On This Day…

The National Library / La Biblioteca Nacional

Today I took my shiny new researcher’s card to Spain’s National Library (BNE), determined to figure out their system. They aren’t like a typical library in the United States. You have to go to the correct room for the books you want (the General Room for me today), have a work area assigned to you, fill out a card for what you want, get it stamped, put it in the right box, and wait for about 20-30 minutes. Then a little flashing red light goes off at your desk and you trundle back to the librarians’ area to pick up the requested books. They don’t check books out to the public, so you have to work with the materials at your work area. They also have strict rules on what you can and can’t bring into the work areas–no bags (they give you a clear, plastic bag to put your stuff in, and you check your bags in the cloakroom), no folders, no food/drink, no hand cream, only up to 100 pieces of paper, etc., and they check your things on the way in and out.

Whew! After all that, you get a craving for a bite to eat or a shot of coffee to get the brain cells working again, so you sneak down three flights of stairs (or take the elevator) to the cafeteria…a whole new system to figure out. But that’s life in a new place…so many little things to learn. 🙂 Their cafeteria is priced very well though, and the coffee is caffeine nirvana.

While at the BNE today, I mainly looked at two texts. One was a short text published in Seville in 1654 railing against duelling as inherently evil and anti-Christian. But the other document had an interesting coincidence…

On this day (September 29th) 367 years ago (1641)…

Don Gaspar Alonso Pérez Guzmán the Good, the 9th Duke of Medina-Sidonia, challenged Juan de Braganza to a duel and declared that he would be waiting for him for 80 days to show himself–from October 1st until December 19th.

Who were these two men?

Gaspar Alonso Pérez Guzmán the Good was the grandson of the Duke who welcomed Carranza (the father of Spanish fencing) into his household for a time and more infamously led the failed Spanish Armada attack on England. Gaspar appears to have issued the challenge to try and save face after he was involved in a conspiracy against the king of Spain and had some of his lands confiscated.

Juan de Braganza is usually called John IV of Portugal in English. He was Gaspar’s brother-in-law (married to Gaspar’s sister Luisa), and he became king of Portugal in 1640 when Portugal rebelled against Philip IV to regain its independence from Spain.

Did the duel take place?

No, the two never did fight. Portugal maintained its independence from Spain, and Gaspar managed to keep his head–unlike the Marquis of Ayamonte (his co-conspirator who was beheaded).