While the United States was happily celebrating its bicentennial, Guatemala was proudly honoring the tricentennial of the authorization of its University of San Carlos by the royal cédula of Charles II of Spain in 1676, an anniversary that inspired a series of commemorative publications, four of which are here noticed. The first listed is a source book of raw materials for a large-scale history of the institution, compiled by a Spanish Dominican friar, Juan Rodríguez Cabal (1886-1970). This clergyman spent the years 1928 to 1935 in Guatemala making notes on materials in various archives and collecting scattered documents relating to cultural institutions and personalities of the former kingdom, which he organized into general chronological and topical categories. Parts of this record appeared in the Revista de la Sociedad de Geografía e Historia in 1952 and 1955, but the entire collection awaited posthumous publication in Universidad de Guatemala: Su origen, fundación, organización.
A more formal history of the origins and establishment of the University of Guatemala is that of José Mata Gavidia, the second, unrevised edition of which is included among the commemorative publications. Begun in 1946 and based almost exclusively on archival materials, the author recounts the troubled story of the beginnings of the institution from the time of the first Bishop of Guatemala, Francisco Marroquín, who allegedly suggested a university as early as 1545, to the attainment of its status as a degree-granting establishment in 1676. The Ayuntamiento of the City of Santiago de Guatemala was, apparently, the most persistent advocate of the idea of a university that was frustrated for over a century by the lack of funds, by an unresponsive Council of the Indies which discouraged royal authorization, and especially by the rancorous rivalries of religious orders seeking the cherished privilege of bestowing university degrees in their own colegios. With royal consent given at last in 1676, the institution made a bad start through lack of preparation, including written rules and regulations to govern procedures, inadequate financial support, an oversupply of incompetent officials, and wrangling over the filling of academic chairs. By 1681, however, the able judge-superintendent, Francisco Sarassa y Arce, brought proper organization and functioning to the university. The final chapters of Mata Gavidia’s book are based on the Constituciones and describe the duties of the officials, professorial appointments by oposiciones, forms of instruction, student life and customs, and the ceremonies of degree granting. Appended is a collection of poorly reproduced facsimiles of documents and illustrations of persons and places.
In 1955 the late Professor John Tate Lanning published his The University in the Kingdom of Guatemala, covering more extensively the same ground as Mata Gavidia’s volume. The question of priority is of some interest. Both scholars utilized source materials in the Archivo General del Gobierno in Guatemala City, though neither mentions the other. In his second edition Mata Gavidia indicates that he began his work in 1946, had the manuscript ready in 1947 but it remained unpublished until 1954. Professor Lanning, in his foreword, states that he found “the bulk of the archive of the University of San Carlos in 1936” from which he made his first draft. Characteristically conscientious, he delayed completion until he could seek further material in the Archive of the Indies at Seville. The Spanish Civil War prevented his departure in July 1936, the editorship of the Hispanic American Historical Review from 1939 to 1945, and a tardy sabbatical leave further postponed his journey to Spain where, in 1949, he found little new material. It is unclear whether he was aware of Mata Gavidia’s competing work or not, but his early start in 1936 suggests priority in the use of the materials in Guatemala City and that his manuscript was earlier. The interested reader is likely to find greater skill displayed in Professor Lanning’s work, a companion piece of his The Eighteenth Century Enlightenment in the University of San Carlos in Guatemala (1956).
The Tricentenario, 1676-1976, in large format, is essentially a glorified, lavishly illustrated university catalog, listing courses and faculty members of the various schools and departments, together with some updating of academic history.
Estatutos y constituciones reales de la Regia Universidad de San Carlos de Goathemala is a deluxe, large format, facsimile edition of the 1681 written text and of the 1783 Guatemalan reprint of the original 1686 published version.
