La introducción de los estudios entre los franciscanos españoles en la primera mitad del siglo XIII: el caso de San Francisco de Palencia

The Friars Minor began to develop their school system much earlier than was traditionally thought. Since the 1220s, we have evidence of the appointment of lectors and the creation of studia in several friaries and Franciscan provinces across Europe. In the Iberian Peninsula, a Franciscan local studium might have already been functioning in the friary of Santiago de Compostela before 1230. This article aims to demonstrate that this case was not anomalous, by presenting the example of the settlement of the Friars Minor in the Castilian town of Palencia in the thirteenth century. In this case, the friars’ learning interest would be determining for their early arrival to the town. This was already suggested by several early modern chroniclers, whose testimonies seem to be plausible as we know that the leadership of the order was encouraging the creation of new friaries in towns with prestigious schools and universities. In addition, a local study house was soon opened by the Franciscans in Palencia. Previously it will be explained the role that learning might have played in the settlement policies of the Franciscans in the Spanish kingdoms, and the important cultural role played by Palencia, which housed the first Studium Generale that existed in the Iberian Peninsula.