Special Lecture by H.E. Raúl Bartolomé Molina, the Ambassador of Spain

H.E. Mr. Raúl Bartolomé Molina, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to Serbia, visited Faculty of Philosophy and gave a special lecture at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Novi Sad about the history and morphology of the Basque language. His Excelency emphasized Spain is a multilingual and pluricultural country, with three more official languages, in addition to Spanish: Catalan, Galician and Basque, as the most unique one; Basque is not and Indo-European language and its origin is unknown. Noting that Linguae Vasconum Primitiae, the first book in the Basque language was published in 1545 in Bordeaux, and the first Grammar in 1729 in Salamanca, the Ambassador pointed out that the University of Salamanca established the first Department of Basque Language towards the end of the 19th century, and Royal Academy of Basque Language in 1918. Miguel de Cervantes, Miguel de Unamuno, Bernardo Ajaga, Gabriel Aresti and many other contemporary writers also contributed to the visibility and development of this language.

The lecture was attended by students and professors of the Faculty of Philosophy, and students of Karlovci Grammar School, but it was also available online, via Zoom link. His Excellency, Mr. Raúl Bartolomé Molina emphasized the importance of studying Spanish in Novi Sad, as well as the work of the Spanish Language Lectorate and the Ibero-American Centre of the Faculty of Philosophy, which organized a courses in Culture and Conversation and Literary Criticism with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain. This cooperation also resulted in publishing the joint Book of Proceedings: Contemporary tendencies in Spanish and Italian philology in Serbia, published by the Faculty of Philosophy.

The lecture can be accessed here: https://www.facebook.com/cibam.serbia/videos/373301164588501