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The largest and most influential series of international
academic conferences on the history of Freemasonry are
those organised in Spain by the Centro de Estudios Históricos
de la Masonería Española (Centre for Historical Research
into Spanish Freemasonry), whose founder and president is
Professor José Ferrer Benimeli, of the University of Zaragoza.
Professor Benimeli is probably the world’s leading historian
of Freemasonry. His many publications include, most
recently, an authoritative bibliography of Freemasonry
which lists nearly 20,000 publications.
The conferences began in 1983 and, thanks to the
charismatic leadership of Professor Benimeli, now regularly
attract professional historians from universities all over the
world. The published proceedings of the 2003 conference
contain over 60 scholarly articles on the history of
Freemasonry on subjects ranging from the life of the Duke
of Wharton, Grand Master of English Freemasonry in 1722
and the founder of the first Lodge in Madrid, to General
Franco’s attacks on Freemasonry.
This year’s conference, the 11th in the series, took place
in the attractive town of Logroño, the capital of the Province
of La Rioja in northern Spain, whose celebrated wines will
be familiar to many readers of MQ. The conference focussed
on Spanish Freemasonry during the life of Práxedes Mateo-Sagasta, the Spanish liberal politician of the 19th century,
and the conference was jointly organised with the Fondation
Práxedes Mateo-Sagasta.
The building of the Parlamento of
La Rioja, where the official opening
of the conference was held
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MQ Magazine
Web site created by Mark Griffin
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