have, and perhaps, the only way of getting excited and moved.
          That is why it is so sad that idioms are being lost, that the eleven languages of the sami people of the European extreme North are inexorably disappearing, and with them we are losing hundreds of ways to speak about the snow and the ice, of the cold effects, of the great herds of reindeers and of the feelings of the boreal shepherds.
          To be human means to feel and to think with words, to see the world with our language, with this thing, that is ours, and as less of “our things” are left, we have less ways to be human. I do not want to imagine that unhappy day when we will be reduced to a unique universal language, when all the world’s cultures, all the literatures, will have to be translated into that unique language to be understood. Those of us who every now and then translate literature know how poor the best translation is, how we lose at every step a great part of what Dante wanted to say in every verse.
            I have now recuperated a text that been published, in the first version, in the magazine “Mètod” of the University of Valencia, a splendid magazine example. In the monographic pages, and under the theme “From the shout to the word” there was an interview with Noam Chomsky, a man who is right in what he knows and who is often mistaken in what he does not know. He was asked why the linguistic diversity is valuable and deserves to be protected, and he answered:”For the same reason that I am in favor of protecting the city of Venice of being destroyed by the floods”.
          The city of Venice, old, small, not very useful, is like the Catalan language, most of all in the Valencian Land: it is under a permanent danger of floods and ruin. To save it so that it can be alive is expensive, to keep it alive is extremely expensive. We will see what the new or old governments will do, how much money they will spend on it. It will always be too little to save a language of the world, which is our language. Because when we will have forgotten all the languages, when all of us speak in the same way, this would not be a return to the joyful paradise, it will be the saddest Hell of all.
Joan F. Mira

DID  YOU  KNOW  THAT…?
 *** President Rodríguez Zapatero, the new man in charge of the Spanish Government, has asked the EU that Catalan be admitted as an official language in the Union. It seems that there is a good chance for it to be accepted, not as a working language but as an official one. The former government of Spain had constantly refused to take that step. Many thanks to the new president.

*** Francesc Mestre has presented an exhibit of Jaume Garcia Anton’s paintings in the Alba Cabrera Gallery in Valencia. Mestre says about the artist: “ He knows how to bring together tenderness and force, anger and the sense of humor, epic and lyric feelings.” In that exhibit, García Anton shows in his paintings a work that is mature in subtlety, restraint, and authentic emotion.
 
*** The Town Council of Blanes, the village where the Costa Brava begins, is creating new rampart and mountain walks for visiting travelers. The project is a part of the program of footpath ways of the local district. The design of the paths is being done with the collaboration of the Centre Excursionista of Blanes, and they are working on maps where the new routes will be shown.

*** The group of linguistic volunteers of the Catalan universities comes from an idea that was born in the Autonomous University of Barcelona in order to help foreign students to get to know Catalonia. . This year there are 1,400 of them. Carles Solà, Counselor of Universities, Research, and Society of Information, paid tribute to the work of the linguistic volunteers on May 7th.The linguistics volunteers act in the following universities: Barcelona (600), Pompeu Fabra (400), Autonomous U. (200), the University of Girona (75), the University of Lleida (50), and Rovira i Virgili of Tarragona (40)

*** The publishing house Editions 62 has initiated the publication of an illustrated four-volumes book about the Civil War in Catalonia with images of the conflict that were unpublished up to now. These images come mainly from the National Archive of Catalonia. The first volume has just been published. It deals with “Alçament militar i primers mesos de guerra. It covers from October 1934 to July 1936. The last volume will cover the end of the war, the exile, and the end of the Second World War.