Photograph of Dr Aengus Ward

Dr Aengus Ward has been awarded an AHRC Follow-on Fund grant, for the project ‘Alfonso el Sabio and the Estoria de Espanna: the past in the digital present’.

Since January 2013, Dr Ward has been working on a three-year project producing a digital edition of the Estoria de España, a 13th century chronicle of Spanish history. It is an important series of manuscripts charting the origins of Spain to the death of Fernando III in 1252, encompassing Roman history, the Arab invasion of 711, and the history of the Christian kingdoms of the peninsula.

However, the chronicle is not well-known outside of Spain; this £99,600 award will enable Dr Ward and his UoB colleague Dr Enrique Jerez Cabrero to launch a digital exhibition that will complement a physical showcase of the manuscripts in late 2016. The project will broaden understanding of medieval Spanish culture and history, and will challenge conventional representations of this period amongst two key groups: the public in Spain, the UK and the US; and Spanish secondary-age schoolchildren. The one-year project started in January 2016 and also involves the Humanities Research Institute at the University of Sheffield.